Ok, raise your hand if you knew all was well and Saban had a plan, and this game was in control. Now, for the rest of you who kept your hand down, you can donkey punch the liars who did. Really and honestly, this was a statement game for the Tide. They took a serious knockout quality punch and survived it.
OFFENSE
The Good....
Taking the air out of the ball and keeping Mallett on the sidelines
Bama's 15 play drive and 8 play drives in the 2nd half just iced Mallett and the Hawg O. Because they were successful in converting the drives into points, it put pressure on the Hawgs to respond. They didn't, and each time they didn't, Bama made them pay with another long drive that changed the tempo of the game from the horse race in the first half to a ground and pound brawl in the second.
Mark Ingram
Do I really have to say much more? What a difference he makes in this team. While Richardson is plenty good, he isn't the game changer and tone setter that Ingram is. The patience, the ability to cut and adjust to the defense, and the pure freak balance he possesses is amazing. He will easily be in the top 3 all time soon, and probably is the greatest that Bama has had.
Answering the bell
Bama was down 7-0 and looked rough. Ingram makes 2 cuts on an inside trap/counter and is off to the races. He put a stiff arm on the same guy twice, which is rare and good job by the Hawg defender to keep up on the play, and tight ropes to the endzone to give the Tide a chance to reset the game and start over. This would be a common theme it seemed like. Each time Arkansas did something, Ingram was counter punching the momentum back.
McElroy is just clutch
Yes, there is a lot of discussion below about Greg's game, but in the end when the game counted most (4th quarter and 3rd downs) he was making plays. Bama was 8 of 14 on 3rd down as well as McElroy hit 75% of his passes in the 4th quarter (and was 9-13 in the 2nd half). Both were big for the Tide because they needed every bit of them to win this game. In the 3rd, the 2nd TD was a big play for both Greg and the offense. The screen is Greg's best pass play because he sells it so well he's NFL caliber, and he does a great job of sucking in defenders before he releases the ball. Lost in all the complaints about Greg, he lead the Tide to a score on all but one real drive in the 2nd half. The first drive stalled out and the last drive was the victory formation.
Trent Richardson's all purpose purpose....
Lost in all the hullabaloo, TR had a huge day. 85 yards rushing, 25 receiving and a TD, and 117 return yards equated to a very good day for Richardson. Congrats to him for making the best of his time and to the staff for finding ways to get him into the game and get the ball in his hands without taking Ingram out of the game so to speak. He even made about 2 tackles on special teams.
Getting the push when they needed it
The O line didn't exactly win the battle all day, but like McElroy, when they had to make it, they made it. The 4th and inches, the goal line surge for the winning TD, every first down gained by Ingram and Richardson, the o line was there making it happen.
The Bad...
Interception number 1
Geez, where to begin. There are about 3 villains in this crime. First criminal is McElroy. Greg knows better than to force a ball into the coverage, especially in the red zone. He saw a guy in the open, and Williams was for a split second open, but there isn't a QB on Bama's campus who could thread it there. Heck, only guys I know who could are Brees and Manning. The second villain is the OC. On 3rd and goal from the 4, calling a play with a stretch formation that doesn't have the primary read as a fade or slant is just not high percentage football. The 3rd villain is James Carpenter. Carpenter just let his guy loose and McElroy couldn't follow thru the way he wanted to. Regardless, the whole thing sucked.
Interception number 2
Bad play, bad play call, and bad effort in a lot of areas here. McElroy can hit that pass, but he held the ball too long. He did a poor job of looking off the safety to get Hanks separated from any interceptors or tacklers. If he looks off the safety, that is a TD and the game is changed from there. As is, Hanks didn't help him either by standing statuesque and watching it all go by, but that one is solely on McElroy.
15 first half runs....
I'm sure there will be some who balk at this, but 15 rushes was about 5 too few. Your play makers are Ingram and Richardson, right? Why not get them more involved and keep the offense moving downhill. McElroy was not having his best day, nor was the Tide pass protection, but the running backs were and the Tide run blocking was too. Sure the passes probably did help push the Arkansas D back some and made them respect the balance, but if Bama runs on 3rd and goal instead of throwing, what differences would we be talking about?
The Ugly...
