Well, a couple of weeks have passed and I have had some to reflect on the game, watch the national championship game (unbelievable, by the way), and keep an eye out on the recruiting trail for Alabama. Sorry I didn't write this up sooner... but this stuff takes a lot of time! :) So here's how I remember January 2, 2006. By the way, I had 50-yd line seats at the Cotton Bowl and the game was most excellent! All those Tech fans outnumbered us, that's for sure. But in the end, we were the last ones standing. They held up their hands like guns (or L's) and that's their thing for their school.... so after the game, I made sure I told a few TT fans (ones that were just obnoxious) to just stick that gun, er, I mean L to their forehead and the rest is history. Losers, buddy. And yeah, I do my talking after the game... cuz my team just did the talking. So on we go......

OFFENSE - The offense that Saturday did just enough and then some, to win the game. On the 2nd play of the game, Bama called a quick WR screen and Keith Brown took it to the house, baby. And just like the Florida game, let me tell you - you WILL NOT catch this guy. He's one of THE fastest guys on the team. I'm just glad that he decided to catch the ball that day since our leading WR couldn't make the grade and play - DJ Hall. Brown would reel in a mere 5 passes for 141 yards, and that 76-yarder was freaking huge. It gave the defense something to defend the whole day.

Then the offense just kinda went downhill from there. We had some long drives, but didn't get points and that's what frustrated Shula more than anything. We did what we wanted to do in keeping the Tech offense off the field, but we just didn't capitalize as much as we would have liked. At the half, Bama would only lead 7-3. But only allowing 3 points to one of the best offenses in the country was pretty cool. Even the TT fans were trying to figure out why they didn't already have about 45 points on the board. I'm thinking "Well, it's about time you guys played someone with a good defense. This is SEC football, and if you want to score, you're going to have to earn it, unlike the Big 12."

So anyway, the Tide offense just kept chugging and chugging all day up and down the field, eating up a whopping 39 minutes of the game, leaving TT with only 21 minutes on offense. That stat could have been one of the biggest of the day. It kept our defense off the field and kept them fresh ESPECIALLY in the 3rd quarter when the Tide at up over 8 minutes on its first drive. The add in the huge final 2-minute drive at the end of the game once Tech tied it up, and well, you have a team that truly played as a team. Even Brandon Brooks and Matt Miller came up with 2 GIANT 3rd-down conversions from Croyle to keep that last drive alive. Matt Miller came up with the catch of the game after taking a brutal hit on that 3rd down catch. Wow... I just knew he was going to drop that ball, but he didn't. Great catch!

Then throw in the fact that our OL played like they did at the beginning of the year, and you couldn't have asked for much more considering the player losses we had. Still no Prothro, no Closner, and on this day, no D.J. Hall or Simeon Castille. That's some serious talent we couldn't use in the Cotton Bowl and we still managed to play with everything we could to pull out the win. So the offense didn't score much, but then we wouldn't have to. The biggest thing is that they kept Croyle safe, and ate up 39 minutes in the game.... that in itself probably won it for the Tide. Great job! GRADE: B+

DEFENSE - The defense showed up. Period. Of course they have showed up in every game this year. But against the best offense in the country, well, we shut them down. They only had a mere 3 points until the last few minutes of the game. You really can't ask for much more than that. Hodges couldn't get anything going, and our DB's just played lights out in one-on-one bump and run coverage. 'Man' coverage is about the only way to beat those guys and we did a good job in doing that. If we had gone to zone, they would have eaten us alive. I AM surprised that we played as well as we did. TT was held to 10 points, their lowest of the season. Texas allowed the fewest to that at 17 points. But UT also scored 52 that day, which means they gave TT more chances to score. But all day, we didn't do much blitzing, and when we did, we did what we wanted - we either got to Hodges or we made him run, though he was a fast little critter. Dang he's fast! He reminded me of Kenny Stabler. He was like a snake out there - we couldn't seem to get him. But we got to him enough that he finally got knocked out of the game. That's what happens when you run though. He finally got his.

But for the most part, the defense held TT in check. They had no similance of much of an offense, and they didn't score a TD until the waning minutes of the game. But when they scored, they had a ton of momentum since they had tied the game, and our offense hadn't done much the entire 2nd half except kick a FG and miss 2 others. Things all of a sudden got shakey for the Tide. BUT the offense came out and drove up the field for the game-winning FG at the buzzer. The rest is history. Great job Defense. I don't think any other team could have done a better job - and they didn't all year. I'm gonna miss this defensive team - they definitely compare to the 1992 championship defense - though the 1992 defense WAS better, this one utilized their personel probably better due to lack of scholarship players. What a heckuva defense we had this year. Let's hope this flows into next year's defense. Roll Tide! GRADE: A+

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams made us nervous like MAD, made us cheer, made us stomp, then made us jump for joy in the end. What a whacked out game for special teams. Nervous (and this is an understatement) means watching Brandon Brooks try to merely catch a punt, much less return one for positive yards. I don't understand what gets in this kid's head. He's been doing this all year... he does it in practice, then he does it the week of the Cotton Bowl in practice, then in the game, he fumbles 2 balls and was so freakin' lucky to have recovered the 2nd one, it's not even funny. I just don't get it. I watched him catch AND return punts in practice that week at SMU and he caught EVERYTHING and looked really good. At WR, he had great hands as well. But something happens on gameday - he greases up his fingers with butter or shrinks another 6 inches to make it impossible to catch a football from above. I'm just glad the coaches figured something out after the (grunt) SECOND fumble. Why not the first??? Man, I was peeo'd every time Brooks would even go on the field to return a punt. I'm literally YELLING to the field to the TT punter - don't kick it to our guy - kick it out of bounds!! But no, he had to kick it to Brooks who fumbled 2 punts. Crap. I kept saying we might as well rush ALL 11 GUYS and let the ball fall where it may. I didn't care - at least we didn't risk giving it right back to TT after the defense did a great job at stopping them. If we had fumbled and lost just ONE of those punts, we might be singing a different story today.... TT 17 Bama 10 or something. They were right there on the front doorstep both times. Now the problem is that Simeon Castille wasn't at the game, and he was the other punt returner for the Tide, so Anthony Madison stepped in and did well. He caught the ball every time and looked comfortable in doing it. Whew.

Then we take a look at 'Money'... um, he's likely to get the name 'Chump Change' if he doesn't start making more kicks next year. Sure, he made the last kick by the skin of his teeth, but if he makes one of the other two kicks, it doesn't even come down to that. Hopefully he'll be more consistent next season. But I'll say this - for him to have that ball actually go 46 yards over the crossbar says something about his leg strength since his foot actually clipped the ground as he kicked that ball. I mean, wow. And being AT the game, it definitely looked long enough - I just wasn't sure of the accuracy. When the refs held up their arms, man, all the Bamafans in that stadium went nuts - what an incredible finish to an incredible game. All the TT fans were just in disbelief. But hey, that's why they play every single second, right? Ask Penn State about the likes of 1 second and what it meant to their season.

So our kicking game wasn't so great, but he ended up 2 for 4 on the day, and we'd need both of those to win. Our kickoff coverage teams were unbelievable. The opening kickoff was just like a swarm of bees on the tackle. At that point, I was like - These guys are ready to play. And they did. They played their butts off. So with the winning kick taking most of the credit, it totally covers up most of the 2 fumbles by Brooks. Brooks is a senior this year, so no more 5'4" returner for next season, guys. GRADE: B-

OVERALL - Overall, the team played well except for the fumbles by Brooks. We protected the football, we ran the ball extremely well, and maintained clock control, not to mention crowd control since it was a pro-TT crowd.... and better yet, Croyle out-played Hodges in every aspect of the game except for rushing yards. Amazing how the Bama offense ended up having to win the game for us on the last drive. But we had done it 2 other times this season, so it was really nothing new. But for a day when Bama won, Auburn lost, and Notre Dame lost - it was the best of days. And Shula will hopefully have more great days to come.

As for the offseason and recruiting, the Tide is getting some good prospects. We missed out on the crown jewel we wanted in Tebow, but the Tide is still hoping for the likes of Andre Smith as its big-time player. We got Southlake HS QB Greg McElroy today, who had previously committed to Texas Tech back in September. Once he took an official visit this past weekend with his parents, how could he say No to the Crimson Tide. My gut told me he would switch, and I was right. Good to see another Texas boy headed to God's Country. So once recruiting season ends on 2/1, Bama will focus on Spring Training with the A-day being held on April 1 of all days. Are they going to pass for over 500 yards in that game, and then say April Fools??? And in the Fall play like Alabama the last 2 years? We shall see. Let's hope for the best, and wish Shula much success in Spring Drills and let's pray for no injuries and a full recovery for Tyrone Prothro. Until then, Roll Tide... and may the Bamadog be with you. It's been a pleasure.

#8 BAMA 18 - #11 AUBURN 28

Wow........ Are you kidding me?? Seriously. What the crap happened? In my honest opinion, it almost looked as though our guys didn't even know what a football was... how to catch one... or even knew the rules of the game. I'm just completely stunned and shell-shocked at the embarrassment we put on the field Saturday. I can honestly say I don't think I have EVER seen an Alabama loss this bad in my life. I guess something pretty comparable would be the shellacking Tennessee took against Vandy this weekend, only not that bad - so we can count our blessings - we didn't lose to Vandy and NOT qualify for a Bowl Game, right? Way to go UT!! Great job! ha ha

OFFENSE - So back to our pathetic game... our offense was non-existent. No matter what we did, we couldn't really move the ball successfully against the Auburn front four. They didn't really blitz that much. Their DE's were getting around our Offensive Tackles almost every play. It's like, what do you have to do to stop these guys? Can't you get between them and Brodie?? I guess they couldn't... and our weakness was finally exposed bigtime, if not last week, then this week for sure. Wow.

Then throw in the fact that we had a buttload of pre-snap penalties (false starts & off sides combined) and that really didn't help our situation at all. All of a sudden we're working with 1st and 15 or 2nd and 15 all day long. How do you expect to win a game if you constantly use a Campus challenge on PS2 and give the other team (meaning Auburn giving Bama) the whole game with a 1st and 15 instead of 1st and 10? Those with PS2's and play NCAA Football know what I'm talking about. Darby got all he could, and thanks to the lame blocking and pre-snap penalties, he was really unble to do much the entire game since we were in a passing down almost every play of the game. Brodie practically outrushed Darby, backwards that is. He was sacked a whopping 11 times! How do you let that happen? Again, our OL is need of some dire help - Andre Smith - you heard that, right? You have an EXCELLENT opportunity to do what Chris Samuels did (and became)... to start at Left Tackle and protect the blind side of the QB as a true freshman. You'll start from day one more than likely. You CAN'T be any worse. Then maybe, just maybe we can get Darby another 1000 yards next season.

Next, look at the freakin' WR's who can't catch a ball to save their life all of a sudden. That great class of WRs we signed a couple of years ago was DJ Hall, Keith Brown, Knight, McKnight, and then redshirt sophomore Matt Caddell the year before. What the crap are they doing out there??? As a WR, your ONLY job (besides block) is to CATCH THE BALL. You're a RECEIVER - you CATCH the ball... just like Darby is a RUNNING BACK - he RUNS the ball well. You guys need to CATCH (or another word - RECEIVE) the ball better. Hall is the only guy that knows how to catch a pass consistently, apparently. Brown has lost his touch, and Zeke Knight needs some SERIOUS super glue on his hands. I guess the tennis machine didn't help those guys this week did it? Well, we do get everyone back next year at this position and a possible return of Prothro if his leg heals in time (that issue is still up in the air - remember A.C. and the rod he got in his leg and we all thought he would be back??). But this group was one of the higest rated WR classes in the country 2 years ago, and they haven't really panned out to be much as of late. Brown actually did better last year, and up to the point Pro got hurt - as did most of the WRs for some reason. Pro got hurt and all of a sudden we look like Jerry's kids out there (except for Hall). Heck, even on the "luck" throw by Wilson at the end of the game, Hall came up with the catch to give us a little better respectable score. At TE, Nick Walker dropped some easy passes but made one heckuva catch on another instance. He could actually end up being a great player by the time he leaves. He's only a true freshman, but he'll definitely be pushed by McCall, Hoke, and a slew of other TE's we have on the roster.

