BAMA 30 - COLORADO 24

First off, sorry for the late posting of this "Take on the Game". It was actually written weeks ago and I thought I had uploaded it. LOL Sorry. Thanks to Jonezie for pointing that out. Can I hear a big "DUH"?? anyway, enjoy the Take on the Independence Bowl

Nick Saban was right once again when he said don't ever leave an Alabama football game early - because we'll make it interesting. No joke, once again. Bama would open up a can of you-know-what to start the game, and then nearly gave it away in the 2nd half, only scoring 3 points in the 4th quarter. Let's take a look at the last game of the 2007 season...

OFFENSE - The offense looked to click pretty well in the 1st quarter and 1st part of the 2nd quarter - probably the best it has looked all year with the exception of the start of the Arkansas game. But like that game, it was the defense that stepped up early to get an early turnover. That really gave confidence to JP and the offensive crew and it showed. John Parker rarely missed and ended up throwing 3 TDs for the 1st 25 minutes of the game. As far as the ground game, Coffee didn't look in sync most of the time though he did have a couple of decent runs. Upchurch looked like the RB that was in the zone. I was glad to see him do well. Anyway, it was the game of 2 halves. In the firt half, Bama dominated until the end of the 2nd quarter when the defense shut down... then the 2nd half, where scoring was limited on both sides. In the end Bama's offense got a much-needed first down to get an extra set of downs which ultimately doomed the Buff's chances at winning the game. OL did well for the most part, and the Nick Walker did a good job catching the football. In all, they got enough points this time to win the game. If they had needed more, they might have thrown more at the end instead of melting the clock... so we'll never know what would have happened in that scenario. I can dig it. Good enough game by the offense. We got on 'em early and that was enough. One thing we will need to work on bigtime next year is redzone offense. We could have put CU away even by a bigger margin had we not settled for 3 FGs, especially on our 1st two scores. Gotta put TDs on the board or we're going to suffer more in the future.
GRADE: B

DEFENSE - The defense seemed to sit back in the 2nd quarter. That should never happen. They need to stay in attack mode - that's what got them there. In the 2nd half, when they had to, they did attack a lot more and that was good to see. Gilberry was playing like a madman. And McClain is playing beyond his year so far. The biggest problem was the 2ndary in giving them big 3rd down conversions early on. If we had stopped that, it wouldn't have been close. But when it came to crunch time, they got the job done, and I can live with that now that we have won the game. A lot of these players won't be back, so now it's time to look forward. New names will surface and a new identity will take shape starting at spring practice. I can't wait to see what next year's defense looks like. Even though we're losing 5-6 starters, I think we'll be in good shape. Though we gave up 24 points, it was enough for once. Way to play hard in the 2nd half of the game - it was much needed.
GRADE: B

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams rocked the house, man. Tiffin was on... Fitzgerald was on... Arenas (good to have you back!!) was on in kickoff returns... and even Caddell got in on the action to block a punt. Tiffin was huge as those 9 points were much needed in the final outcome of the game. I think he has put Arkansas of 2006 behind him. He did pretty well this year. Great job, guys!
GRADE: A

OVERALL - Overall, I'm pleased. Even though we played like crap for 70% of the game, we still did enough in that 30% to win it. The TD before the half really hurt Bama since we could have gone in by more than 13 points... instead we gave them a quick TD pass in the corner of the field of play only to sneak it past the goal line. Man, that hacked me off. I know Saban was hot... CU just heaved up a prayer on that play.

In any case, each phase of the game had a positive impact on the result of the game... the offense got off to a good start to practically keep the game out of reach at the end... the defense played well in the 2nd half to keep CU from coming back to win... and Special Teams gave us 9 points and all positive plays in the returns. It was a huge win for the Crimson Tide especially as recruting season continues into 2008 and the Tide needing to get some more bigtime recruits. 7-6 is a winning season, which I'm sure most people can live with for now. 6-7 would have been the same as last year which sucked miserably. It definitely should have been better with lame losses coming at the hands of MSU and La-Monroe, but I guess you learn, and you do better the next year. But next year, most of Bama's tough games will be on the road. So with a harder schedule and a better overall team, we may be back in this bowl game again next year. It's going to be tough, but hopefully we can bring home some championships sooner than later. Good Season, Bama.... ROLL TIDE!

