Arkansas Grades

It's a good thing that football games are played in two halves. Because the first half of Alabama's game against Arkansas was about as bad as Alabama has played since being boat-raced by Utah in the Sugar Bowl following the 2008 season.  Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.  The defense began the game flat-footed and confused, giving up a TD in two plays that covered 74 yards and consumed only :50 on the game clock.

But that's OK, right?  We knew Arkansas was going to score, and probably score quickly, but the Alabama offense is the best in the country and would control the clock, shorten the game and score points.  Not today.  The game was more than half gone before the Alabama offense quit stoping itself with uncharacteristic turnovers and played like champions, grinding out lengthy drives that finish with points.

In the first half, Alabama couldn't generate any pressure with its pass rush, and the secondary was allowing Pigs to run free and uncovered down field.Thank goodness for the second half.  After intermission, Alabama held a very potent Arkansas offense to just 3 points, scoreless in the fourth quarter and ended the Hogs' last two possession of the game with interceptions. 

I've been saying that the Defense needed to mature.  Well, sometime during the half-time show, the guys on the Alabama defense grew up.  No matter how much the Offense improved its execution by eliminating turnovers and scoring 17 points, if the Defense had not shut down Ryan Mallett and the Arkansas points machine, the Offense would never have had the chance to grind out the win.   

Arkansas is a really good team.  The Hogs are going to win a lot of games this season.  They might win the rest of them.  They are really going places this year.  Fortunately, the SEC Championship Game will not be one of those places.  

There is a lot of football to play this season.  But if Alabama manages to run the table, we will look back on this weekend as the game where a team of champions first came of age.

Here's how I grade the game:

Offense:    C+    That's the average grade between a first-half F and a second half A+. GMAC completed  18 of 26 pass attempts for 194 yards, a TD and 2 interceptions.  Those two picks were pretty darned ugly.  The first, came on a third and goal at the Hog 5 yard line.  Rather than throwing the ball out the back of the end zone and settling for the FG attempt, GMac tried to force the ball into double coverage.  The second pick killed another promising drive.  GMac took too long to deliver the ball to Darius Hanks who was wide open on busted coverage.  The Arkansas safety made an excellent play on the ball, but if the pass had been thrown even so much as a second earlier he would have been treated to the sight of the number 15 getting smaller as Hanks ran into the end zone.

Mark Ingram rushed for 157 net yards on 24 carries and scored 2 TDs.  This brings his career total to 33 touchdowns with 8 games to play in the regular season.  I predict that Mark will eclipse Shaun Alexander's record of 41 career TDs by the end of the Tennessee game.

Trent Richardson once again had the most all purpose yards-227 [85 rushing, 25 receiving, and 117 in kick returns].

Julio Jones gained 55 yards on 5 receptions and Marquis Maze added 33 more on 3 catches.  Trent Richardson caught GMac's only TD pass, but the effort to get the ball across the goal line was all Trent.

Bama had 421 yards of total offense and dominated time of possession [33:52 to 26:08] especially in the fourth quarter [11:25 to 3:35].  That's where Alabama's superior conditioning made the difference in the ball game.

Defense:    C+    Again, the average of a failing grade in the first half and an excellent grade in the second.

Dre Kirkpatrick led all tacklers with 9 [7 solo].  This should surprise no one.  Mallett threw in Dre's direction most of the afternoon with excellent results for the Porkers.  Dre did have 1 tackle for loss and made the interception that killed the Hogs chance for a repeat of their late-game heroics last week against Georgia.  Just as an aside: Georgia really stinks this year-now back to Alabama.

Mark Barron and Nico Johnson each had 8 tackles.  Robert Lester had 7 [5 solo] and collected 2 more interceptions.  The sophomore from Foley is really making the most of this season.  Against Arkansas alone, he nearly matched the 8 tackles he recorded all last season.

Arkansas was held to 421 yards of total offense, coincidentally, the same number as Alabama.  But in the 4th quarter, Ryan Mallett completed only 4 of 10 passing attempts. For the game, the Hogs only converted 2 of their 10 third downs.