At RB, I commend what Darby did with what little he had to work with. No real lanes opened up most of the day, and what he got, he got on sheer will alone practically. He, for the first time in the season, was outrushed by the other team's starting tailback... He also didn't get his 100 yards for the day, but DID break 1,000 for the year which was his original goal for the season. Castille also did well, and McCall (TE) actually caught his first pass of the season if I'm not mistaken. He made a big play for us and came up with a much-needed 1st down.

But the offense as a whole just didn't play up to where we need to be. These OL guys are young, and next year, they might be younger if they get replaced by better incoming freshmen talent (which is definitely possible). WRs dropped the ball, and Brodie just didn't have time to do anything. RB's got what they could, and we just didn't play as a team. From what I saw, they didn't have that fire that Darby had... nor what the AU team had. They honestly looked like they were just going thru the motions and you can't win a game against your biggest rival playing like that. No how, no way. 3-and-out's don't get you many wins... and it really doesn't help your defense when you keep giving the ball back to AU's offense on your own side of the field. What did you expect would happen? It was a total embarassment to the Crimson Nation. Even though we have 9 wins, the end of this season makes me want to stick my head in a hole like an osterich. How embarrassing... GRADE: F

DEFENSE - The defense gave up 28 points, the most they gave up all year. Only Southern Miss scored the next most at 21 points, and all those weren't even on offense. Auburn worked with a short field for the entire 1st half practically - but mainly the 1st quarter. They took complete advantage of it and took a very quick 21-0 lead. Our defense just collapsed and couldn't handle the speed Auburn had at WR. As soon as we thought we had a stop, they would come up with a big play by Cox and a WR - mostly Courtney Taylor and Obdiminunu (yeah, I know it's spelled wrong). Granted, we DID play better in the 2nd half of the game and they didn't score even once. But with the way our offense was playing these last few games, it's no surprise really that we didn't score much more, and all AU really wanted to do was melt the clock, which they did. If they really wanted to score more besides a FG, they probably would have. But that stupid smug look on Tuberville's face still drives me freakin' insane. I just want to pound his face in with a sledgehammer, ya know?

Our DL just couldn't penetrate their OL either... Ryans and Roach had a great game and seemed to be in almost every play. We did force a turnover which was good.. and we got a touchdown by the offense after that turnover. We actually thought there was life there... but that soon ended as the AU defense took it up a notch yet again in the 2nd quarter. Bama wouldn't get close the rest of the half.

The DBs of Bama really had their work cut out for them. I thought we'd slow them down a bit more, and we did make quite a few plays since most of the tackles seemed to be deep.... but we just couldn't handle the speed and height those guys had. That leaping TD catch was crazy. How did that guy get up that high? No way our guys could have even touched that ball even if they had been in position.

Anyway, during the game, the defense stuck it to the running game - but in the 4th quarter, Irons actually started to catch a little fire, and ended up with 103 yards on the day. The defense just wore down after spending what seemed all day on the field. We just couldn't get a defense a break. They get a stop (or let AU score in the 1st) and then the offense goes 3 and out, then they're right back out there. We're just lucky TV timeouts exist or we'da gotten really slammed.

So besides the 1st quarter meltdown, the defense played well. Only 7 more points were given up... but that's all they would need to win was the first 21. The D played well once they settled down, but with this being the most experienced part of the team, they should have done better - even against AU's talent. We had a ton of seniors on defense and they didn't play like it and let us get into a hole too deep to climb out of. Not good, but they gave us a slim to none chance at the end by shutting them down. GRADE: D

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams was the highlight of the day, though you ALWAYS still hold your breath when little ole Brandon Brooks tries to catch a punt. But for the first time, Brooks actually made a good catch and run to give the Tide hope. We squandered it away though. On kickoffs and punt coverage, we did very well. AU didn't get much there as the cover teams really covered up the football. Schatz punted about as good as you could ask though his average wasn't great. He was stuck in the end zone the entire 1st quarter, so give him props there - he didn't get one blocked, and he didn't shank one... and he didn't fumble a snap to get a safety. 'Money' should just call himself 'Jamie'. All that crap is in his head right now, though the players really named him that. Until you get to be a 90%+ kicker, nothing is money. Make that extra FG during regulation and we're 10-0 going into the Iron Bowl. Then I'd call you money. BUT... Jamie did do well in the game kicking FGs and PATs... and I hope he improves his kicking in the next 2 years he's at Bama. He'll likely pick up a scholarship since he's a walk-on right now. He's won 2 games for us this year, but his consistency during the game has been a little erratic. But special teams, on a whole, did ok. GRADE: B

OVERALL - Overall, the team stunk it up. The early AU lead really got the players down, and by the end of the game, it was evident who the better and more confident team was. Auburn is thinking, if LSU loses, they (AU) are in the SEC Championship Game. We (Bama) are thinking the world has come to an end, and LSU won't lose to both Ole Miss and Arkansas, and our season is a total waste. What a load of crap. Get off LSU for Pete's sake. I was extremely pissed off about losing against LSU, but you should release that frustration on AU, not bottle it in and have a pity party. Like Brodie said, if you are still harping on the LSU loss going into this game, then you don't need to be on this team. I agree. This is the freaking Iron Bowl, and you don't go 4 years in a row and lose to these clowns. I went thru that crap 4 years in high school when NOT ONE YEAR I had bragging rights back in '86-'89. Man, that irked me more than you know. But then my first year at Bama (and G. Stallings' 1st year), we beat AU and I finally got that good feeling back. Next year, bring it home and beat AU in our OWN stadium for the first time, ok? We STILL have yet to beat Auburn in Bryant-Denny. And if we don't bring more than we did Saturday to more games in the future, I'm really not looking forward that. We need to bring our A-Game.

Last, our coaches said we had a great week of practice. Was that just a bunch of bullcrap or were they serious? Were they REALLY that good all week? How do you practice well and play horrible? I know AU is good, but YOU PLAY LIKE YOU PRACTICE. If that's good, then we have problems. Anyway, I've written more than I really wanted to this week as I'm still reeling over this unbelievable loss. The LSU game hurt the most.... the Iron Bowl was just flat embarrassing. I just wanted to die, figuratively, maybe literally. We flat out got beat. Period. And there's no excuse to how we played Saturday. Never has an Alabama team (that I have witnessed in 20 years) play THAT bad and get THAT dominated. On a brighter side, Vandy beat Tennessee and now UT won't go to a bowl game this year. That's the one highlight of our season's end... seeing that ugly Orange stay at home this year. Hopefully, Phil will keep his nose out of our business this spring/summer. Up Next: The Bowl game... let's actually play like we want to win our 10th game, guys! Aight? GRADE: D

#4 BAMA 13 - #5 LSU 16 (OT)

Man, what a downer. The Tide was rolling at 10-0 (if you call it "rolling") and still ended up losing the game. I figured with 10 points, we might have a shot to score a bit more and make sure LSU didn't come back and win the game. Unfortunately, I was wrong. And so was my prediction this week. I got the score right, but the teams wrong. It's a game where LSU really had a couple more playmakers than the Tide and that was the difference in the game. Give us a Tyrone and we win the game. Anyway, lemme chat about the game a little as I'm still steaming mad that we lost.... I really thought this year was destiny....

OFFENSE - The offense actually did decent against the Tigers in the 1st half gaining more than 200 yards of offense, and holding LSU to under 100 yards. But then the 2nd half started and it was the complete opposite. Then it came down to OT and LSU made the play. Brodie actually played very well with the exception of a 1 or 2 long balls that were missed. But the WR's kept dropping passes time after time. Knight dropped 4 himself if I remember correctly...passes a more experienced WR wouldn't likely drop (ie. Pro). But that's what we have - young WR's and that's what can be expected since all of them haven't really been go-to guys. We just have to get better.

The offensive line did well in the 1st half, but then the 2nd half blitz show showed up and we couldn't stop LSU's every-down blitz package hardly. I don't know if Closner himself could have stopped it. The thing is, is that we should have had some plays to offset the blitz, but we couldn't convert like we did the 1st half (ie. that great pass to McClain). Our young TE even made a few mistakes and dropped a great pass as well that might have been a TD. In any case, we did what we could, and with a full allotment of scholarships, I honestly think Bama wins that game. NCAA, you got us. We did everything we could do, but finally, eventually came up short like you wanted. Valiant effort, and an effort that went 100%. We just need a little more for next week... GRADE: C

DEFENSE - The defense honestly did about as much as you could ask. 10 points given up in one quarter and that was it. LSU would get no more - though they helped by missing a few FG's. It's weird though because we have been a 2nd half team all year, and this game, we just didn't gel or something. Maybe LSU is really that much better. Honestly, the fact that we kept going 3-and-out didn't help the defense at all... they are still human and still get tired. I'm sure that played a part in it. But anyway, we stopped them as much as we could and still out-gained them offensively... but the points didn't come. And that's what matters. Great job defense... only we snapped our 25-game turnover streak. We couldn't get a Turnover the entire game. LSU did just enough to keep it away from us... and when I thought we had them stopped at the very end, instead, everyone's heart actually stopped when Bowe caught that pass. Talk about a sucky feeling in your gut. I was more mad than anything knowing how many times the refs didn't call holding against LSU's OL. And then the passing interference call against Madison which he actually didn't commit this week. It's a shame - cuz that was the drive they scored the TD on... and it was 3rd down. Lame... just lame. But hey, I guess you have to deal with it, right? It'll be nice to get some calls in the next game. Anyone got some cash? GRADE: A

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams actually had a chance to win the game for us. Christensen missed an easy FG earlier in the game that would have given the Tide a 3-pt lead later in the game... obviously, LSU's play-calling would also be different, but it would have been soemthing - a chance. Jamie has hit some big kicks including the one in OT in this game... but that one miss early on really cost Bama. Don't call him 'Money' just yet. That one could have been the game-winner in regulation. As for cover teams, we actually played exceptionally well. Skyler Green is the best return guy in the country next to Bush (USC). We contained him and he didn't get any significant yards all day. Great job punting the football from Schatz.. and kickoffs were great by Jamie once again. But that missed FG was huge - could be the difference between 9-1 and 10-0 right now.... we'll never know. GRADE: B-

OVERALL - Overall, Bama played with everything they had. The defense especially, played lights out when LSU was constantly on our side of the field in the 2nd half. They totally dominated LSU in the 1st half to give us hope. We could just do so much... and with Bama not able to have an answer to the ambush blitz that LSU threw at us time after time, they got the ball back, and forced us to make bad decisions and Brodie got sacked 5 times during the day. The biggest play was the pass on 3rd and 2 in OT. I honestly don't know why we didn't run the ball more with the OL Guard pulling in front of Darby. Go back and look at the film and you'll see we had HUGE success when Caldwell would pull off the line and run around the end in front of Darby. I wish we could have gone to that a little more because they never stopped that play. Of course, the dive up the middle was stopped more often than not. Hopefully the coaches will see what's really working for us... and when you need 2 yards, you go with plays that have worked for you the entire game. We didn't do that.