BAMA 10 - #25 AUBURN 17

Yeah, yeah... I know. You're probably expecting some long drawn-out version on why we suck so bad against Auburn the last 6 years. Well, you saw the game. You can almost take the Louisiana-Monroe notes (below) and apply them here. Thing is, is that Bama had a chance to win the game and made stupid penalties (LSU-like) that cost them a chance at winning the game. You'd think we would have broken the November slump that has now dated back to 2005, but we didn't. And Tuberville still owns us... what a shame. Just another Alabama Senior class that will go out without ever beating Auburn. I guess the good thing is that we at least stomped UT... but I would have MUCH rather beaten Auburn on this given year. BLAH. Let's get ready for the bowl game against Colorado. Maybe we can win one, yanno? Stay tuned for my prediction in the upcoming weeks. Until then, maybe hoops can improve and bring home something to cheer about. Roll Tide.

BAMA 14 - LOUISIANA-MONROE 21

I didn't see the game, but I did listen to it over the internet. Hmmm... Is there a grade that's more deserving than an 'F'? This is by far THE worst loss I have ever heard (lucky I didn't SEE it) of by a Bama team in the last 20 years at least, if not ever. Even with the lack of starters due to the textbook crap, we can't match-up with LA-Monroe's athletes??? Give me a freakin' break.

Let's see... Shula won last year with his offense and that lame 3-3-5 defense Kines stuck with all year long.... the score in 2006 was 41-7. This year, with a more experienced offensive line (even without the main guys), more experience at QB and WR, and seemingly a better running game than last year, how the heck did a 14-21 loss to Louisiana-Monroe happen? Well, 5 turnovers will kill nearly any team's chances at winning a game. Maybe we can hang on to the stupid ball and actually make enough plays IN A ROW to actually be an average team next week.

This was the most pathetic game I have ever witnessed though I didn't get to see it. Unbelievable. What an embarrassment! My take on what was the crappiest game known to man in Bama history isn't worth my time.... Excuse me while I try and find a hole in the sand somewhere so I can bury my head in total disgust...

#21 BAMA 12 - MISSISSIPPI STATE 17

What an embarrassment. After coming out the last couple of weeks and playing decent football, we come out to Starkville and practically throw a goose egg out on the field. Again, NO offensive TDs (rather no TDs this year) against Mississippi State... and none since 2005. Lame - period. I'm not sure who is calling plays, but we have got to get better... It's a few minutes after the game ended, so all of this is just from the gut... enjoy.

OFFENSE - Offensively, we blew chunks. John Parker Wilson has got to get better or he needs to be replaced, period. 14-40 last week against LSU, and this week he was 16-35 for only 120 yards and 2 interceptions. Not acceptable. In the EA Sports game, McElroy actually plays better than Wilson. I wonder what would happen in real life, yanno?