Special Teams:

Kickoffs:    A    Alabama averaged 66.8 yards gross per kick and covered returns well enough that the net per kick average was 45.6 compared to the Piggies 36.8.

Punting:      A    Bama averaged 45.7 yards per punt, kicked 2 dead inside the Hog 20 and had one punt in excess of 50 yards.

Place kicking:    A  Jeremy Shelley was good from 36 on his lone FG attempt and made each of his three PATs.  Moreover, it looks to me as if the whole, snap-place-kick sequence is sharper than in the earlier games.

Coaching:      C+      It's really hard not to give the coaches a higher grade considering the excellent adjustments that were made at the half.  But the Tide was clearly not ready to play when the opening whistle blew.  A lot of that is explained by the maturity level of the secondary.  But the offense seemed out of synch for most of the first half.   Moreover, the Tide was penalized 8 times in the game, and we came out of a time out with the wrong players on the field.  Nick wasn't happy about it either.  You could tell.

After the game, Nick focused his remarks on how the players responded during the game to the adversity that rained down in the first half.  He said that he hoped this game would help teach a lesson about what it takes to compete at a high level against a good opponent.

I'm willing to bet that this week in practice that lesson gets repeated.

Florida cruised to a win over Kentucky today.  That's a good thing.  I didn't want the Gators to get tripped up and come into Tuscaloosa having been embarrassed the week before.  It's too bad that South Carolina wilted in the 4th quarter down in the Village, because I really would have liked to see Alabama be the team to give the Hogs, the Lizards and the Fighting Chickens their first losses of the season.  We will have to settle for two of the three.

With Florida sandwiched between road games at Arkansas and South Carolina, Alabama is playing the toughest three game stretch of any team in the country.  Does anyone in their right minds think that Boise State could win those three games?

Beating Arkansas the way it did today was a tremendous achievement for the 2010 Crimson Tide.  There are more challenges ahead. But today in Fayetteville, Arkansas the Alabama players found inside themselves the key to meeting and overcoming each of those challenges.

Rammer Jammer.

The Commissioner

   

Penn State Grades

It was fitting that former Tide tight end, Preston Gothard, served as the honorary captain at the coin toss in yesterday’s game against Penn State.  Penn State is a program that holds a special place in the hearts of Alabama fans.  And why not?  PSU is a classy program, with classy fans, retro uniforms and a coach whose longevity intersects with the career of Alabama’s most legendary coach.  It was at Happy Valley in 1981 that Coach Bryant coached his 312th career win, tying the record of “Pop” Warner.  As far as The Commissioner is concerned, Penn State holds the number two spot on the list of favorite college football teams.  Well, actually there’s a three-way tie for second in my affections.  The Nittany Lions share the runner-up position on any given Saturday with whoever is playing Auburn or Tennessee. …. But I digress.

Yes, it was fitting that Preston Gothard be accorded the recognition of honorary team captain for the game.  He is the personification of out of the greatest officiating injustices ever perpetrated in broad daylight.  Bama fans unborn at the time nevertheless know that in 1983, Tide QB Walter Lewis rallied his team in the second half to erase a formidable deficit.  With :06 to play in the game, trailing by 6  points, he had Alabama 4th and goal from the PSU 4 yard line, poised to take the lead and accomplish Alabama’s best come-from-behind victory on the road.  PSU jumped off-sides but Lewis managed somehow to spin his way out of a tackle and found Gothard in the back of the Penn State endzone. Gothard jumped,  reaching for the ball.  It took a momentary adjustment of his hands to firmly grasp the ball, but in no more than the time it takes to blink your eye, the tight end from Montgomery secured the ball and brought it into his body as gravity brought his body to Earth.  He landed on his back with every part of his body south of the hip pad in the Penn State end zone. 

