al-a-BAMa
I want to start off by mentioning I will not be reviewing next week’s game as I will be out of town attending a friend’s wedding in Detroit. Three years ago I attended a wedding in Flint. You know until recently I’d always regarded a successful life as one in which you spent no time in Detroit, Flint, or any other dying auto town. Anyway I may watch LSU on TV, but I don’t do write-ups for that. TV angles are too tight; I don’t believe just watching the QB and line for 99% of the game really gives you a good feel. Sorry to disappoint, anyone can do a review to fill in for me if they wish. I thought about trying to get a replacement, but come on, seriously – who else has my flair? I am planning to hit Georgia so you will still get seven total. Final added bonus: my friend is a vegan – it will be a vegan wedding. “I’m lovin’ it!”
Anyway I was up in the 87th row for this one, and since it started at 3:30 I baked in the sun. For the record there are only 90 rows, so you can tell what my view was, although I had never seen the whole stadium that way before. Of course until the UCF game I had never been higher than the first 20 rows ever. Clearly this is bad karma for working with Jackie O. Too bad I was so high because I loved the throwback unis. We should wear those all the time. How high up was I? We couldn’t hear the band – not just when we were screaming – pretty much ever. And while I am talking about the band they have taken to playing “Will You Be My Bodyguard.” Who the hell thought that was a good song for a football game!?
QB: Last week, while defending the Leakster, I noted that he had improved his accuracy over the years. I still stand by that, but somehow he seems slower than he used to. He was never a great runner, but now is he just atrocious and when he runs I just wait for him to get dragged down for a loss (no I have not forgotten that 40+ yarder – where he was dragged down from behind). Maybe he has a leg injury no one knows about. And it is not just a case of him looking bad in comparison to Tebow, who Meyer continues to spot sub well. Anyway Chris struggled early and almost threw a pick deep in his end when Bama already had all the momentum (which might have killed us). However he recovered more or less on his own (no one else on the team made a play in the interim to hearten the team) and hit some key passes on those stop and start drives that got us back into the game. He also got a little more accurate as the game went along as some of those passes our receivers were diving for early became passes they caught in stride.
GRADE: B+ (Bama’s D did not look good enough to give that game an A-)
RB: Wynn (21) ran well, and Moore (33) did too when DeShawn got knocked out. Broke out for a few good runs, found some creases for tougher yards inside. For reasons I don’t understand we mainly ran inside at the start of the game, never testing outside (maybe because DeShawn and Kestahn are slow? Markus Manson (2) anyone?). Later we had some success out there, which in turned opened up the inside too. Latsko (42) blocked well and had an 18 yard catch. They did all that was asked of them.
GRADE: A
WR: Baker (81) made a nice play to bail out a Leak duck on his touchdown and had a couple of drive sustainers. Caldwell (5) looked a little better, but I am getting tired of these two yard routes on third and long. We have the athletes to do that (very) occasionally (even with Harvin (8) not playing), but not as a staple – especially not with an erratic QB. Also caught Baker and others throwing blocks down field.
GRADE: B+
TE: Tater Salad (say it with me: “Number 84 in your program, number one in your heart”) was in on the field for a few plays, but just to block – but he did it pretty well. I guess because of the flashy new receivers we are not throwing it to him anymore, which is too bad because for all the grief I may give him he is fast enough to run a seam route and scare the defense once a game or so.
GRADE: B
OL: Much better than last week. Leak had time and after some early struggles the running lanes were there too. Only had one false start and no more than a couple of holds. The problems the offense had should not be laid at their feet. Also since there is no great place to mention it I want to point out that Bama ran a 3-4 often, which I didn’t remember from last year.
GRADE: A
Steve Rissler: Leak should have been aware of the play clock running down, but you don’t snap the ball if the quarterback isn’t ready because that is exactly how turnovers happen (thanks for the effective demonstration). A delay of game penalty is only five yards.
GRADE: D+ (other than that disastrous play he was unnoticeable, and there were holes inside)
DL: It may be time to move McDonald (95) back outside to end because we basically had no passrush at all (our sacks were coverage sacks). Moss (94) not only hasn’t made the leap, he isn’t even as good as he was last year. I saw big Joe Cohen (20), the strongest man on the team, blown off the line. We are rotating a bunch of guys in -Brandon Antwine (47), Clint McMillan (98), Javier Estopinan (48), Steven Harris (93), Derrick Harvey (91) – but only Harvey is doing anything (technically he starts now I guess). Our guys are getting frustrated too, which makes them susceptible to screens as they all charge the QB when they get the opportunity (I’m waiting for some personal fouls). One screen nearly burned us this game, props to Moss for running the play down from behind.