So now Bama's 9-1 and #8 in the country. We still have a chance to make a BCS bowl... and if not, possibly the Cotton Bowl could be a desitination for the Tide. Of course, I'd like that (if not a BCS) because that's here in my own back yard of Dallas, TX. It'd be nice to see the Tide and not have to travel for 8 hours, right? But here's to hoping we beat Auburn, and LSU loses to either Ole Miss or Arkansas. Remember, Ole Miss still has a good defense,... and Arkansas can, any given day, play well. They still have a great running offense that could keep LSU's offense off the field. So don't give up hope Bamafans. We still might get into the SEC Championship game with a win next weekend. Don't count us out until we are definitely out. Then a Sugar Bowl bid might be in Bama's future. Let's hope for the best.... keep the faith, and ROLL TIDE, baby! GRADE: B

#4 BAMA 17 - MISSISSIPPI STATE 0

Well, Bama has rolled to 9-0 now after defeating Mississippi State in Starkville Saturday 17-0. Bama got the shutout no thanks to some VERY crappy officiating. You all saw the game... so you KNOW what I'm talking about. Lemme get to the game for now...

OFFENSE - The offense actually moved the ball pretty good. Croyle had a good game minus the int's and no TD's, and Darby had a good game running the ball. That's between the 20's. Now once we got near the red zone, that's when Bama would stumble. Hopefully the coaches can figure out what we're doing wrong in the upcoming week, at the same time, trying to work in a new center to get ready for the biggest game of the year next weekend against LSU.

I just don't get it though. The offense KNOWS they need to step up their game, and they talk about it.... but we're not seeing results unfortunately. Maybe next weekend is the weekend - who knows? But as for this weekend, we just didn't play well on offense, and we kept shooting ourselves in the foot and couldn't get into the end zone. MSU is not THAT good of a defense. I do know that our offensive line seems to have gotten progressively worse as the season goes along. All day long, Darby had to make his own running lanes (if you call it that) as there were NO real holes that gave him room to break any long runs. As soon as he would get to the line, he'd have to juke right or left immediate just to get by. He'd get a few more steps and have to do the same thing - he couldn't just HIT the HOLE and GO. Darby is one of the (if not THE) most talented backs in the SEC... and if he's having trouble getting yards, then you KNOW it's not his fault. The OL just really must get better.

I know Closner went down early in the game, but this has been going on for weeks now. I guess it's just youth - that's all I can think of. It's not Bob Connelly, people. The OL stinks it up and people automatically want to get rid of the coach. Connelly is a good coach. I know him, and knows what he's doing. So it really leads me to believe that it's the youth on this line - which isn't really a farfetched idea, ya know? Now that we have lost Closner, we just got younger (as Shula has said time and time again). So stop the stupid coach bashing, people. So many people were trying to get rid of Kines a couple of years ago too, and now look at him. All of a sudden he's a genius?? No. He just got players that grew up and learned the system and are now SENIORS. This OL will get better over time, and even though we don't have a lot of time, we just have to do the best with what we have right now. Incoming freshmen David Ross, Alex Stadler, Taylor Pharr, and hopefully Andre Smith, will help stablize this group in the upcoming years....

So anyway, we did what we had to do to win, and even though the Offense didn't score 6, they still moved the ball, and hopefully, in the next 2-3 games, Bama can move the ball ALL THE WAY across the goal line. Remember, we have a senior QB back there (not Pennington or Guillon), so we ALWAYS have a chance. He has won the last 10 games or so that he has started, so he's doing something right... and we don't have any reason to turn our backs on him or the offense now. When the offense is struggling, the defense will pick it up, which is just what happened Saturday. GRADE: C

DEFENSE - The defense basically played lights-out. The didn't allow MSU to score, which is all you can honestly ask for (besides the offense scoring at least a FG to win). MSU only got 103 yards on the day, and Norwood was held in check all day. We got a lot of turnovers and even converted one interception to a TD. Griffin got the no-look catch!! I have never seen that before. He's just running along with his arms outstretched, then all of a sudden he FEELS the ball in his arms, looks down, and realizes the ball was thrown right to him so he figures, "Hey, take it to the zone".... so he did. Wild play. That may be the first defensive touchdown on the year from what I remember.

Roach had the hit of the day. I felt it all the way here in Dallas when he nailed that guy after he caught the ball. Wow! And Simpson got a pick as well. Nice tip at the line. And then one of the best interceptions I have ever seen was the Castille interception. I couldn't believe the concentration on the ball to catch it as it was going away from him... to reach out like that and just snag it out of the air - what a play!! I'm glad we have him for 2 more years. He'll be up for the Thorpe award for sure by the time he graduates. So good game defense.... no points, plenty of turnovers, a score... and a boost to the scoring defense category in the NCAA overall stats. Guys, you are now the #1 SCORING DEFENSE IN AMERICA. And honestly, that's the one that matters, cuz in the end, yards don't matter - the score does. Great job. GRADE: A+

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams played well and didn't lose us the game. Christensen missed another FG, but hey, cut him some slack - he won Ole Miss and UT by himself practically. A missed FG in a game where it wasn't mandatory, is ok for now. He'll get better. But he did hit one, and also his PATs.

On returns, we just don't do much. Brandon Brooks is BLIND I tell ya. How do you run back a kickoff (not a punt) and run smack into a guy coming down the field, only to barely hold on to the ball cuz you got whacked so hard? That doesn't seem too bright, ya know? Man, I miss Pro.

On kick coverage, you know the story - Jimmy Johns goes down the field to put a serious lick on Pegues and he fumbled, allowing Matt Miller who was in the right place at the right time, a chance to pick up the fumble and score 6 for the Tide on special teams. It was a great play, and one that earned him the Pontiac Game Changing performance nomination (and hopefully another Bama win). They scored, and so did the defense. So with them making the play that really changed the MO in this game, they get a good grade. Who knows what happens if we don't get that quick opening score to start the 2nd half. Also, good kick coverage on the other kicks in the game. We played good here. GRADE: A

OVERALL - Overall, we played well in 2 of the 3 phases of the game. The offense played well minus the interceptions, but just needed to put more points on the board. We have to fix this and pronto. No if's, and's, or but's. But a good overall performance... a shutout no less, and we still dominated all the stats... the score just didn't show it. I wish there was a way to actually REJECT College Gameday from coming to T-town this weekend. Bama's 0-3 when they visit - maybe that's why they're showing up, huh? So anyway, good game, Bama. Good shutout, and way to win regardless of how crappy the refs were.

Oh yeah - the refs. :) I haven't heard anything, but those refs should be seriously fined or suspended from the rest of the games this year. The whole game was just chopped up. Penalties here and there... timeouts here and there... instant replay here and there... injuries here and there... refs trying to spot the ball.... it's like the 1st half didn't even want to end. It was in-freakin'-sane!!! The play that pissed me off the most was the QB "sack" we got on MSU. I mean, seriously, what the crap was THAT?????? There was no sack. The defender hit the QB, he threw the ball backwards, and Ryans had a TD taken away from him. Who makes those kinds of stupid mistakes??? You can't call a guy down the instant he is hit - ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN AFTER HE IS HIT, and it did!! The perfect example is the option QB... the QB runs horizontally and a defender hits him but before the QB hits the ground, he pitches the ball a split-second after he's hit... the RB now has the ball and the play continues. This was NO DIFFERENT... only the stupid refs called him down!! That should have been another 7 points for Bama. 24-0. Then the stupid spot of the FUMBLE by Croyle (which can only be advanced by himself????) happened AHEAD of the 1st down marker - instead, they marked him down prior to the line - maybe where Darby actually caught the ball? Based on the rule, those idiots placed the ball 1-2 yards back from where it was supposed to be. Another Bama 3 points minimum that was taken away. We were driving... so it could have been more. Make it 27-0 or 31-0. So as you can see, the score SHOULD have been more respectable... and definitely would have helped us in the polls this week. Fortunately, Bama's still ahead of Miami, and with wins over LSU and Auburn and SECC game, we'll stay ahead of the Canes for sure since the computers will see our strength of schedule increase. Unless the Coaches vote Miami ahead of Bama, we should still solify the 3rd spot. We just need to keep winning - that's all... everything else should fall into place.

Ok, there were more idiot calls out there, but those 2 were the biggest as they resulted in Bama not coming away with points... something we actually earned, but was taken away. So we won, and we're 9-0, something only 2 other teams in the land can claim. And one of those 2 teams still needs to lose if we're gonna get a shot in the National Championship race. Let's go Bama.... bring it home next week... May the curse of Corso be gone this year!!!!! ROLL TIDE! GRADE: B+

#5 BAMA 35 - UTAH STATE 3

I have to make this take quick...... so here goes........

OFFENSE - Offense showed up early but stagnated after the 2-TD lead. Good effort from Hall to get the TD, but fumbled in the endzone resulting in a touchback - sound familiar?? Only for Bama, it didn't cost us the game. A TD there makes the score something like 42-3 which is still impressive considering the backups played the 4th quarter on. Hopefully some of the WRs got playing time that will benefit us in upcoming games. We have had too many drops here lately and need to get better if we want to beat the big dogs. GRADE: A-

DEFENSE - The defense gave up a lot of yards to a lot lower-tier team. Surprising actually, but again we held them to no touchdowns, which is key. The last few games, the defense has really stiffled the offense, and Saturday was no different. We're not a fraction of a point behind Virginia Tech in scoring defense now, and Auburn's right behind us. I would have loved to see Harper take that interception to the house, but hey, at least he got the turnover which keeps the turnover streak alive. Good game guys - now comes the stretch run. Keep it up! GRADE: A

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams played decent. We experimented with return guys having 2 guys back instead of one. Maybe the coaches can get this solidified to work well for us since Pro can't return punts for us anymore. It's like no one can really step it up in this area. Everyone's afraid of getting hit I guess - and I don't blame them. That's one position where you can literally get steamrolled. "Money" missed a FG of shorter distance, but maybe he only misses when the game isn't on the line - who knows. I'll forgive Christensen for missing that FG though - he hit 2 big 'uns earlier against UT and Ole Miss. Without him, we may lose one or both of those games, so he's still ok in my book. Still needs to get better though - and be more consistent. Return game could also use some more work. We need someone to be a playmaker here, and no one has stepped up. GRADE: B+

OVERALL - Overall, good work by the coaches to get enough lead to get in the 2nd-teamers. Those guys really needed some playing time. Even Wilson was able to show his stuff a little. He actually made some good passes that the WRs dropped. His first drive should have lasted longer, but we couldn't hang on to the ball. I understand Shula leaving in Brodie to play for the 3rd quarter when the game has been won - but it's definitely apparent that this team needs the practice to get ready for the final 3 games of the regular season. The WRs needed the boost as well. Plus, it's not like we were very much ahead at that time - though it's pretty inconceivable that USU would even score enough to beat us at that point. But at this point of the season, Bama still needs style points. Winning 21-10 against Utah State still doesn't look impressive, and a lot of times, voters don't know what happens in a game... whether starters were pulled early, whether or not the 2nd string D was pulled and scored against.... so it was actually a good move to at least put a decent score on the scoreboard - because right now, Bama needs all the style points it can get with UT and USC being so dominating in their games right now.