Six points.  Game tied.  The blue-shirted PSU players were distraught, the Tide players were delirious.   Throughout the stadium, and across the nation, fans watching the game knew that Alabama had just scored the tying touchdown.

The only person in the known universe who did not know that Preston Gothard had caught the game-tying TD pass was the person with the best view of the play; an official employed by Penn State, which in 1983 was still years away from joining the Big 10.  Legend has it that this official had the sur-name of “Guman”; a relative of the Penn State running back stuffed at the goal line by Barry Krauss, Murray Legg, and the rest of the Tide defense in the 1979 Sugar Bowl.  “Ref. Guman”, who was either incompetent, corrupt, or possessed of eyesight worse than Mr. MaGoo, signaled that the pass was incomplete.
 

Go back and look at the film. You can find it here:  http://www.wikio.com/video/alabama-penn-st-bama-robbed-4064415

Bama failed to convert on the play following the off-sides penalty and PSU gets credit in the record book for a 34-28 victory.

That denied touchdown sticks in the throat.  So it was appropriate that the man who caught the ball to tie the 1983 game was honored at the coin toss of the 2010 reunion of the Tide and Lions.

Oh, yeah.  On the subject of denied touchdowns.  As of yesterday’s coin toss, Penn State had not scored a touchdown in its last two visits to Alabama.  As of this morning, PSU still hasn’t.

Alabama delivered a dominating performance last night, physically beating a worthy opponent that enjoys the reputation for being physical and hard-nosed.   As the “Rammer Jammer” reverberated throughout the double-deck enclosure of Bryant-Denny Stadium, those tough kids from the coal fields of central Pennsylvania wanted nothing more of what Alabama brought to the game.  The Tide hammered a proud PSU defense with Trent Richardson who, in the first half alone, rushed for more than 100 yards, a milestone that the Lions have denied opposing running backs for the last 18 games.  When Richardson was not gashing the Penn State front 7, GMac was dissecting the Lions’ secondary with lazer-perfect passes out of an empty backfield, five-wide, formation.  You want power?  Here’s our number two running back.  You want speed and finesse?  Here’s Julio Jones, Darius Hanks, Marquis Maze and just for good measure, another tight end whose first name is Preston.  Immediately before kickoff, GMac challenged his teammates to “show these northern boys how southern boys play football”! 

They did.  And here’s how I grade the game:

Offense:     A      Alabama bludgeoned Penn State with a power rushing attack and for good measure sliced the Lions apart with a razor-sharp passes.  GMac completed 16of 24 passes for 229 yards, two TDs and no interceptions.  He was sacked twice.  Six different players caught passes, four were wide receivers: Jones, Maze, Hanks and Kevin Norwood.  Julio led all receiver with 4 catches for 49 yards.  Trent added 4 grabs for 46.  
 

The Tide had four offensive drives that gained over 40 yards [68, 97, 46 and 71]  each resulted in points [3 TDs and a field goal].  For the second week in a young season, TR led all players with 207 all purpose  yards [144 rushing, 46 receiving and 17 return].   Alabama only converted 3 of 10 third-downs, but that statistic is a bit skewed by the fact that in the second half, and especially so in the 4th quarter, play calling was calculated more to drain the clock than to gain yardage.  Moreover, most of Alabama’s 19 first downs came consecutively.  For example, in Bama’s first scoring drive, the second offensive possession of the game, Bama ran 5 plays, 4 of which were first downs.

Defense:     A        Pre-game punditry focused on the fact that PSU was starting a true freshman at quarterback who would be playing in only his second collegiate game.  His college debut came against Youngstown State.  Needless to say, last week’s game proved to be inadequate preparation for playing against Alabama in a jam-packed BDS.  The Penn State passing game produced only 14 completions on 31 attempts and surrendered 3 interceptions.  The final game stats credit Tide defenders with 6 QB hurries, 5 pass breakups, 1 tackle for loss and a forced fumble to go with the three interception.   Meanwhile, the Lions’ ground attack was stuffed for a meager 127 net yards.  Trent Richardson alone ran for 17 more yards than PSU managed on the game.  Evan Royster was PSU’s leading rusher, and he managed only 32 yards on 9 carries.