Richardson runs for 50 yards but that was 3 too many
The thing that Richardson does that just irks me still is that he wants to hit players too much and loses sight of the bigger picture. On the last play of the 1st half, he makes a lot of great cuts, and had the Hawg D broken, but he lost his head and cost the team a chance at 3 points. Instead of cutting out of bounds with 2 seconds left, he cut back upfield and went for a guy to hit for no reason whatsoever. When they get in film study, he'll get chewed on about it. A 7 point deficit at the half would have be a whole different ball game.
DEFENSE/SPECIAL TEAMS
The Good...
The hits finally kept coming....
Saban said at the half that he didn't like the pressure they were calling up at the half. I'd agree with that and then some. In the 2nd half, the Tide used its best 2 weapons against Mallett- their offense and the smoke screen blitzes. The blitzes and pressure packages were huge in the 4th quarter. He took a shot from Gentry that shook him, Hightower shot put him 15 yards and that got in his head, and then there were about 4 other shots that he took that changed the way the game was played. Before the pressure started to work, Mallett was just picking on Dre and the linebackers, afterwards, he was throwing junk and Dre and Lester were able to capitalize for 3 picks.
Hip to be Square
I thought Square had his best game of the year. Like Hightower, Menzie, Upshaw, did I miss any injured player(?), Square isn't 100%, but he's playing through it. Square just continued to get beyond his blocker and working through doubles to get to the ball and get into Mallett's line of sight.
Lester in coverage
Lester in man and against the run is well.....anyways, when he's playing cover 2 or any zone package, he's very good at reading the play through. His first pick of the day was a good read of Mallett's eyes. The second pick was a bad throw that he was there to clean up. Regardless of that, both were great plays on his part because Lowery wasn't going to make that catch. Lester is best in deep center field, and I would not be surprised to see them start doing more of that and less man and creeping him up to the box.
Second half adjustments
You know you will read the 1st half non-adjustments below, but in the 2nd half is a great example of how a great staff makes adjustments. Arkansas had the game in their court at the half. They didn't make any adjustments, and didn't adjust to Bama taking the air out of the ball. Bama used the offense to ice out the air attack and put pressure on them to answer. Each time Arkansas tried, Bama was throwing the sink at him. Why it didn't come from the opening kickoff? I dunno, but I'm just glad they did before the end. The best part was that it was not just one little thing Bama changed, it was about everything. They started dropping the safeties and bringing the linebackers. They started using more stunts at the line. They started using different player sets (Jordan was in a lot in the 4th, Hightower played Jack a lot). They sent pressure from Menzie and others that was disguised and confused Mallett.
Growing up under fire
Well, Penn State didn't exactly press this defense, nor did Duke. Arkansas threw a lot at the Tide and to be honest, they had Bama backpeddling, but in the end, when the game was in the balance, the secondary made the plays and broke Arkansas. Dre Kirkpatrick has a lot of room for improvement, yet is the best they have, but as the game wore on, his patience started to kick in, and he was showing that he was learning what veteran WRs were doing to him. Menzie played pretty well for the most part, but he got more involved as the game wore on. Millner....Barron started making more plays and quit releasing his guy for no reason.
Getting plays from special teams
Mandell and Shelley both had good games for their respective jobs. I was tighter than a virgin on prom night as Shelley lined up the FG in the 4th, but he went up and knocked it down like it was nothing. After 4 years of Tiffin's ups and downs, it was nice to see a kicker make a clutch kick against the Hogs on the road. Richardson, as mentioned, just kept making big plays off kickoffs and setting the offense up with good field position.
The Bad...
1st half gameplan
Whomever decided that the best plan for the defense was to play containment against a pass happy ARK team needs religion. I am guessing that they were trying to protect the young corners by giving them more help, but gosh almighty they only added fuel to the fire. The Tide as a whole are horrible in zone coverage this year. Kirkpatrick and Millner both made several bad reads or missed their zone assignment. Barron released before he should have on a few plays. The linebackers could not get in position at times and cover their zones. As a result, you saw a Tide defense give up 200 plus yards in about 17 minutes of football, and about 5 30 plus yard plays given up. 2 stats that you don't expect to see from a Nick Saban defense. Wanna bet they got the ducks shitting on the yard speech?