GRADE: C (when you are as vaunted and talented as they are and do nothing you get a C. Maury claims they won’t have Marcus Thomas (44) serve his full suspension and he will be back for the first game we need him – which would be next week. That is a pretty jaundiced view (the Wise Man has been here a while), but it is how big name college football works so keep your fingers crossed because every game he doesn’t play makes him look as though he is the glue of the team more and more).
LB: It looks as though Urban heard the buzz I put out last week because I noticed Spikes (51) was on the field quite a bit, and early. Crum (13) is still getting more time, but a change could be in the works. Just to know both he and Everett (30) are seniors and I bet Siler (40) is planning to go pro, so the time Spikes gets now may be huge next year. The corps had a pretty quiet game. Only Siler was noticeable, and not in a good way. He totally whiffed once in the hole one on one with their RB. Also noticed him trailing several of their running plays and being pissed about it (Brandon misses MT too). Siler did make a heads up play by crossing the line before the snap when one of their linemen flinched – our guys were pointing, but Brandon forced the issue and got the flag. They broke several runs against inside (blame in part falls to all the backers for that) and their quarterback threw a lob off his backfoot over the center of the field that their RB, Darby, caught and ran ten yards with. You have to watch out for late routes out of the backfield. I don’t want to crack on the LBs too much because they were dropping off in zone coverage most of the day (no more constantly faking blitz) to (successfully) confuse an inexperienced QB: Mr. John Parker Wilson – the only QB I know with three names (I love it).
GRADE: B-
DB: Well if we only gave up six points and gave the DL a C and the LBs a B- it doesn’t take too much brain power to see where I going to give most of the credit for the shutting them down. I have been referring to the secondary (especially the corners) as the weakness of the defense, which I still feel is the case, but today they got the job done. While it sure seemed that gave up a number of big pass plays to keep drives alive that was mainly I feature of the Tide throwing all the time (I’m not sure why, they certainly were having some success on the ground – which why the front seven got bad grades), after all they only got six points out of their offense, so while it seemed tense that was more a function of it being a tight game. Mr. John Parker Wilson was only one completion better than a fifty percent completion percentage (21 of 40). As I said most of the pressure we got was due to our coverage holding long enough for our DL to finally get to their QB – although this was helped by having three linebackers working underneath coverage. Reggie Lewis (22) may have gotten always with a pass interference in the endzone – it was borderline, but he was beat and never looked back (thankfully it was underthrown). Josh Smith (28) seems to have made the other corner spot his own because Tremaine McCollum (18) was not out there much. Also I noticed a number 37 (cornerback Markihe Anderson the internet says. I think it was 37 – remember 87th row, my eyes really are not all that good; seriously) out there several times – he might have replaced Kyle Jackson (3) as the dime?
GRADE: A- (not a solid A because while Mr. John Parker Wilson looked pretty good, he is raw. Now, I like him; he will don some things in his career – but not today. He threw up a bunch of ducks and I knew it was just a matter of time until we got a few. Let’s just be thankful Brody Croyle is gone).
ST: Well we made our extra points, but missed a makeable field goal and badly shanked a punt. We need to teach our return men to how and when to fair catch. Get it at the ten, don’t wait for it to bounce around and be downed at the two god damn it!! We don’t block much on returns, although our coverage totally contained them (props to Wondy Pierre-Louis (4) – I think my eyes said that was the number of the guy who undercut their kick return at the 10).
GRADE: D- (I said I was going to give them nonstop Fs until they made a good play. They did have a 30+ kick return, but it got to the 33, or 2 yards short of where it would have been if James (25) had let it go out of bounds (freshmen), so they just miss the F).
Coaching: Amazingly Urban adopted almost all my suggestions for last week: play Spikes, go zone and stop faking blitz, less end-arounds. Do I have a secret fan? (If I do – cover the whole field on kickoffs!) Ironically the offense didn’t seem have many of the spread option features (I think I only saw 5 wide once or twice) as we went with a generic pro set offense. Not that I am complaining, it shows he is willing to adjust his system to the talent of his players and the situation, something even he admitted he was deficient at last year. Also give him credit, it was tense early as an untested team faced adversity and they kept it together and worked it out – that is a credit to the coaching system. Meyer stayed tough and did not give up on the game plan – no reflexive misdirection plays. Only negative from coaching that I caught was not getting the plays in fast enough.
GRADE: A (Hey he looked at last week and saw the same problems I did and fixed them. Doesn’t get any better than that).