But anyway, it was a good win, and Shula is now 8-0 on the year with a #4 ranking. Year #3 seems to be good years for Bama coaches, and this year is no exception. I bet Fran wishes he would have stayed at Bama now. Idiot. As for Bama, low # of penalties which was good to see, and Darby had a good day. I know it was a minor injury, but I hope that cut doesn't open up on Brodie in the weeks to come.... but he should be ok. We came outta there with a win, and the Bama nation couldn't be happier right now (unless you throw in a healthy Prothro). Good game, guys. GRADE: A

#5 BAMA 6 - #17 TENNESSEE 3

Sorry for the late take this week.... travelled Sunday, slept all day Monday, etc etc etc..... anyway, WHAT A FREAKIN' GAME!! Unbelieveable! I was in the upper deck and that place was rumblin' there at the end of the game. It wasn't as loud DURING the whole game like Florida, but that's because there weren't a lot of big plays on offense... more moans and groans due to lack of offense, but the BIGGEST cheers of the game were when UT was on offense on our side of the field... And when Harper caused that fumble, the place blew up... then when we caught that 43 yard bomb, the place blew up... and when we nailed that FG, well, the place freakin' exploded. THEN, after the band finished the fight song after the game, the LOUDEST (EVER) singing of RAMMER JAMMER could have been heard for blocks and blocks and blocks! WHOA! I listened to it on the TV replay once I finally was able to watch it, and I was like "Whoa!" THAT's loud! But even being there, you could feel that it had never been cheered that loud before. Amazing game.... and one that the fans really NEEDED after everything that has happened to Bama in recent years. The score wasn't great, but the outcome couldn't have been any better. ROLL TIDE!

OFFENSE - Offense? What offense? There was none - on EITHER team. This was a game that Coach Bryant and Coach Stallings would love.... as Stallings actually had one of these against UT in 1990. I was at that game in Knoxville as that was my first year with the Million Dollar Band. We went up to Knoxville huge double-digit underdogs with UT averaging 42 ppg and Bama unranked. Bama won 3-FG's to 2. 9-6. That day Phillip Doyle was the hero.

But this past Saturday, it was one FG less for each team, and it was a struggle just to get points as Bama put the first points of the day on the board on the last play of the 3rd quarter. Talk about a boring game, but one where you love the outcome - this was it. Anyway, the Bama offense played THE toughest defense we will have played all year, in my opinion. UT's front 4/7 are simply incredible. The difference in the game was Bama's offense vs UT's offense because both Defenses played lights out. Bama only gained 67 yards on the ground and 190 in the air.... the lowest totals of the year. BUT the difference is that Bama didn't turn the ball over 4 times. That was the key. We didn't shoot ourselves in the foot. We just kept pounding and pounding until we finally got something going. Good thing for Bama that thing got going on the last drive of the game. The 43-yd pass to D.J. put the Tide on the front doorstep, and then the huge runs by Darby got us in better FG position for Christensen to punch it through.

But as the last 3 games have gone by, Bama's offense has become extinct. Maybe it's due to playing better defenses... or it could be due to the lack of Prothro. Maybe he's being sorely missed more than most poeple would want to believe. In my opinion, there's only ONE person Bama couldn't afford to lose - that's Brodie Croyle. Losing Prothro was the next worst thing to lose. Now, maybe people will realize that. I have had a couple of people say that Prothro doesn't make the team... and I agree...... BUT he plays a HUGE part in it, whether you believe it or not. He's Bama's #1 WR. He's Bama's #1 Punt returner. He's Bama's #1 Kick returner. He's Bama's #2 QB (for lack of a better term) on special plays. He's another serious threat at RB. He makes catches you've never seen before. He's Bama's deep threat. HE IS BAMA'S PLAYMAKER, PERIOD. With him, Bama seems simply unstoppable. Without him, Bama is beatable, but not as beatable as if Croyle was hurt. That's the reason we're squeaking by here lately. We have lost a TON of yards with him. Think of the SURENESS we have of catching punts (minus a fumble against UF); think of the big returns on kickoffs; think of the sure hands we need when Bama needs a big catch; think of Prothro when we need him most, and he's there to do something spectacular. You don't realize it, but those yards he gets on kick returns play a HUGE part on how Bama does on drives. He gets the ball out to the 30 or 40 yard line while other guys barely make it to the 20. That's huge field position. And think of the balls we dropped Saturday and last week against Ole Miss. That doesn't normally happen with him... and drives stay alive. Instead, you have seen a ton more Bama punts. So now, Bama has to step it up, something they have said they had to do since Pro went down, and it has yet to happen. Why? Because guys can only play as good as their ability. And for now, we have to live with the fact that our WRs CAN make plays, but won't make them as consistently as we need. I still think Bama will lose one more game this year due to this fact. I don't know which one, but one of them - either LSU or Auburn - though Bama CAN win both, it will be much tougher.

Sooooooooooooo, back to the game.... Bama had a few oppotunities to get way ahead, but overshot the WR's. The fans know it, Brodie knows it. He missed 4 passes that could have gone for a TD or big yards. BUT he hit one of them that mattered on the last drive, and that's what helped win the game. If Brodie doesn't hit that pass, then Bama punts, and UT gets the ball back with plenty of time to move it themselves into FG position and for the possible win. Then we'd be singing a different story at 6-1 on the year and a less than #10 ranking in the polls.... and UT getting the best of us yet again. Those passes Brodie missed were HUGE, and it definitely shouldn't come down to a FG if at all possible - but Bama did what it had to do, got a little lucky, but played lights out on D to win it. The offense needs help, bigtime right now. Even against Ole Miss, we couldn't muster up much. Whatever it is we need to do, we need to do it soon. LSU and Auburn are right around the corner. On another note, Brodie needs one more completion to tie Jay Barker for most completions in a row without an interception. Grade: C

DEFENSE - The defense is the MVP for Bama this year. Period. Just when you think it's over, Bama's defense puts an exclamation mark on something or someone. Wow. What a lick by the freight train they call Harper. To knock that ball out of Anderson's hands and have it explode out of the end zone just shows you the heart and soul and effort that this team exudes. The guy I was sitting beside kept telling me (when UT was on the front door with under 9 minutes left) that we might as well count this as a loss... just give them a TD, it's over. Give them 3, it's over too because we can't score, and there's nothing we can do at this point. I was like "Don't EVER give a team points until that stupid ball is either (a) in the end zone or (b) kicked thru those FG posts. I told him that on the long 1st down run by Riggs, ... the next 1st down... then on 2nd down after we stopped them... then on 3rd down..... After Harper caused the fumble for the touchback, we were hugging and yelling Roll Tide like everyone else there, and I told him one more time in his ear as we were going bizerk, "FROM NOW ON, DON'T EVER GIVE THE OTHER TEAM POINTS BEFORE THEY PUT THAT BALL THRU THE UPRIGHTS OR IN THE END ZONE... THEY HAVE TO EARN IT BEFORE YOU GIVE IT TO THEM." Let that be a lesson to all you doubters. They don't get points until THEY GET POINTS. Period.

So what can you say about the defense? It was a huge victory, and hats off to the D for causing 3 turnovers and then the 4th (interception by Ryans) to close out the game. Bama made plays, and that's the difference. UT didn't just fumble the ball - Bama caused them. So basing on what we have seen this year, this definitely could resemble the defense of 1992. These guys are for real. UT/UF have combined for 6 points. Wow! And Harper made the freakin' play of the year. UT gets in the end zone, and Bama is forced to match it or better, which they might have done.... but that's something we'll never know because why? The Bama defense happened. Nuff Said. GRADE: A+

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams had its ups and down, but ultimately, the 2 FG's by Christensen won the game for the Tide. Schatz had a huge punt when we really needed one, but the fumbles by Hall on punt returns really messed with our heads. This is where we probably miss Prothro the most - on punt/kick returns. Cuz everyone in that stadium can do nothing but hold their breath when anyone else is back there. But when Pro IS in there, we automatically change modes and start thinking, "Hey, Bama can score here if Prothro takes it to the house." But instead, I'm up in the upper deck saying to just rush all 11 guys and go for the block and don't worry about the return.... we're so freakin' fumble-prone back there without Pro. Anyway, we got 6 on FG's and that trumps anything else wrong on special teams this week. Without those kicks, well, it's UT 3, Bama 0. Instead, Rammer Jammer filled the entire University campus and we had the most incredible finish to a Bama game in years. ROLL TIDE!GRADE: A

OVERALL - Ok, check this out... at the end of the game, the press interviews players and coaches, and obviously, UT is STILL delusional. Does Phat Phil brainwash these suckers during halftime and at the end of the game or something? I just don't get it. All they could say is that "We beat ourselves". Check this out...

"We just beat ourselves," said Clausen, "That's it. We moved the football well, but we turned it over twice inside the 10-yard line. We beat ourselves tonight."

"Knowing that a team is better than you and they beat you, you can live with that," Tennessee receiver Jayson Swain said. "We just beat ourselves."

I'm sorry, but I know when a team beats themselves what that involves... and UT didn't beat themselves. BAMA BEAT TENNESSEE. Jayson Swain is totally brainwashed. I mean, what the crap? "Knowing that a team is better than you and they beat you, you can live with that.."??????????????? Are you kidding me???? If you were sooooo much better, then why could you guys not put the ball in the end zone. You have to give credit where credit is due, and saying you beat yourselves is just an excuse for Bama whipping your butt. ha ha UT didn't just DROP the ball inside the 10 the first time - Peprah reached in there and yanked it out, and OUR guy fell on it. Doesn't sound like you "beat yourself" there, does it? When Anderson and UT had the perfect play called (the screen pass) to go in for the go-ahead touchdown, Anderson didn't just drop the ball or throw it into the end zone - THAT would be beating yourselves. Instead, a freight trained called Roman Harper nailed the crap out of him and caused Anderson to lose his grip on the ball (I mean, who COULD hang on to a ball when it's been jabbed like that with a helmet??) and thus a touchback as it sailed out of the back of the end zone. I don't see anyone beating themselves there either. We CAUSED those things to happen, and because you guys didn't do that to us, we were able to make more plays, and frankly, we should have but WE BEAT OURSELVES in the offensive game by overthrowing WR's and dropping passes. There's a difference there, ya see, Vol fans? See the difference, UT Football players? You really didn't beat yourselves - WE beat you. So don't be so down on yourselves. You have never played a defense quite so good, so what do you expect? Just don't go around saying we're not that good, and that you beat yourselves cuz that just ain't right. Ain't nothing farther from the truth. If you Bama doesn't make those plays and get those turnovers, UT wins. So based on fact, UT lost because WE BEAT THEM. Period. Dang.... get it straight.

Ok, I'll hop off that soapbox for now. Swain just got the best of me with those lame comments that Fulmer obviously told his team since that's all they had to say. "We beat ourselves." Puuulease, people. But Coach Shula had a good gameplan, but it just didn't get executed like he would have wanted. We missed some passes that would have honestly put the game out of reach, and we dropped some passes. The running game was pretty lame mainly due to the experience of UT's defensive front. They were a bunch of hosses. We couldn't find a lane all day long. No gaps or anything. But Shula made the call to go for a long one on 3rd and 8 and it paid off. We HAD to get something eventually. Bama has been hitting long passes all season and we had yet to complete one the whole game against UT. We were due... then Hall happened. 43-yard gain, and the rest is history. Bama wins it 6-3 in one of the most amazing defensive games I have EVER seen. Bama keeps the #5 spot in the BCS, and UT goes home along I-65, also known as the "Trail of 'Tears"... enjoy the hike, Volfans, because as you might have seen Saturday, Bama is Back! Maybe not in full force without Pro, but we're here to stay, so get ready for another 10 years of losing to the Tide. Going against one of the best defenses in the country is no easy feat, but Bama did what it had to do to win the game. I'll take it and enjoy it for another full year. ROLL TIDE!! GRADE: B+

#6 BAMA 13 - OLE MISS 10

Wow. I was off with my prediction this past week. Obviously, either Ole Miss is better than advertised, or Bama's got some problems after the absence of Prothro. I hope Ole Miss was just that good.... maybe Bama was just having a bad day. Let's hope. Anyone that thought I was crazy for saying Bama would be a different team without Pro - I rest my case. Now shut it. His play-making ability was missed on special teams bigtime not to mention playing at WR... even if his trick plays don't work, his ~150 yards of all-purpose yards he gives the Tide are SORELY MISSED, no matter how you look at it. Period.