Red-shirt sophomore safety Will Lowery had 3 tackles [2 solo] and snagged Bama’s first pick of the night to smother PSU’s first trip into the red-zone.

Ed Stinson led all defenders with 9 tackles [5 solo] and Jarrell Harris had 7 tackles [6 solo].  Mark Barron recorded 6 tackles [4 solo], forced a fumble, made an interception and broke up a pass.   Robert Lester made Bama’s third interception, a beautiful diving catch and was credited with 5 tackles.  His most eye-catching statistic is his 89 yard fumble return.  That stat however is marred by the fact that he fumbled the ball back to PSU.

That was an odd play.  Lester picked up a bouncing fumble and followed excellent sudden-change blocking 89 yards.  He then gets caught from behind by a PSU player who strips the ball from him.  Dre Kirkpatrick then picks up the ball and falls on his back with the ball in his possession, whereupon a Penn State player knocks the ball free and falls on it.  The officials signal Alabama ball, first and goal, but immediately announce that the play is under review.  The video replay shows that Kirkpatrick had the ball in his possession while down by contact before the ball is knocked out.  Herbstreet and Musberger voiced the same impression that anyone watching on TV would have: Bama’s ball.  After some chit-chat, the ref takes off the headset and announces that the replay confirms the call on the field, he signals first down Alabama but says: “First down, Penn State”!  It’s been a long time since 1983, but is ref Guman still working Penn State games?

Special Teams:

Punting:     A        Cody Mandell punted three times for an average of 37 yards.  No punts were returned and one was downed inside the PSU 10.  Bama has yet to demonstrate that it has replaced Javier Arenas.  Julio shagged punts, but none were returnable.

Kick Offs:  A       For the second week in a row, Bama’s kick offs were high and deep.  Cade Foster averaged 67 yards per kick and coverage was good.  PSU’s average starting field position was its own 23.

Place Kicking:  B     Jeremy Shelly was good from 31 yards.  Foster missed from 44.  All PATs were good.

Coaching:     A          It was not a perfect game, but it is too early in the season to expect one.  Bama had 4 penalties, including the first holding call on the offensive line in 42 quarters of play.   Coach Saban told reporters after the game that Bama had planned to go with the empty package to start the game but had to defer that to the second possession due to poor field position following a penalty on the opening kickoff.  He also said “We had a real game-management error there at the end of the game which could have been costly to have third and half a yard or fourth and half a yard and want to go for it but then have 12 guys run out on the field after a timeout.  Not good coaching. Not smart playing. Not a very good game-management move on our part, so we need to get that cleaned up. “
 

That, dear readers, is the kind of self-critique that separates great coaches from merely good ones.

This coming Saturday, the Tide travels to Duke where we will play in a stadium named after Alabama’s first national championship winning head coach.  Wallace Wade won three national titles in his 8 seasons at the head of Alabama’s program.  His first was on New Years Day, 1926.  At the half-time of that Rose Bowl game, Alabama trailed the larger, faster, and nationally celebrated Washington Huskies by a score of 12-0.  When Wade entered the Alabama dressing room he had only one thing to say: “And they told me southern boys would fight.”  It was all the Tide players needed as they dominated the third quarter scoring three TDs and secured the first national college football championship for a southern team.  “Let’s show [them] how southern boys play football”, GMac said to his teammates last night.  With continued improvement, great coaching, player leadership and striving to achieve consistently intense performance, the 2010 Tide can replicate Wallace Wade’s back-to-back championship achievement and Alabama can show the nation how southern boys play football.

The Commissioner

A post-script about ESPN’s broadcast is appropriate.  You should know that some of your fellow subscribers to the Bama E-mail Group are members of the Christian rock-band “Third Day”.  Their music was featured last night during some of the intros as ESPN returned to the game from commercial breaks. Well done, guys.  RTR