Football 101: A “misdirection” play is where the whole offense all runs/moves in one direction to convince the defense that that is where the ball is going and then suddenly flips the ball to someone streaking the other way in the hopes that the defense will have broken their assignments (that is stopped doing what they were supposed to be doing and run after where they thought the play was going rather than staying where the coaches want them) and will be caught flat footed and have to change direction. If they are caught, there is a chance for a big play. Misdirection plays can be very exciting, but unless used at the right time (NOT 100 TIMES A GAME) they frequently result in not much.
Fans: I want you all to know that you are reading the words of a real fan. I have a cold at the moment and a sore throat, but I still screamed all game. I didn’t give some excuse to not man up. Last week I talked a bit about Leak because of all the press him being booed got. Honestly I barely noticed it in the game, most fans are stupid and I knew Leak has to be the guy. However some of the undergrads haven’t figured it out and are getting surly about it. When Leak almost tossed that pick in his own end some fans started chanting Tebow. Other ones then got pissed and told them to go sit in the Alabama section (huh?) and muttered about starting a fight if the did it again. Later the same folks started chanting “Leak!” which I had NEVER heard before. They also gave a totally premeditated cheer when he came back onto the field after Tebow had made some plays (the same circumstances he was under which he was booed last game). Finally we even got some “Leak for Heisman!” chants (uh, HELL NO). The lesson, as always, is that most people are morons. I’m worried this is going to continue all season and annoy me. Especially if Leak throws a few badly time picks in our October brutal Double-Tiger-Dawg October schedule (come on folks, use my little invented phrase…it’s catching on! I want to be a trendsetter).
GRADE: A (we cheered well – that is our job. Fans are always stupid)
Play of the game: Nelson’s INT for 6. With our offense not fully clicking all game this play cemented the victory and finally let us relax.
Player of the game: This will surprise you, but I am going with Jemalle Cornelius (6). He doesn’t have the panache, but he is a solid route runner, with good hands, and always makes a few key plays a game. Against Bama when we were seriously struggling early and everyone was thinking the upset was possible it was Cornelius who made the plays to help us move the ball. He won’t be unappreciated this week (next week though, it is very possible).
Bottom Line: We struggled to beat an unranked team that is short some scholarships and couldn’t beat Arkansas in a game we should have been pumped for after last year, so let’s keep some perspective. #5 in the nation and 5-0 is nice, but from what I have seen so far I think LSU probably has the edge next week (Auburn certainly does in Auburn). It’s not pretty, but there it is. If we are going to win it will because their big armed (little brained) quarterback, JaMarcus Russell, gets flustered and throws several picks (I don’t think much of their coach, Les Miles, either).
Anyway I was up in the 87th row for this one, and since it started at 3:30 I baked in the sun. For the record there are only 90 rows, so you can tell what my view was, although I had never seen the whole stadium that way before. Of course until the UCF game I had never been higher than the first 20 rows ever. Clearly this is bad karma for working with Jackie O. Too bad I was so high because I loved the throwback unis. We should wear those all the time. How high up was I? We couldn’t hear the band – not just when we were screaming – pretty much ever. And while I am talking about the band they have taken to playing “Will You Be My Bodyguard.” Who the hell thought that was a good song for a football game!?
QB: Last week, while defending the Leakster, I noted that he had improved his accuracy over the years. I still stand by that, but somehow he seems slower than he used to. He was never a great runner, but now is he just atrocious and when he runs I just wait for him to get dragged down for a loss (no I have not forgotten that 40+ yarder – where he was dragged down from behind). Maybe he has a leg injury no one knows about. And it is not just a case of him looking bad in comparison to Tebow, who Meyer continues to spot sub well. Anyway Chris struggled early and almost threw a pick deep in his end when Bama already had all the momentum (which might have killed us). However he recovered more or less on his own (no one else on the team made a play in the interim to hearten the team) and hit some key passes on those stop and start drives that got us back into the game. He also got a little more accurate as the game went along as some of those passes our receivers were diving for early became passes they caught in stride.
GRADE: B+ (Bama’s D did not look good enough to give that game an A-)
RB: Wynn (21) ran well, and Moore (33) did too when DeShawn got knocked out. Broke out for a few good runs, found some creases for tougher yards inside. For reasons I don’t understand we mainly ran inside at the start of the game, never testing outside (maybe because DeShawn and Kestahn are slow? Markus Manson (2) anyone?). Later we had some success out there, which in turned opened up the inside too. Latsko (42) blocked well and had an 18 yard catch. They did all that was asked of them.
