Even though Auburn scored 14 points yesterday, they weren't the result of the Tigers' offense. They scored a touchdown on a fumble by QB McCarron, and for the second week in a row Alabama gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown. This one happened at the start of the second half, which cut the Crimson Tide's lead to ten points.
But Auburn never got into the game because they couldn't get their offense in gear. Alabama held the Tigers to 140 total yards on offense and nine first downs. It took a while for them to get their second first down in the game, in fact.
The Alabama D was stifling as usual. As Cecil Hurt, the respected sports writer for the Tuscaloosa News, tweeted this morning: "Alabama leads the NCAA in scoring defense (8.8), rushing D (74.9), passing D (116.3), pass efficiency D and total defense (191.2)."
In my previous Sunday Hangover, I complained about Alabama not using their tight ends enough. Well, the offensive coordinator showed me.
Brad Smelley had a career game with 6 grabs for 86 yards and a touchdown for 35 yards. Michael Williams and the other TEs were targeted too. And in the long pass play variety, another complaint of mine, Kenny Bell hauled in a beautiful flee-flicker for the Tide's first score of the game.
At least if you go by the commentary on ESPN, the Heisman race will probably come down to Andrew Luck versus Trent Richardson. Richardson had a career game with 202 yards rushing and short reception and run for a touchdown. The guy is a beast. I expect a close vote.
The mantra for this Iron Bowl, as has been reported, was "Never again" because of the debacle of last year's Iron Bowl in Tuscaloosa. With the score at the half 24 to 7, I'm sure the coaching staff didn't have to motivate the Tide much since that score was eerily similar to last year's game. Despite the horrible kickoff and coverage at the start of the second half, the Tide dominated the third and fourth quarters.
So the Tide won a huge game against their bitter rival. And they're clearly one of the top teams in the nation.
The glaring weakness of Alabama though is special teams: kickoffs not far enough, poor lane discipline as of late, and shaky field goal kicking.
LSU clearly has an advantage over the Tide in that phase of the game.
Unless something screwy happens, the Crimson Tide should play in the BCS National Championship game.
2 comments:
Just saw Roll Tide, War Eagle this week. That Updike guy is nuts.
Yeh, he's deranged. It's too bad the filmmaker chose to focus so much on a nut job.
And the featuring of Finebaum only strokes the guy's massive ego.
While I see why the guy who did the film focused on the '09 and '10 seasons because of his audience, I wanted a fuller historical look at the rivalry. Even with the coverage of the "Punt Bama Punt" game, the film failed to accentuate that game was the only one Auburn won in the 1970s if I remember correctly.
And the point about Dye beating Coach Bryant in the '82 Iron Bowl made it sound like he retired because of the loss. He didn't. He was contemplating retirement during the past two seasons of his career since he had health issues because of poor dietary habits, stress, years upon years of smoking, and whiskey.
Barkley's comment early on in the film is spot on. He stated that Auburn folks have an "inferiority complex."
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