The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly- Tennessee

Ahhh, have you ever noticed that the trees are always a little more red than orange, the taste of your morning OJ is always a little sweeter, and the inbreeding that happens all around you seems a little more tolerable? Here in the midst of Vomit hell, I sit a happy guy for a victory over the big rival, for me anyways. I do need a .wav file of Eli's call on the last second block for a little work retaliation, if someone can supply me with that, that would make life almost perfect.

OFFENSE

The Good...

Doing some of the things well when they focused on it....

When the playcalling and execution allowed for it, they did fairly well. When they were focused on passing, to Julio, they were moving the ball well. When they focused on running it strong, and going north-south, they did well. The issue was that between poor execution from WRs and bizarre and near Crowton play calling, it was hard for anyone to get into the game and take it over.

Good individual efforts

I know some folks are down on McElroy, but after watching the replay 2x now, he didn't play badly. He missed on a few throws and about all of those were footwork related issues, but he had a lot of balls dropped on him that just killed the momentum. Julio had his best game of the year and was back to his comfort level with more hooks and ins/outs to square him up. He's gotta fight for the ball in the endzone though. Mark Ingram had another solid performance even with the fumble. I thought Dial and Williams both had good days blocking and filling in the Peek factor as much as was needed. Smelley didn't though... I thought the line played ok as a whole, but they need a break and to get back to practice and remember to get low on short yardage situations.

The Bad... (when you don't score a single TD, there isn't that much to talk about)

Mental Fartation spreads like the swine flu

It now has gotten to the point where even running routes and catching a ball leads to brain fart issues. The wide receiver/TE receiving play as a whole was pretty sub par. There were so many big drops that it was just impossible to get going. Smelley has really regressed from where he was at the end of the year. He is trying to catch with his chest and not his hands and as most of you know, the results aren't good. Maze was invisible most of the game and Hanks was getting good separation but just let one get on him and he didn't fight for the ball when a defender put his hand out. That's one thing that has continued to be a problem for them is that they sit on their routes and don't come back to the QB to help him find them and get the ball to them without a defender in the way. Last week, the 2nd INT was a situation where Hanks sat on the route and the corner shot past him and Hanks just sat there. This week, there were 0 INTs but they had a lot of poorly run routes and routes cut off (the 2nd Jones pass in the EZ) and players sitting on their hooks and spots where the ball would be. The off week will be good to let them work on moving to the ball/QB and failure should be a few stadiums. Nothing breaks a habit like stadiums.

The Ugly...

Play calling almost cost Bama the game

Saban said more than once he wasn't pleased with the play calling after the game. He's a very fortunate coach this morning because a very bizarre and poor series of plays almost cost them the game. The entire philosophy of the offensive game plan had issues from start to finish. I've heard a lot of coaches say that play calling is like a drum beat and each play leads to another play later on and you want to keep the hot hand going. None of that was visible Saturday. They would start a drive out passing to Julio and others, get a good drive started, and then try to run. The result was Julio's hot hand went cold. Another drive they would start in the run mode, get some nice runs, and then start passing. Now, for those who go straight to this part and start bitching, I like a balance of run v. pass, but you have to mix it up and have a pass on 1st down, run on second, run on first, pass on second type balance not pass 7 straight then run 7 straight. The other play calling issue that confused me was how they constrained McElroy at times. There were times where they needed to open up the field because UT was bringing all 11 inside 7 yards and daring them to go deep, but they would call short routes like screens and HB rubs (the Upchurch block then go to the middle of the field play). Then when the Vols were playing deeper on 3rd and long, they were trying to go for 20 yards when the middle of the field was open. I am hoping that Peek's injury was an issue for them as to why they didn't punish UT down the middle of the field, it was very open all day and Bama never once tried to hit it.

The culmination of confusion came late in the first half. Bama drives down the field on the legs of Ingram and gets to a 2nd and 2 inside the 10. The first stab at 6 was a fade to the corner. I'm ok with the play as a play, but most know that's a low percentage play (even in the NFL). The second stab was a Spurrier-esque repeat of the play because they were so sure it was there. I will agree with Saban and most of the fans that Jones got mugged, but he didn't go for the ball either. Really, the problem was the call not the play. On third and short, you have a supposed Heisman candidate in the backfield, your OL has plowed the field, and it is time to feed the need, not ice him out again. This issue resurfaced again on fourth and short. The call was for Greg to sneak. Again, you have a guy who has more YACs than Borat's sister, why put a thinner, less physical guy in that spot? Thank God for a stout and tired defense because if they had been any less than great, we're all singing the blues today.

DEFENSE / SPECIAL TEAMS

The Good...

What's higher than Rocky Top? Mt Cody Mother F@#$#$$!