GRADE: A
WR: Baker (81) made a nice play to bail out a Leak duck on his touchdown and had a couple of drive sustainers. Caldwell (5) looked a little better, but I am getting tired of these two yard routes on third and long. We have the athletes to do that (very) occasionally (even with Harvin (8) not playing), but not as a staple – especially not with an erratic QB. Also caught Baker and others throwing blocks down field.
GRADE: B+
TE: Tater Salad (say it with me: “Number 84 in your program, number one in your heart”) was in on the field for a few plays, but just to block – but he did it pretty well. I guess because of the flashy new receivers we are not throwing it to him anymore, which is too bad because for all the grief I may give him he is fast enough to run a seam route and scare the defense once a game or so.
GRADE: B
OL: Much better than last week. Leak had time and after some early struggles the running lanes were there too. Only had one false start and no more than a couple of holds. The problems the offense had should not be laid at their feet. Also since there is no great place to mention it I want to point out that Bama ran a 3-4 often, which I didn’t remember from last year.
GRADE: A
Steve Rissler: Leak should have been aware of the play clock running down, but you don’t snap the ball if the quarterback isn’t ready because that is exactly how turnovers happen (thanks for the effective demonstration). A delay of game penalty is only five yards.
GRADE: D+ (other than that disastrous play he was unnoticeable, and there were holes inside)
DL: It may be time to move McDonald (95) back outside to end because we basically had no passrush at all (our sacks were coverage sacks). Moss (94) not only hasn’t made the leap, he isn’t even as good as he was last year. I saw big Joe Cohen (20), the strongest man on the team, blown off the line. We are rotating a bunch of guys in -Brandon Antwine (47), Clint McMillan (98), Javier Estopinan (48), Steven Harris (93), Derrick Harvey (91) – but only Harvey is doing anything (technically he starts now I guess). Our guys are getting frustrated too, which makes them susceptible to screens as they all charge the QB when they get the opportunity (I’m waiting for some personal fouls). One screen nearly burned us this game, props to Moss for running the play down from behind.
GRADE: C (when you are as vaunted and talented as they are and do nothing you get a C. Maury claims they won’t have Marcus Thomas (44) serve his full suspension and he will be back for the first game we need him – which would be next week. That is a pretty jaundiced view (the Wise Man has been here a while), but it is how big name college football works so keep your fingers crossed because every game he doesn’t play makes him look as though he is the glue of the team more and more).
LB: It looks as though Urban heard the buzz I put out last week because I noticed Spikes (51) was on the field quite a bit, and early. Crum (13) is still getting more time, but a change could be in the works. Just to know both he and Everett (30) are seniors and I bet Siler (40) is planning to go pro, so the time Spikes gets now may be huge next year. The corps had a pretty quiet game. Only Siler was noticeable, and not in a good way. He totally whiffed once in the hole one on one with their RB. Also noticed him trailing several of their running plays and being pissed about it (Brandon misses MT too). Siler did make a heads up play by crossing the line before the snap when one of their linemen flinched – our guys were pointing, but Brandon forced the issue and got the flag. They broke several runs against inside (blame in part falls to all the backers for that) and their quarterback threw a lob off his backfoot over the center of the field that their RB, Darby, caught and ran ten yards with. You have to watch out for late routes out of the backfield. I don’t want to crack on the LBs too much because they were dropping off in zone coverage most of the day (no more constantly faking blitz) to (successfully) confuse an inexperienced QB: Mr. John Parker Wilson – the only QB I know with three names (I love it).
GRADE: B-
DB: Well if we only gave up six points and gave the DL a C and the LBs a B- it doesn’t take too much brain power to see where I going to give most of the credit for the shutting them down. I have been referring to the secondary (especially the corners) as the weakness of the defense, which I still feel is the case, but today they got the job done. While it sure seemed that gave up a number of big pass plays to keep drives alive that was mainly I feature of the Tide throwing all the time (I’m not sure why, they certainly were having some success on the ground – which why the front seven got bad grades), after all they only got six points out of their offense, so while it seemed tense that was more a function of it being a tight game. Mr. John Parker Wilson was only one completion better than a fifty percent completion percentage (21 of 40). As I said most of the pressure we got was due to our coverage holding long enough for our DL to finally get to their QB – although this was helped by having three linebackers working underneath coverage. Reggie Lewis (22) may have gotten always with a pass interference in the endzone – it was borderline, but he was beat and never looked back (thankfully it was underthrown). Josh Smith (28) seems to have made the other corner spot his own because Tremaine McCollum (18) was not out there much. Also I noticed a number 37 (cornerback Markihe Anderson the internet says. I think it was 37 – remember 87th row, my eyes really are not all that good; seriously) out there several times – he might have replaced Kyle Jackson (3) as the dime?
