Sunday Hangover: South Carolina

Another game down to the wire. 

I don't know what to make of this team. I had a good bit of optimism about the Tide's chances this year, but if they cannot put away the Gamecocks, I don't know what to think. 

Sure, Carolina's two defensive ends are very good. However, we should have one of the best college offensive lines in college football who should be able to handle them. Carolina does have a good defense though. 

The safety of Milroe's making made him look like a freshman out there. 

The defense has to shore up what the hell is going on really quickly because they play Tennessee in Knoxville on Saturday.

Sunday Hangover: South Carolina

Lots of passing and running after the catch from the Tide in this one. 

Najee Harris excelled as a receiver in this one, which is a wrinkle to the offense we didn't see much of from Harris last year. 

I am still concerned about the running game, however. Alabama only gained 76 net yards. The Tide needs to improve in that part of the offense. I pine for an offense that "has balance" as Coach Saban likes to say. 

And they need to improve on defense. They gave up 102 yards in rushing to one guy, and the Gamecocks had 135 net yards gained. 

After looking at the individual stats, I was astonished that the SC QB attempted 57 stinking passes. 

It was good to have the defense get three sacks though and five quarterback hurries. But with 57 attempts, those numbers should be higher. 

But in the end, Alabama only punted once. It was a crappy punt, but DeLong only had to punt once. 

Random Notes from a Crank

As I was driving down a main road in my town today, coming the other way was a 4x4 pickup truck parading down the road with two large flags situated at the front of the truck's bed, flapping in the wind as it drove. One flag was the American flag. The other was the Stars and Bars. With what happened in Charleston and with the governor of SC wanting to take the Confederate flag down from the state capitol building (as if that act would assuage what happened in that church), you can't pinpoint the motivations for what those two morons in that truck are trying to do. Regardless, it was a spectacle of idiocy I haven't seen in a while.

Roxane Gay has a solid opinion piece in the New York Times: "Why I Can't Forgive Dylann Roof." 

Later that day I was watching my son doing his tae kwon do class. The large women two rows in front of me had one of the uglier tattoos I've seen in a good while. It was on her left shoulder, and it was large version of Hello Kitty, but it was green to make it a zombie Hello Kitty. 

Recently I noticed my son likes saying, "Holy smokes." Then I noticed that I say that too. I can't figure out if I picked it up from him or he picked it up from me. It's a rooster-and-egg thing. 

Since I'm an assistant coach for a machine-pitch baseball team, I've been contemplating pitching a new reality series: Baseball Moms. 

The season premiere of True Detective was quite the episode. Wow. That Colin Farrell character looks like a classic antihero. 

Thoughts on Our Trip to Edisto Island

It was a nice trip for a few days down to South Carolina to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. My in-laws graciously let us use their points for their time-share with Wyndham, and it was nice to be back in the South for the change although some people (in particular, Chicagoans) would argue that our five years in St. Louis were spent in the South.

Regardless, once we stepped off the plane we had the humidity of the deep South smack us in the face. I thought this: "Oh yeah, I remember this."

While the town is technically called Edisto Island, it's not like you have to take a ferry or bridge to it since the area is South Carolina "lowcountry." In the case of Edisto, you can buy houses with "marshfront" property since one side of the town is situated on the Intercoastal Waterway, and the other side of the town faces the beach.

If you ever want to take a vacation to a place that is more of a regional vacation spot--it seemed like mostly people from the Carolinas, Virginia, and Georgia frequent there--it's a great place, no Myrtle Beach stuff.

If we ever go again, I'm sure we'll take the kids and also check out Charleston.