Tackling and the lack of
Bama's tackling has been off all year, but it was in full display Saturday. Wanna bet the Gators are amp'd for that? Saturday, the Tide overpursued often, didn't set their hips but set their feet and got flat footed often, and tried to make about 3 times the number of arm tackles that we saw last year. The answer to the why we see it more is 2 part: part one is youth, part two is discipline. The defense is young and lacks a lot of experience in these situations. They don't know how to get into position to make tackles like an Arenas or McClain did. They don't know how to read and react when playing zone and get into position. They don't know a lot of the things we got spoiled on, but it is fundamental football all the same and you expect a starter at this level to know those things when they get there.
The Ugly....
Two plays, 50 seconds, 7 points
Probably the worst opening to a game in the Saban era and the worst show of defense since Dubose was there. I hate seeing bad defense, and folks, that drive was just sorry defense. They did nothing right on the first play and they followed it up with another play that was worse than the first. The main issue that I saw was that there were multiple guys in the 2 plays that didn't know who or what their assignment was. Millner was man when he should have been zone, other guys released before they should have, Lester tried to get back in position but hesitated and got tracked by a less than stellar running back. On and on, I could go, but I won't.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
How red is Richt's ass?
Crimson would be light in comparison right now folks. The biggest sign that he's done is this: when they needed to win a game, the whole team and staff came to Starkville with no urgency or effort. They came in like they were a winning program and got Croomed (credit Cecil). Richt's era is pretty well over and now he has to win out to have a hope of staying. Good luck there. A loss to Colorado will pretty well have a meeting with the AD that he doesn't want. Houston Nutt probably is the first fired, but Richt's not far behind right now. UGA alumni are getting real impatient and starting to mumble about how the program is sliding down the pecking order fast. They are right. USCar, LSU, and others are passing them for good now.
Heisman Hype?
Ryan Mallett's hopes are now gone. He choked on national TV and he's done. Keenum is out for the year unfortunately. Pryor is racking up stats against the weakest schedule in America, but that's about to change. Same for Denard Robinson, who I would vote for if the vote was today, but the race is really down to 3 guys. Luck, Pryor, and Ingram. Luck gets his shot at primetime vs. Oregon this week. Ingram gets another national TV audition vs. UF. Pryor will rack stats up still as he gets a sorry Illini team, but he gets some tough tests down the road to show he's worthy. If Luck leads Stanford to the upset, he'll be hard to beat for the Heisman. Really, if that happens, and Pryor does what he seems to do each year (choke), he deserves it.
Boise is good, as is TCU, but neither deserve to be talked about in the BCS title scene
The good news here is that voters agree. Oregon jumped TCU after their big win. If they beat Stanford, they probably jump Boise. Boise has 2 quality wins vs. Tech and OSU, but their conference schedule is candy compared to the Big 10, Pac 10, and SEC. Really, the BCS fly in the ointment is Oregon not Boise. If they go end to end, and the Ohio State U wins out, and Bama/UF/LSU/AU wins out, what do you have then? A mess. Those 3 represenatives deserve the shot over either Cinderella.
Fans hopefully will calm down now
I wasn't able to post last week after changing jobs, and it will be tight for a while as to when I can get this in, but I did read a lotta bullshit from folks about how nobody could beat Bama. Um, folks, there are a lot of pitfalls out there. Yeah, UF has looked bad at times, but they looked sharp Saturday. The speed and defense can beat Bama. Yeah, USCar lost to that other school in the state, but they can win on any given Saturday, and that game is on the road. Yeah, LSU looks like a train wreck at times, but they keep winning. If they find magic in a bottle, they will be hard to stop. Talent isn't the Tiger's problem. Auburn is the real test in the end. Folks balked at them, and they scoffed at Herbie for insinuating such, but they have confidence. Beating USCar wasn't a fluke or just a win for them, UGA would give a nut to have that win right now. Yes, Auburn has to go on the road and play soon, but their Palmetto punchouts of ClemPson and USCar aren't sneezed at by me. Bama can win out, but they can lose a game too. Folks who keep hyping up the bullshit factor are only adding to the misery that can come.
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