Maybe we were just working out some kinks after the off-week in preparation for UT - I don't know. And maybe UT will come out flat like we did Saturday. We shall see..... in the meantime, let's take a quick look at the Ole Miss game...

OFFENSE - The offense was anemic in this game. We had a great first drive, but ended up eating dirt on 3rd/4th down to turn the ball over on downs. What a crap-o-la piece of crap that was. Given the fact that Bama has a good defense, either call would have been good, though I was honestly wanting to kick a FG and get points to start out the game.... Going for it showed faith in the Tide to get a foot... kicking a FG would get points. If we kick a FG, we never know what woulda happened on 4th down. Now we do, and NOW maybe some people will realize why you get points early in the game. You might need 'em later. But given the fact that we get that foot more often than not, it was still a good call. Hindsight speaks differently of course.

As for the rest of the game, we made a lot of good catches, especially Keith Brown. Some unbelieveable catches at that. But the problem was that we couldn't string them together until the very last drive of the game, when we HAD to have it. Darby had his one long TD run on the day - we might have gotten a little lucky there because they weren't giving us jack squat all day. Brodie had a mediocre day... good yards, but no TD... BUT he did make some crucial plays in the last drive, not to mention that HUGE long run to keep the drive alive. Wow! He's one tough cookie. Of course, everyone holds their breath when he does something like that. Good thing BOTH his knees are shot, right? Now we just have to worry about ankles.

Darby got his 100 yards on the day, and the backs made some good blocks and Darby made a HUGE final rush on the play just before the FG. What a huge boost for that FG attempt to get that much closer. Wow. Great game Darby. They didn't give you much, but you still got your 100.

As for D.J. Hall, hopefully he'll be ok. We have already lost Pro, and we don't need to lose another go-to WR. When you have white boy Matt Miller running deep routes, you know you're digging deep. :) But give it to Matt, he made a huge play on the last drive, not to mention a perfect hold on the kick. Great job Matt. Now we just have to figure out what our problem was. What was it that kept us from getting in the end zone more. Why did we have so many drives die on us? Well, my best guess is the OL collapsed at times and didn't really give Darby much room to run. He got 100, but 48 of those came on one play. So the OL needs to improve next week for sure. They struggled and the Bama offensive output showed it. If we had played UT this past weekend, we might have lost the game. Ole Miss just wasn't quite good enough to finish the game. UT would have been... or would have been close. So an ok game... we won, which is what matters, but 13 points won't win a lot of ballgames for you. The Bama offense's goal is 24, and we barely got 1/2 that. Time to step up and be a contender. Playing like Saturday again won't cut it the rest of the way, except against Utah State maybe. GRADE: C

DEFENSE - This game reminded me so much of last year. Offense was lacking, so it was up to the defense to do something. They only allowed 10 pts. 10 points, people. That's STILL great! Bama SHOULD be able to score 10 measly points on any given Saturday. That's a freakin' TD and FG. Not difficult.... or at least it shouldn't be. Thank goodness we have a top-5 rated D who has a scoring defensive average of 11 points. But just when you thought Ole Miss was about to do something, they stepped up, though some luck was involved. Ole Miss's FG kicker missed one FG and then Bama special teams blocked another. Those were obviously huge. But Bama also missed a FG earlier. So anyway, turnovers were key, and Bama got a couple... the fumble Ryans caused was obviously the biggest one since they had just made a huge catch to move inside the 20... then Peprah jumped on the loose ball. Great play. You couldn't ask the D to do much else besides a shutout, which is near impossible, though I DID call for the shutout Saturday.

I'll say this though about Spurlock. Watch him again and check out his throwing motion. It's whack, man. Whack. Most QB's have a wind-up or something... you rear your arm and have a "throwing motion" so to say. Man, it's sooo hard to defend against Spurlock because he gives NO hint of where the ball is going except for his eyes.... because when it's time to actually throw the ball, man, that thing comes outta there in a hurry. Not much of a windup - he just cocks and BOOM! And he has such good velocity on the ball. I'm surprised Ole Miss isn't doing better because that's really tough to defend. And in the upcoming years, look out for that freshman RB they have. He was good..... BUT Bama prevailed in the end, and we did just enough to win a close one. So great game guys. You kept us in the game, you didn't give up, and without you, Bama is 5-1. Bend but don't break... that's exactly what we did. GRADE: A

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special Teams was the story of the day. Not since Bama kicked a FG against UT in 1990 has Bama kicked one at the buzzer to win. By the way, I was at that game in Knoxville in my freshman year in the Million Dollar Band. Very cool to see Doyle kick the winner. But Christensen is the talk of the town (or T-town) this week. He's the hero, and an unlikely one at that. Who woulda thought it would come down to a freakin' FG to win it? Wow! Bama was a 13-point favorite, remember. And we just killed Florida. Hopefully, this whole game was a bunch of rust we just decided to shake off in preparation for Tennessee.

As for the coverage, punt coverage and kick coverage was the best I've seen all year actually. We were right ON the ball. Schatz had a mediocre day though, but with limited return yards, his net was actually good. The Christensen went 2 for 3 on FG's and hit his PAT. Great job.

On Bama's returns, we need more, but I'm just ecstatic that Brooks didn't fumble - that was my ONLY concern. Just catch the ball and don't drop it. I'll be happy with a 5-yd loss - just don't fumble. And he didn't. Whew. We may expect the same for the UT game... so bring some tums; it could get dicey Saturday awaiting punt returns by Brooks. And then the kickoff returns: This is where Pro would have given us more. He just has this vision that a lot of other players just don't have... plus he's faster than Brooks. We didn't get back to the 20 once, and there's just no shiftiness in Brooks' running, so he's easy to tackle. And if he does shift, he's likely to fumble - so Pro is definitely missed on kickoff returns bigtime. He makes things happen. So give special teams some slack. They played well even with new players and when it came time for a game-winning kick, Bama got the job done and blocked another when they had to. Talk about 2 huge plays. Great job guys. Now if we get the offense on track, we'll have a complete team again. GRADE: A

OVERALL - Overall, the team is overshadowed by the lack of offense in the game. The defense played great, allowing only 10 points, and special teams played lights out minus the one missed FG. But the offense is generally what people look at - they're the ones that put points on the board. Coach got the players to keep their composure at halftime, then got the lead again in the 3rd quarter, and didn't allow a 3rd quarter point, though the very next play from scrimmage in the 4th quarter was a FG. We got the job done. We won 13-10. We didn't lose, so all is not lost. We still moved up to 5th in the polls, so people still KNOW Bama is back, as long as we don't choke in a game we're supposed to win/dominate. With that, Bama stays in the hunt for the SEC Championship and a National Championship. Of course we need some help like we did from Virginia Saturday night who knocked off #4 FSU. Va Tech will lose eventually, having to play Miami and also in a possible ACC championship game. Bama/UGA will play out - that leaves Texas and USC. USC almost ate it... still might, but our only other hope is Texas Tech this weekend. Should Texas win this weekend, Texas will run the table and it will all depend on USC. Not good odds if you ask me - even for Georgia should they win out. But for this game, we won. It was U-G-L-Y, and we had WAY too many penalties on special teams and offense. Pre-snap penalties MUST go away. The refs were quick, but 2 delay of games?? Ouch. At least Ole Miss did it twice in a row to help us out. But false starts and illegal motion penalties are killing us... not to mention holding. Coach? Whatcha gonna do? Time to do something there because we're shooting ourselves in the foot. Special teams? Blocks in the back are ILLEGAL - SO STOP. It's EASY NOT TO DO. Dang. Now, Beat UT. Bama's 6-0, and I'm glad we're bowl-bound so early in the season. ROLL TIDE! GRADE: B-

#15 BAMA 31 - #5 FLORIDA 3

Wow! What an incredible game Saturday! If you're part of the Bama Nation, you're feeling pretty good. If you're part of the gator chompers club, you have to be asking yourself... "hmmmm.... is this spread option a gimmick offense or what??" It has a lot of hype, but so far, it doesn't look like it's going to fair too well in the power SEC unless Meyer gets a QB in there that can actually run the ball... and LIKES to run the ball. Leak is a pocket passer and didn't look comfortable in the offense. Forget the fact that he sliced and diced POWERHOUSE KENTUCKY the week before - they're a basketball school, people. They don't even know what a football looks like... so ask yourself this - is Bama really this good, or is Florida really that bad, at least with that offense? It could be a little of both.... let's take a look...

OFFENSE - Bama's offense came right out of the gate and BOOM, 7-0. We get the ball back after a quick turnover, BOOM, 14-0. Another stop, then BOOM, 17-0. After 5 minutes were up in the very first quarter, Bama was already up 2 TD's, quite a feat in itself for ANY team to comeback from 2 TD's down on our defense, but we just kept piling it up. Darby was on... Prothro was on, Brown was on... and more importantly Brodie was on. On FIRE. 15-18 on the day with 3 TDs put him as Alabama's all-time Touchdown leader, beating out Shula and Zow. Congratulations!

But the game never really was in jepardy in hindsight. I had a good feeling about the game, but didn't realize we'd completely shut them down. This begs the question still - is UF really that bad or is Bama that good? I think UF is good, but in that offense against a good defense (see Bama and UT so far), they will not succeed. Against the cupcakes of the conference, they'll glide by. Even Georgia will probably smoke 'em. But that's another day. On Saturday, Bama ripped Florida a new one, and on 2 drives, Bama only needed one play to get the touchdown.... one, an 87-yd strike to Prothro on the first offensive play of the day for Bama, and two, a quick slant to Keith Brown for 65 yards and a score. Wow - did you see the jets on Brown? He really showed off his speed along with DJ Hall from last week's game against Arkansas. These guys are fast, people. Very Fast - no way they would have ever caught Brown.

Then add in a perfect strike to Prothro in the first drive of the 3rd quarter, and man... everything was clicking. Talk about making a statement to open the 2nd half. A lot of teams come out conservative, and actually play flat - Bama, well, they came out with all cylinders pumping, and took every ounce of life out of the Gators on that score. UF knew it was over then... it was just a matter of time. Darby had a good day, and it could have been worse no thanks to un-needed penalties. He ended up with 101 yards on the day and enough moves to drive the D totally insane. A juke here, a spin there, and "see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya" move... just left the defense in the dust on so many plays. I would NOT want to have to tackle this guy in the open field. Wow. He's like Barry Sanders the way he moves, and then his speed on top of that. Incredible. We also got Coffee and Johns in the game so they were able to get a few carries. Johns should have bullied his way for another foot at the end of the game to keep the Bama drive alive. Even though the game was well in hand, and "over", Shula still wants the very best out of his 2nd and 3rd teamers. He doesn't want the guys to slack off just because they're in there for mop-up duty. I agree with Shula on that as it will help those guys down the road. I don't for one second believe he was being greedy or running up the score. He's just not that way. There have been plenty of times where we were on the front porch and he downed the ball in the waning minutes of the game instead of getting points.... but our backups do need more reps and should get all they can when they're in there.