GRADE: A- (not a solid A because while Mr. John Parker Wilson looked pretty good, he is raw. Now, I like him; he will don some things in his career – but not today. He threw up a bunch of ducks and I knew it was just a matter of time until we got a few. Let’s just be thankful Brody Croyle is gone).
ST: Well we made our extra points, but missed a makeable field goal and badly shanked a punt. We need to teach our return men to how and when to fair catch. Get it at the ten, don’t wait for it to bounce around and be downed at the two god damn it!! We don’t block much on returns, although our coverage totally contained them (props to Wondy Pierre-Louis (4) – I think my eyes said that was the number of the guy who undercut their kick return at the 10).
GRADE: D- (I said I was going to give them nonstop Fs until they made a good play. They did have a 30+ kick return, but it got to the 33, or 2 yards short of where it would have been if James (25) had let it go out of bounds (freshmen), so they just miss the F).
Coaching: Amazingly Urban adopted almost all my suggestions for last week: play Spikes, go zone and stop faking blitz, less end-arounds. Do I have a secret fan? (If I do – cover the whole field on kickoffs!) Ironically the offense didn’t seem have many of the spread option features (I think I only saw 5 wide once or twice) as we went with a generic pro set offense. Not that I am complaining, it shows he is willing to adjust his system to the talent of his players and the situation, something even he admitted he was deficient at last year. Also give him credit, it was tense early as an untested team faced adversity and they kept it together and worked it out – that is a credit to the coaching system. Meyer stayed tough and did not give up on the game plan – no reflexive misdirection plays. Only negative from coaching that I caught was not getting the plays in fast enough.
GRADE: A (Hey he looked at last week and saw the same problems I did and fixed them. Doesn’t get any better than that).
Football 101: A “misdirection” play is where the whole offense all runs/moves in one direction to convince the defense that that is where the ball is going and then suddenly flips the ball to someone streaking the other way in the hopes that the defense will have broken their assignments (that is stopped doing what they were supposed to be doing and run after where they thought the play was going rather than staying where the coaches want them) and will be caught flat footed and have to change direction. If they are caught, there is a chance for a big play. Misdirection plays can be very exciting, but unless used at the right time (NOT 100 TIMES A GAME) they frequently result in not much.
Fans: I want you all to know that you are reading the words of a real fan. I have a cold at the moment and a sore throat, but I still screamed all game. I didn’t give some excuse to not man up. Last week I talked a bit about Leak because of all the press him being booed got. Honestly I barely noticed it in the game, most fans are stupid and I knew Leak has to be the guy. However some of the undergrads haven’t figured it out and are getting surly about it. When Leak almost tossed that pick in his own end some fans started chanting Tebow. Other ones then got pissed and told them to go sit in the Alabama section (huh?) and muttered about starting a fight if the did it again. Later the same folks started chanting “Leak!” which I had NEVER heard before. They also gave a totally premeditated cheer when he came back onto the field after Tebow had made some plays (the same circumstances he was under which he was booed last game). Finally we even got some “Leak for Heisman!” chants (uh, HELL NO). The lesson, as always, is that most people are morons. I’m worried this is going to continue all season and annoy me. Especially if Leak throws a few badly time picks in our October brutal Double-Tiger-Dawg October schedule (come on folks, use my little invented phrase…it’s catching on! I want to be a trendsetter).
GRADE: A (we cheered well – that is our job. Fans are always stupid)
Play of the game: Nelson’s INT for 6. With our offense not fully clicking all game this play cemented the victory and finally let us relax.
Player of the game: This will surprise you, but I am going with Jemalle Cornelius (6). He doesn’t have the panache, but he is a solid route runner, with good hands, and always makes a few key plays a game. Against Bama when we were seriously struggling early and everyone was thinking the upset was possible it was Cornelius who made the plays to help us move the ball. He won’t be unappreciated this week (next week though, it is very possible).
Bottom Line: We struggled to beat an unranked team that is short some scholarships and couldn’t beat Arkansas in a game we should have been pumped for after last year, so let’s keep some perspective. #5 in the nation and 5-0 is nice, but from what I have seen so far I think LSU probably has the edge next week (Auburn certainly does in Auburn). It’s not pretty, but there it is. If we are going to win it will because their big armed (little brained) quarterback, JaMarcus Russell, gets flustered and throws several picks (I don’t think much of their coach, Les Miles, either).
posted by El Breto @ 4:16 PM
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