If you are looking to tease UT fans, use the following- "What do you see from the top of Rocky Top? The bottom of Mount Cody." It has had good success here today. Still need that Eli sound bite folks. Ok, focus. Here's the thing that gets me, how far has the program come in 3 years? This time 3 years ago, you had a group of seniors who were about themselves and had no pride in the uniform or the tradition, they were trying to pimp for an NFL chance, that team wouldn't have found the guts to make a play like Cody did. Putting him and Dareus side by side is near criminal because you have the beef and the bull going right at the poor snapper. The UT snapper probably won't be able to wash the ball stink off him for a while.....

Making UT get one dimensional

They had their down moments, but overall, they did a good job on a UT offense that is finding its identity. UT wanted to do all the roll outs and rubs and Bama used the corners and Reamer to cut it out and force Crompton to be a pocket QB. The result for about 57 minutes was great.

Cory Reamer continues to be a player

Cody will get all the attention, but I'm going to tell you that Reamer was a big reason why Bama won. Each week he has taken on a bigger and bigger role in the defense and teams are now trying to avoid running at him because he holds his position well and doesn't get beat. He isn't Hightower, and nobody trying to fill that gap is, but he's done his best to get the gap minimal.

Leigh Tiffin

He looked a lot more confident in his kicking and even some real ducks had enough force on them to get over the posts. The staff is doing a much better job of getting him on his side of the hash mark to increase the odds of him hitting it, and he's doing a better job of keeping his mechanics right and getting good lift on the ball.

The Bad...

The last 3 minutes of defense.

This is another play calling thing with me. You rush 4 and try to zone UT when you have thrown the sink at them all day and gave them nothing, why? Saban said they did everything wrong in the last 3 minutes, he's right, they let UT get a lot of cheap yards trying to bleed the clock out, but did a poor job of slowing them down. The play that had me ready to kill was using Dareus as a defender against a TE. Bama was in the dime and didn't have a good matchup against a big TE like what UT has. That's when you call timeout and get the right personnel out there. Dareus needs to know how to do 2 things, hit quarterbacks and stop the run, not cover routes. That's like using Julio Jones at fullback or Javier Arenas at DE. It is hard to say if there was a blown assignment or if they just got caught, but in any case you never should have a guy with as much presence at the LOS like what Dareus has and take him out of that element. The TD was a bust too. I don't know which Safety took the wrong bubble, but either Green or Woodall was out of position and it left a valley open for Jones to score. Have I ever said how much I hate playing zone in the red zone? Seems like that stuff always happens.

Special Teams coverage

Whether it was returning kicks or trying to cover the onsides, or trying to cover the UT return game, it was another week that was. The communication amongst players needs to improve. Huber fair caught a kickoff with both Grant and Arenas beside him. Someone needed to say got it got it, or something to get his attention and let the play makers have a shot at a bad idea by UT cost them. Danielson, the jerk, had a point that he was going to make but the play happened before he could say it. He was about to say McClain should be on the front and Jones behind him. The reason why is exactly why UT got the ball. Guys like McClain can hit the gunners and keep Julio clean to jump and catch the bounce. That's another in the long list of things that needs addressing on special teams.

The Ugly...

Post game bullshit

First of all, I hope that the next time Verne (old figureskating turd) and Gary (I sucked at being a QB but suck a fatty better) visit the state of Alabama, I hope their beds are soaked in piss, their food full of phlegm, and their greeting from the citizens colder than Fulmer's fat flabs in December. All that shit they had to say at the end of the game was just bad. They wanted to go into it, but someone in the truck was yelling at them to shut up, they still had to make it out of the state alive.

Kiffin picked up on it afterwards. He really diminished a good game by his team. They had a good game plan for Bama and did well and came up just 3 feet short. They had the staff's respect and probably a lot of fans as well until they started the conspiracy poo flinging. There are 2 problems with the concept of Cody's helmet toss. First, Bama recovered the kick, so even with a penalty, they don't win. Second, the clock had gone to 0 before hand so the ball was dead when it hit the ground. I said 2 but let's add a third. It was game changing play that won a game, let a player play and let him celebrate when they do so. Nobody over on Inbred Island had a problem with Peyton leading the band to Rocky Top, nor do they have a problem with their celebrations. It is being a bitch, which is what he does real well. It takes away from the TEAM and it diminishes how he is VIEWED by his peers and recruits. He's one part Fran (I'm gonna report you) and one part Shula (almost there but never there).


This week is bye week so there will be a lot of Random Thoughts over the week. If time allows, we'll be talking about:

Midseason awards- A GBU tradition of bye week review
Bowl watching and BCS busting
8 years of GBU- 4 coaches, 8 seasons, and a lot of stories to revisit
The Best of...- Who are the best coaches since Bear, best players, best games, etc.