The OL was simply incredible. They totally man-handled the upperclassmen Defensive Line of Florida. Made them look like high schoolers practically. I could have run thru a lot of those holes Saturday. Darby had it made. And Brodie was protected for the entire night. Brodie did get sacked twice, but those were more coverage sacks, so the Bama offense did their job - and they did it well.

The biggest disappointment of the night (season) was the season-ending injury to Tyrone Prothro. Aw man - how could this happen to the best playmaker on the team? Dang. That really hurt us a lot - more than some people may want to believe. Think of the mack-daddy plays he came up with in this game alone... plays that other guys almost definitely wouldn't be able to make because of his stop-on-a-dime moves when running routes, and then his sure-fire hands.... The huge 2nd and long play where he set the ball down.... the play where he tipped the pass to himself for the 1st down... the 87-yd TD to start the game.... the 65-yd punt return for a touchdown (which was called back, thanks Reamer!), and the 15-yd TD catch after being held at the line and then breaking free. Of course, he DID fumble the opening UF punt, but he more than made up the difference the rest of the way. Now, our backups CAN and WILL make plays, but you have to look at it this way - our top 3 guys are Prothro, Brown, and Hall at WR. Instead of the 2 other guys moving up, you look at it like, you keep those other 2 guys, and someone else actually REPLACES Prothro. Brown doesn't replace him. Hall doesn't replace him. Brown is just Brown. Hall is just Hall. Now, Knight will actually replace Prothro, and there you see the dilemma. Knight is no Prothro by any means, and that's where it will hurt. Prothro is a 10. Brown is an 8. Hall is an 8. Knight is a 6. Replacement here is like trading a 10 for a 6... just my opinion. So Knight (or whoever gets more reps now that Prothro is hurt) will have to step up his game bigtime. And we WILL have some dropoff on offensive production, but more than that special teams will really feel it. Of course, we don't know what the other guys can do except for Brooks (fumblitis). Hall might be the punt return guy, but the coaches will determine that by next week. But we definitely won't have a guy who can really make people miss and who is very shifty in his running... Mr. Dependable. Add in the fact that he has also been a RB, and taken snaps at QB, and we lost more than you realize.

BUT the good news is that it's NOT Brodie Croyle - the ONE guy we can ILL-AFFORD to lose, period. We can lose Darby. We can lose Prothro. We can lose Christensen. We can lose Closner. But if we lose Brodie, it's last year all over again, almost. Wilson hasn't done anything in real games yet except throw for 100% (3 for 3) and a TD, so he hasn't done anything bad... but he's still not Brodie, and as long as Brodie IS healthy, Bama has a fighting chance. Our defense is STILL OUR DEFENSE, and they are one of the best in the country, and WILL be better than every defense we play the rest of the way. Barring injuries, Darby is the best RB in the league... and Brown and Hall are making big play after big play. It's just that 3rd guy at WR is the question mark. With no Prothro, we lose a LOT of yardage and big plays. Think of all the all-purpose yards he brings to the table.

With that being said, not having Prothro might not be the end of the season for Bama, BUT it will cause one of two things to happen.... (1) Winning a few of the games left on the schedule (ie. UT/LSU/AU) will be slightly more difficult - let's face it, his presence is huge for us.... OR (2) we'll actually lose 1-2 games because we don't make plays that we normally would have made should Prothro have been in there. It's one of the two because it definitely won't be EASIER to win games. So we'll continue to win games, but minus a TD or two... or we'll actually fall short in the win column. I honestly hope it's just winning by slimmer margins, but something in my gut tells me, we could lose one game due to him being out the rest of the way... and that just sux. But we have to count our blessings - Brodie is still 100% healthy (knock on wood), and HE, people..... HE is the key to Bama having success this year. Prothro was the icing. But without a QB to get him the ball (and everyone else), we're headed back to last year. So be glad it was Prothro and not Croyle. And be happy it was a compound break in his leg.... those things heal better than anything actually (if I remember correctly), and remember, he's only a Junior, so our Superman will be back next season for his senior year. I can't wait to see him in action again... as it stands now, he MIGHT be able to do some work in spring practice as he had successful surgery Saturday night... but only time will actually tell how he'll respond while the healing process continues. Here's to Prothro, Bama Nation..... here here....

So anyway, to sum it up, Bama sliced and diced the "#1 SEC Defense" into shreads. No if's, and's or but's. They couldn't stop us, and if we played again, the results would be very similar. Something tells me we won't be seeing UF in the SECC Game should we make it there. UT or UGA could be on that plate.....

So, great passing game, good running game, incredible catches by the WRs, great blocking by the OL, and Brodie had a whale of a day at QB.... this was Bama's best day since Shula was here, and against some "good" competition. No doubt about it, Bama IS the team to beat in the SEC right now. A freak fumble by McClain knocks the perfect A+ to an A for the week. Great job guys! GRADE: A

DEFENSE - What can you say about the ex-#2 defense in the SEC? Yeah, ex-#2. Because now, Bama is back where they belong - #1 in the SEC. Like I said in my prediction, UF has yet to be tested, and it showed on Saturday. UT wasn't even clicking, and the only other teams to test UF was UK and some cupcakes. Are you kidding me?? No wonder they have done so well. We have played Arkansas, Spurrier's gamecocks, and USM, who is never a pushover. And what happened?? Well, Arkansas made a better showing than UF. What does that say about the "gimmick spreak option" offense? It won't survive, and neither will Urban Meyer unless he changes it up. I honestly don't see how they beat UT - UT was just in disarray I guess, having 2 QB's and all. If UT/UF played again, UT would probably win now. And both of them suck. :)

But the D-Line was all over Leak all day long.... and the LB's had him fooled most of the day, showing blitz then falling back into coverage. He didn't know if we were coming or going... when he finally figured it out, he was on his back. Then throw in the fact that he hadn't thrown an interception all year, but had thrown 9 TD's... hello, people? Again, who did they play?? Cupcakes. Now that they have played a QUALITY defense/team, now they know how they stack up with the Big Boys. Yes, Bama is in the class of Big Boys now. Our play is doing the talking nowadays.... and the national ranking is just a sign of what's to come.

The 2ndary was all over the WR's too, as they bent but didn't break all day. And just when UF thought they were going to get in the end zone, Harper came up with a great tackle at the 1. When the 2nd quarter started, it was 4th and 1, and UF got stuffed at the line only to turn the ball over on downs. Meyer will learn to get points especially when on the road. Instead, he settled for 3 points on the day and the first time the gators haven't gotten a TD since 1992. Wow. Can you say O-V-E-R-R-A-T-E-D??? Unless Leak gets to be like Vince Young and can actually run the ball, UF is headed down a path that most UF fans have already seen... get fireurbanmeyer.com ready because it won't be long now till the gator faithful start unleashing darts at the new Florida coach.

Back to Bama's stifling Defense, they made play after play after play. One of the best plays of the day was Peprah's tackle on the option that came his way. One of the WR's blocked him, but he was able to get away and get just enough of the RB to take him down before he got a big gainer. A missed tackle there and they were looking at another 1st down. Instead, no-can-do, baby.

Ryans was all over the place. He's going to make an NFL team very happy one day, that's for sure. And Roach made a lot of big plays as well as the stuffing on the goal-line stance. It was just an incredible showing by the Bama D. No TD's given up, and no points given up in the 3rd quarter for every game this season. There was no being lazy after halftime.... they kept up the pressure, and didn't break even once. Even at the beginning of the game when Prothro fumbled the punt, the D just stayed composed and gave UF another 3-and-out... all setting up that first play from scrimmage for the Tide. Just a great game all around by the defense. We might not have the best defense in the country stat-wise (currently), but what they do give us is a chance to win every single ball game left on the schedule. Great game guys - and thanks for ending the streak for Leak's non-interceptions. He wanted to beat Wuerfel's record, well, it didn't happen - not even close. He even threw us a bonus pick to Robinson to make his stats a little more "real" on the year at 9 TD's and 2 int's. That's much better.GRADE: A

SPECIAL TEAMS - The biggest blunder on the day was Reamers stupid block in the back on Prothro's punt return for touchdown. He had absolutely NOTHING to do with the play, yet he totally screwed Prothro out of a TD - a very hard-earned one at that. I don't know how you coach these things, but isn't the rule "if you see the guy's name on the back of his jersey, don't touch him"???? It's not rocket science people. I KNOW you want to hit somebody, but can you use a little freakin' common sense and NOT hit someone in the back. If you have to hit them in the back, more than likely they're probably already out of the play because they ran by everybody. If they were coming BACK to tackle a runner, then odds are (hello????) they are FACING you again. duh. So smack 'em then!! Now let's get our heads out of our butt and play like we know how to play. We've done this how many times now? No more stupid penalties. Reamer, learn from this one. Coulda been 38-3 and more than likely, our starters would NOT have been in the game on the drive where Prothro got hurt. Because all we needed was one more TD to "definitely" put the game away to let the reserves in. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Don't blame Prothro's injury on Shula - blame it on no-common-sense penalties. The score should have been much worse, thus lessening the chance our starters would have been out there with 10 minutes left to go.

As for place-kicking, great job. 1 for 1 on FG's, and Jamie hit all his PAT's. The best part of the day was coverage/tackling. Wow - Jeffery Dukes was all over the place. It's good to see true freshmen making such big-time tackles and playing smart. I like it, I love it, I want more of it, hoss. Great job. The only other blunder of the day was Prothro's fumble on the opening punt by UF. Well, needless to say, he put that behind him and erased that field position with his 87-yd TD. Easily forgivable. Reamer, you cost Special teams this week, and the posibility of Prothro not being in the game. Crap. What a huge loss we have because of that bone-headed play... yeah, plays cause chain reactions in events, and I believe that would have spared Prothro's season... but we'll never know. We just have to finish without him, and finish strong. GRADE: B

OVERALL - Overall, the Tide's best win in the entire Shula era thus far. Beating UT will definitely be bigger, but for now, Bama has beaten a top-5 team in Bryant-Denny (can we end all that stupid talk now??? All big game before were in Legion Field, so that stat is QUITE skewed), and we'll continue to do that in the years to come. UT will be top 10 at least, so we'll take care of them too. And if you want to call it a signature win for Shula, go ahead. They're all big when they're SEC games, but you KNOW for a fact that Shula had to be all smiles as he fell asleep that night. His demeanor in front of the press is very laid-back, but behind closed doors, he's giving shouts of glee like you wouldn't believe. Who wouldn't? Games like this is what keeps him coaching and not getting fired. Yes, he's ecstatic. So stop asking. Like I said, who wouldn't be??? You just gave a "genius" a butt-whippin' of a welcome to the SEC, Bama Style. Talk about making a statement, let's just say this -- BAMA. IS. BACK. PERIOD. GRADE: A

#20 BAMA 24 - ARKANSAS 13

Bama certainly didn't bring their A-game on Saturday, but we did enough to pull out a win against a better-than-expected Arkansas team. Anyone who thought Arkansas was going to fold just because they got blown out the week before, is clearly mistaken. Arkansas' defense always plays SEC games tough... forget USC... this is STILL Arkansas and they gave us all we could handle. We just lead in the most important stat of the game besides the score - TURNOVERS. That was the key. Everything else was nearly even, even though the rushing yards were quite skewed due to a 70-yd rushing TD. But Bama got it done and moved to 4-0.... this sets up a huge showdown next weekend against #5 Florida. Let's take a look at the Arkansas game.... and see what needs help.

OFFENSE - The Bama offense really couldn't get much going in this game, especially in the first half. Field position was very bad as Arkansas pinned Bama at the 1-yd line twice in the 1st half. How a punter gets that lucky is beyond me, but that's what happened. Brodie had a fair game, but give the Arkansas Defense credit - they came with a plan to force Brodie to make some quick throws, and they did just that at times, and they sacked him 3 times. The high winds at the game also didn't help the Tide as the running game had a hard time getting going. So it was a hit and miss game. Of course, Brodie DID have quite a few dropped passes that would have definitely changed the face of the game. Instead of first downs, we ended up with 3rd and longs, which caused a lot of 4th down plays that Bama couldn't convert. Hopefully we can fix these thing before next Saturday, but more than anything, I believe it was really the Hogs' D that caused so many problems.

At RB, we couldn't exactly find our gaps as well as we did at South Carolina. That's because the Hog defense is much better than S. Carolina. Carolina was weak. Nutt definitely had his team ready to play... just a couple more plays here or there, and Arkansas could have easily won this game. A FG instead of a TD on that last "easy" TD pass to DJ, then a TD at the end of the game for Arkansas could have easily spelled OT yet again.... so it was a lot closer than the score showed. But they did a job on Bama's running game, and actually had more total yards than Bama, thanks to a 70-yd TD run. But it's clear that the OL needs to clear some problems up with Florida looming near. Arkansas threw some stuff at the Tide that they hadn't seen before and that's only going to make us better. I look for definite improvement next week.

And then finally the TE. We finally threw the ball to Nick Walker. The first play of the game, there was no one near him.... not too odd though when you look at the stat book - he hadn't caught a pass all year. It ended up being a good gainer. He'd catch 3 on the day for 34 yards.... And D.J. Hall had a great catch and run for 46 yards and a TD... then the uncovered TD at the end of the game. In my book, easily the player of the game on offense. Darby ran hard, but D.J. made plays that got the Tide going.... But on the day, the offense struggled. We scored 24, which was the team's goal, but we just looked stagnant at times... penalties at costly moments really did in the Tide at times... so we have to clear those up. So a decent day - we did enough to win, and with the Senior maturity of Croyle, we came up big with the easy TD at the end. Good job. GRADE: B-

DEFENSE - The Bama D really came up big Saturday. We gave up a huge 70-yd rush for TD, but we stayed strong and kept the Hogs out of the end zone after Bama got its punt blocked deep in Hog territory. The D would limit the Hogs to a mere FG... a HUGE game-saver.

DeMeco Ryans was the man of the day having 15 total tackles and a fumble recovery. He made big hit after big hit, and is definitely the defensive player of the week for Alabama. Roach on the other hand, will get more ribbing this week after 2 definite interceptions were dropped by him, and another could have been picked off as well. He seems to be at the right place at the right time, but doesn't seem to haul them in - those are huge game-changers and he's got to start bringing those in!! Shula doesn't seem too concerned with it, but I'd guess that Freddie will get some of the JUGGS machine this week. That could be the difference between a win and a loss... not to mention such a huge momentum shifter.

The 2ndary did a nice job on the Hog WR's. They played some pretty tight coverage and didn't allow any big plays on the day though Roman Harper DID allow a Freshman RB to make a play on him and shove him out of the way en route to a 70-yd TD.... that usually won't happen, so we're lucky that in the end, it didn't come back and haunt us. Other than that, the D only gave up a couple of FG's and one was after a blocked punt - that was huge.... so kudos to the defense. They allowed 13 points, and it could have been a whole lot more. Forget the 300+ yards on the day... you can't hold everyone under 300, but you CAN hold them under the total number of points Bama's offense scores, and that's really the deciding factor in the game... Great job guys... GRADE: A

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special Teams did ok on the day except for the blocked punt. One of the hog blockers actually squeeked thru the middle and got a clear shot of Saxby... but I will have to say it looked like Saxby took forever to get the punt off, as he almost got the following punt blocked as well.... maybe he can speed up his kick in the following week...?? That should be looked at because it DOES look like he's punting in slow motion.

Christensen had a good game hitting a FG and nailing all of his PAT's. He did miss a long FG, but he also had a kick go into the end zone on a kickoff, and he didn't kick any out of bounds. The return game was average at best, but they didn't do anything to lose the game for us.... the biggest problem is the punt block, and that could have (should have) been a huge momentum change for the Hogs - we're just lucky our defense played as well as they did or Bama leaves Bryant-Denny at 3-1 and unranked. We can't have our punts blocked anymore - fix it quick. GRADE: C-

OVERALL - On the day, the coaching staff put together a game plan that helped the Tide win Arkansas for the first time in 3 years. But thanks to crappy field position, the score wasn't better for the Tide, but Shula and company did what they had to do to get the Tide in a position to win the game and they did just that. They need to look at the OL and punt protection this week for sure. Last, congrats to the staff regardless, for getting this team to 4-0. We're only 2 wins away from being bowl eligible, and the Tide doesn't look to stop there. Bama wants an SEC Championship, and for that to happen, Bama's going to have to make a statement this coming weekend. Correct these problems in the OL mainly, and the Tide has a good shot next week. But for the Hogs, given the field position, and the guys on defense making plays, we really pulled out a good win against yes, a quality team. Arkansas isn't a pushover.... we were a little lucky with this one. They gave us all we could handle. GRADE: B+

#24 BAMA 37 - SOUTH CAROLINA 14

Talk about a butt-kickin'. Wow. I always knew Bama had a shot at winning, but who'da thunk we'd stick it to 'em like that. This game reminded me so much of the very last game we played Spurrier in the 1999 SEC Championship Game. Only in that game, UF scored a TD first, then Bama started piling up the score after that, and UF didn't score another time. Final score 34-7. And it could have easily been more than 37 for us, and only 7 for S. Carolina. Kines put in the 2nd/3rd stringers at the end of the game, so we ended up giving up 7 more points to our scoring defense stats. Oh well. Better that, than being on the losing end, right?

And as for me picking S. Carolina to win - some hacker musta gotten in on my website and changed it up, right? :) No way USC could have beaten Bama Saturday - we were just clicking on all 8 cylinders, that's for sure. Not many mistakes, and we now know what we're capable of... at least against inferior competition. Wow... Good game.

OFFENSE - The Bama offense looked awseome Saturday! TD, Bama. TD, Bama! But then USC converts some 3rd downs on the following drive and also scores. Well, that would be all... the offense just kept plugging away and putting more points and more points on the board. Bama wouldn't punt the entire 1st half en route to scoring 20 points before the halfway point. Brodie didn't have a great throwing day yards-wise because Darby and company was doing so well at running the ball. How about that Offensive Line!! Wow. They finally got it together and gave us a great game on the ground. I (along with everyone else) was pretty please and surprised to see the running flourish to much Saturday. Let's hope those guys keep it up... and if they do, you'll see Bama playing for SEC Titles very soon. Brodie even had some nifty moves... (1) Running for a key 1st down (2) while running for that first down, he juked a guy right out of his shoes (3) he ran for a TD score... something you just don't see... kinda like watching Dan Marino in the NFL. But with those 2 plays, he did pay a small price as he got a nice strawberry on his hip from the slide... and his arm was scratched up from the endzone dive. Dude - be careful out there!! ha ha

Also in the running game, Darby finally broke 100 yards, nearly getting 150 on the day, and we saw some Prothro also in the backfield. Man, those guys are SO quick, and did you see the jukes and the spin moves our guys were doing against their defense? Wow - our guys are for real, and I'm glad they're on our side because they are definitely all-SEC calibur players.

Then at WR, Brown had the biggest day catching 2 TD passes and one play where he broke 2 tackles then sped his way to the endzone which qualified him for a Fan-Nominated Play of the Day for Pontiac's Game Changing Performance. But in my mind, D.J. Hall made a HUGE Play converting on 3rd down on the 2nd drive of the game... right after Caddell dropped 2 passes... odd for Caddell. That 3rd down conversion was huge as it kept the drive alive and allowed Brown to show off his magic a play or two later.

And as stated before, the OL improved drastically. I've never seen holes that big.. you could drive a Mack truck through some of them. Great job guys. The only downside was that we didn't put the ball in the end zone and had to settle for field goals in the 2nd quarter... but hey, we got points and kept on putting USC in the hole more and more. And even bigger yet was the fact that we had NO OFFENSIVE PENALTIES!! INCREDIBLE!!! No holding calls... no false starts... no clipping.... I mean, it honestly couldn't have gotten much better. I guess S. Carolina really was overmatched.GRADE: A

DEFENSE - The Bama 'D' kinda felt out the S. Carolina offense the first drive of the game. I don't know if we just weren't being aggressive enough, but needless to say, we made adjustments after the first drive, and USC didn't score anything else against our 1st-team defense the rest of the day. They got a late-game TD against the scrubs... so we won't count that for now. Simeon Castille had a good game though he was lucky on one thrown ball, as he was burned, but the QB overshot his receiver. He got an interception, and almost had another (shoulda, coulda, woulda - right?). The LB's played well, and the the DL pressured the USC OL all day... they couldn't get anything going on the ground, and as expected, they had to throw the ball a lot more than they probably wanted. But in the end, we just whipped them on both sides of the ball, both in and out of the trenches. It was one of the most complete games I have seen the Tide play in quite some time. The defense got the 1st penalty for the Tide in this game... in the 4th Quarter when Bobby Greenwood smacked the QB in the chops (late hit) after the ball was long gone. I don't care what string you are or when you play in the game, but that was just stupid. Personal fouls are some of the most lazy idiot things a player can commit in a game. It's EASY not to do those things.... hopefully Greenwood got an earful. Plus.. it's just classless. But other than that, a pretty clean game. 2nd-stringer Lionel Mitchell ended up getting burned for the last 7 points the gamecocks got on the day. They scored, but it DID give some younger guys some playing time, which they will need later this year and definitely going into next year with all the seniors leaving the defense next season. So great job D. We shut them down, and really caused Spurrier problems - he even yanked his starting QB in the 3rd quarter - a lot of good that did him, huh? ha ha ha GRADE: A

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams was pretty solid as Jamie Christiansen hit all 3 FG's (41, 29, & 27) right down the middle... but one of his kickoffs went out-of-bounds. That's the only flaw in special teams on the day, with the exception of some relatively poor tackling on a couple of kickoffs. On punts, Schatz solidified himself as the #1 punter with a mere 39-yd average, but was unable to pin USC deep on some punts. Instead, they went deep into the endzone. He should work on that for sure... but overall, a good game - just like everywhere else on this fine day. GRADE: A-

OVERALL - Overall, the most complete game we have seen the Tide play in the Mike Shula era. Hopefully it's a sign of good things to come as USC isn't exactly chopped liver. I'd say they're not Vandy, but they're actually atop the SEC East at the moment. Wow.... we'll what happens when they play the big boys of the East though.... go congrats to Mike Shula on a hard-earned win, and a SOLID win against a really good coach in Steve Spurrier. USC doesn't have the talent right now, but when they do get the talent, they will be a force. For now, Bama IS the force, and should keep on rolling into the bowl season. ROLL TIDE! GRADE: A

#22 BAMA 30 - SOUTHERN MISS 21

What a game. The game of some serious momentum changes. The game of one of the most amazing catches ever seen. The game where Bama shut down its 2nd straight opponent in the 2nd half with ZERO points allowed.... the game in which Bama was double-digits down, and came back to win after it seemed like everything would go wrong. It was THE GAME Bama needed to win to keep their heads on straight. Going 2-0 into S.C. is miles better than 1-1, plus you don't want to end a non-conference series to USM by LOSING the last one. So let's take a quick look....

OFFENSE - On offense, Bama looked sharp on the opening play and finished the drive strong with a nice pass to DJ Hall. Prothro grabbed a 52-yd catch on the first play. Then the D did its job and the O put another 3 on the board.... then MO switched teams. Brodie overthrew Darby on a swing pass, and USM intercepted the pass for a defensive TD. The Tide couldn't do anything again, so we punted and they pretty much scored again off a bad punt, and then burned Madison at the goal line. USM got the ball back again and got 7 more by burning Castille in the 2ndary. Wow - 21 unanswered points by USM, and we're down 21-10. Not quite the results we had dreamt about the night before, right??

But then the offense came alive and on 4th down and 12, Brodie heaved a ball with less than a minute to go about 50 yards downfield to a ball-catcher by the name of Tyrone Prothro. Do I REALLY need to explain what happened? It's only been on TV about a 1,000,000 times and will likely be the recipient of the Pontiac Game-Changing performance play of the week... nothing else they have compared to this catch... heck, it'll definitely be up for an ESPY award if it doesn't WIN an ESPY award - it was THAT good of a catch, and likely we'll never see anything like it before. How does a guy that's 5'8" reach around a defender, and have his vision BLOCKED at the last second, and still catch the ball on the back of a DB's neck, only to hang on to the ball with dear life, roll into the end zone (mind you, still holding on to the ball) with his neck bending backwards, and stand up and say Touchdown ALABAMA? You don't... but Prothro did. One of the, if not THE most amazing play of this college football season. I hope you guys have enjoyed watching the clip I created from Sportscenter's Top 10... I'll try to do more in the future...

So once we got the ball at the one yard line with about 26 seconds left (Prothro's knee was down), we passed the ball to McLain for the TD. I believe we had all 3 timeouts, so pass or run, we still had all 4 downs to get the ball into the end zone. It was a good call especially with the fact that USM shut our running game down in the 1st half. So instead of USM leading 21-10, USM was only up by 4, 21-17. Huge MO just switched teams again, and he stayed with the Tide the rest of the way through.

The 2nd half, Darby started finding his running lanes, mainly because well, the OL gave him some places to run... but still, a lot of times, Darby just MADE himself some running room by his juke-left, juke-right moves, then high speed ahead. As the game went along, Bama got stronger and USM's defense got weaker. And we ended up scoring 13 points in the 2nd half, to USM's 0 points to secure the win... though it should have been more, but dang if Castille fumbled the ball on the 2-yd line. WOW. Didn't expect that, did we?? But the offense delivered when we had to, but thanks to 2nd half adjustments, this Tide team is showing that the leadership is there, and that we can make adjustments no matter what the score is at halftime. Good job there, but we have a ton of work to do on offense. It's so, fly-by-night type of style.

Brodie did have a great game for 330 yards, but his interception thrown in the 1st half really started the downward spiral for the Tide. He just has to be careful... another opponent might not have been as easy to catch back up to.... And the guys he threw the ball to were mainly Prothro and DJ Hall. I don't know of a time in recent history where 2 Bama WR's caught more than 100 yards each. Wow.... Now if we get Keith Brown into the mix a little more, you talk about a triple threat... we have the talent - maybe it's just now started to bud a little.... but Hall really came up big for us as well as Prothro. The biggest problem might be the running game....1. because the OL isn't creating holes like they need to be doing.....and 2. our RB's are dropping like flies again. Darby had to carry almost the entire load Saturday with Coffee going out with a concussion... and Jimmy Johns got hurt on special teams. That ultimately left Castille as the #2 RB since Upchurch was also done for the year. So we have a pretty serious situation at RB right now - we need Coffee to check out ok, or we could be in trouble if Darby goes down again.

So overall, the offense had its ups and downs. They started strong, let up, then finished strong with the help of the Alabama defense. Though it didn't seem like it, Bama still had 140 yards of rushing yards... combine that with 330 in the air, and it ended up a pretty good game. We just gave USM too many points and that overshadowed how the offense really performed since we were playing from behind.... so good job on the comeback... we now just have to protect the ball better and cut back on penalties... then we'll be ok once that happens....GRADE: B

DEFENSE - The Bama Defense actually did a great job, though the score doesn't reflect it. It's a shame that the scoring defense stats actually take into account points gained by other means than actually SCORING AGAINST OUR DEFENSE.... else USM would only have 7 points. The other 14 pts came off of Brodie Croyle pick for TD, ... and then a short punt resulted in a long punt return then pass to the endzone for TD. Though that was technically on the defense, it was setup by very poor special teams play. USM got one drive in the game which resulted in a TD. At the end of the game, they drove up the entire field, which didn't help their total defensive stats, but they did get a pick in the end zone to end the game at 30-21. But they did a great job holding USM to zero points in the 2nd half, same as MTSU last week. Whatever adjustments are being made at halftime, I wish they could be made at the beginning of the game... or at the end of the 1st quarter, because our guys are really flying to the ball and tackling well. The DL is living in the backfield and getting to the QB a lot... and they allowed a total of 9 yards including sacks, on the day. Overall, USM got 199 yards. The D kept us in the game yet again with the 2nd half shutout, and they really help boost the Tide's offense as well by shutting down USM in Q3/Q4. Prothro's catch was the momentum changer in the game, but the D helped KEEP the MO on Bama's side... and we didn't give it up. We go from 11 down to a 9-point win. Now we're showing what we can do when faced with adversity... I like the results. Definitely a senior-driven team... let's hope they keep it up again USC this weekend.... that game won't be quite as easy (if you call USM easy). Good job guys... GRADE: A

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams is a mixed bag, but without the play of Prothro, S.Teams would have a failing grade. Punting was horrible, then Schatz finally came into the game after Aul had 3 bad punts, and he kicked a decent one (with a fair catch), and also a 'good' 41-yarder (with a fair catch), so he did his job. The crowd cheered for the good punt as it was the only good one of the day. The other short punts by Aul might have put Aul out of commission. At this point, I believe Schatz will start against S.Caroline next week, and Aul will know he had his chance.

On the place-kicking side, Christiansen missed a PAT after backing up 5 yards... but you could tell what happened: He pulled it to the right on his first kick which was good, so when they had to re-kick from 5 yards back, he pulled it the other too much to compensate for the previous kick... and it ended up shanking left. PAT missed. I think we might see some Saxby at USC if we're not consistently putting it down the middle. We did have good kickoffs however. 2 went for no return. Kickoff coverage was also good. But obviously the biggest problem of the night was the poor punting. If we can get past that, we'll be fine. Prothro returning punts is the best thing that happened to special teams Saturday night. He had some awesome returns, both on punts and kickoffs. GRADE: C

OVERALL - Overall, the coaches had a good plan......the players just screwed up in spots to give the huge MO change in the 1st half. But Bama got their composure and finished strong. Even Shula admitted that last year, we don't win this game. We'da folded long ago... but last year, we didn't have Croyle either - BIG DIFFERENCE, chief. It's amazing when you look at this INSANE stat.....USM had -8 yards in 1st quarter but led 14-10. That's what turnovers and poor field position will do. We were rolling, and the defense was doing their job, but a turnover for TD here and a bad punt return there really screwed with us. In the end, score is the only thing that matters, and USM did well with what they were given. But changes at halftime including the MO-changing catch just prior to the half, really changed the face of the rest of the game for Bama. They came out in the 2nd half and really dominated Southern Miss. USM couldn't score, and Bama just kept on running the ball and pounding away. Something happened at halftime - whatever it was, I liked it. Looks like a possible OL shuffle to get things working better.... In the end, Bama's 2-0 and dropping in the polls 2 spots.... which is still better than being 1-1 and dropping out of the polls completely. But the polls will take care of itself... and Bama looks to go 3-0 next weekend, one step closer to a BCS Bowl. GRADE: B

#24 BAMA 26 - M.T.S.U. 7

For Bama's game against MTSU, it was the 'rust' game. Knock off the rust so we can get the real season started soon. Well, the rust came off by halftime and in the 2nd half, Bama put it away thanks to some nice running by Ken Darby and also our D shut down MTSU in the 2nd half..... let's take a quick look....

OFFENSE - I didn't get to even see the first half of the game Saturday due to complications with DirecTV at our game-watching establishment here in Dallas, TX... but we finally saw the 2nd half, and I must say, I'm glad I didn't see the first half because I would have been really pissed off like most people. We just couldn't put any drives together. Finally at the end of the first half, we got a little mojo going, then really came out after KD's halftime speech, and took control of the game.

It's good to see the leadership on this team take shape. Next year, we'll have leaders, but not like this year. The seniors are really going to carry the team this year, especially on defense. But overall, against MTSU, once we knocked off the rust, we did pretty well. It can always get better, and it will get better. Like they say - the biggest improvement is between the 1st and 2nd game... so if we see an even better Bama offense, we should be ok - because the D will show up regardless. On the day, like Brodie said, we were average. Good 2nd half, but a not-so-good 1st half. And interception that Brodie wishes he could have back... and we didn't have a 100-yd rusher. Not the dominating performance we're used to having on the ground, that's for sure. Again, rust, not to mention first-game jitters of coming off injuries - I think they feel aight now... they have gotten hit, so I'm ready to see what they do against USM. But for this week, it was good, but not the best.

Last, the offensive line did rather well. We didn't know what to expect, but they showed up and ol' Brodie only got hit a couple of times, and was never sacked. JP got the only sack of the night in mop-up duty. So we looked good there... but I look for improvement in our run-blocking. GRADE: C+

DEFENSE - The defense played a great game. Even when the offense was sputtering, they were able to keep the MTSU offense in check. One drive gave MTSU 7 points on the night. Other than that, they didn't muster up much of anything as they were only on the Bama side of the field once the entire night - and that was their one scoring drive before halftime. In the 2nd half, MTSU only came up with 1 first down, and 22 yards of total offense. I don't know of a time when a team only got 22 yards in a half. That doesn't happen often. Kudos to the defense on a great game. We were just one play from a shutout. They'll correct that this week. GRADE: A-

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams actually did well since Prothro didn't lose his opening kickoff fumble. Whew. The only real blemish was the missed FG after the 1st one was made. Thanks to a lineman not being in the huddle, Bama didn't have enough linemen on the line, so Saxby's 40-yd successful FG was nullified and he had to try again from 45 yards. No good that time. That cost us 3 points. We'll hopefully fix that this week. Punting was average at best... need better hangtime though Aul didn't really have a lot of chances to punt. Prothro did a good job on punt returns and had a great return that was brought back due to a "hidden" penalty. There weren't too many TV shots that actually showed us doing anything wrong, but the refs saw something I guess. We just have to get better...... so an average day... but nothing special about special teams Saturday. We'll see this weekend of Saxby retains his kickoff and/or FG duties to Christiansen. GRADE: B-

OVERALL - Overall, against an opponent like MTSU, it shouldn't have been close, and in the end, it really wasn't. With our defenes, it would have been very tough for MTSU to win the game. As long as our offense shows up, we should be ok this year... I like the fact that we made halftime adjustments. Going into halftime, fans were upset and the team was upset. Thanks to the leadership of this team, they came out in the 2nd half and dominated. I look to see that at the start of our next game... no waiting until halftime this time. But back to MTSU, we had a good game... but it was only a 1/2 game. In the end, Bama is 1-0 and that's what matters..... ask Auburn & OU. GRADE: B-