Now obviously a lot of blame can go on JPW, but another huge amount should go on our offensive line, or lack thereof (or absence thereof). Have 2 starters gone off the line due to this stupid textbook scandal is just killing us. Throw in the fact that another OL couldn't start today, and that puts Chris Capps in the starting lineup - now you know we're reaching because he's one of the worst OL we have. That slid Johnson over to LG, so we have guys playing all out of position except for Andre Smith. So obviously, we're not getting any push on the line, nor any decent blocking on the line. Bama's spark was Jonathon Lowe as he got 46 yards while Grant got 77. Wilson somehow managed to get 42 yards even including sacks. On the passing side of things though, JP wasn't hitting anyone, and he didn't have a lot of time to throw either... though we did have a few dropped passes. It's one of those frustrating days where nothing goes right and if we played again, the same outcome would likely happen unfortunately. We need our 3 offensive starters back, and bigtime. They have helped us screw the pooch because of that textbook crap... Man, I can't wait until we get some serious mules in the trenches because we're constantly getting beat on the line. Better work it out because we CAN NOT lose the Iron Bowl in a couple of weeks. And right now, we're still not going to a bowl game, even with 6 wins. We're playing horrible and can't score. UGH. I don't know what else to say here - nothing good happened today on offense.... absolutely nothing... and the interception for TD just before halftime broke the camel's back. That's the play that propelled MSU to this win... JPW was too skiddish after that.
GRADE: F

DEFENSE - The defense did enough to win this game, period. No way we should have scored less than 20 points against Mississippi State. They got the early interception off of Carroll, and all we could do was get a FG. We came close a couple other times to getting interceptions that would have changed the face of the game. Johnson had one practically hit him in the chest that he dropped - I think the angle of the sun had a lot to do with that as there were some long shadows on the field with our guys looking right into the sun. But the defense only really gave up a FG. One MSU TD came with their defense, and the other we gave them the ball on the front porch. Turnovers obviously killed us in this one... and we just didn't play up to our potential - instead we played down to the competition. But if you look at it, maybe we're just that bad. Who knows? I do know that the defense did enough to win the game as they held MSU to a mere 211 total yards and got an interception. If JPW and the offense can't do something with that, then we need to find someone that can.
GRADE: B

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams did everything they could to win the game today. Leigh Tiffin had the game of his life hitting all 4 FGs to score all of the Crimson Tide's points on the day. Throw in the fact that 2 of those FGs were 50+ and it really makes this day sweet & sour for the guy. Arenas only had one opportunity to return a kickoff and he made the most of it, which punts were constantly kicked away from him. If there's nothing you can do, then there's nothing you can do. It's not Arenas' fault. PJ Fitgerald actually had a good day punting, so on a day when we just needed one offensive TD, at least the special teams did their job. They exceeded expectations, especially with the good kick coverage and FGs.
GRADE: A+

OVERALL - Overall, everyone played well enough to win the game except the offense. Missing offensive linemen was the biggest key to the game as JPW didn't have a lot of time to throw, and when he did, he threw it out of bounds since everyone was covered. The 2nd-to-last possession we had in the game, all 3 passes were throw away. How does that happen? Can we not run a slant route or curl routes anymore and move the ball up the field? Is everyone going deep or something? This is honestly ridiculous. If JP can't get the job done, then for a change of pace, get someone that can't do any worse. 120 yards in the air and 2 interceptions isn't how you run an offense. I guess we could make a better assessment if the entire OL was present, but this is what we have to work with, and it's time for guys to freaking step up. So you're a 2nd-team OL. Big deal. Man up, show why we gave you a free ride to school, and do your job. I'm sick of seeing mediocre performance on the field regardless. Work harder if you suck. You never know when your name will be called upon... now it was called, and you weren't ready. All I can do right now is shake my head in disbelief. Get back on the practice field and show me why you deserve to put on that crimson/white jersey each weekend, because I'm embarrassed by this lack of execution. Unacceptable, and it better get better, and soon. And by better, I mean LOTS... and by soon, I mean now. This goes to all aspects of the team, but 90% towards the offense. Score for Pete's sake or we will not win games. Period.
GRADE: C-

#17 BAMA 34 - #3 L.S.U. 41

What a game. We're down, then we're up... then we're down, then up, then we finish down. It was crazy. The #3 team in the land (really, I'd say #1 or #2 - Boston College [who lost] - get real) came into Bryant-Denny and smoked us. Yeah, yeah, it was a close game that honestly could have gone either way, but CLEARLY they were the better team minus our suspended starters. I mean, shoulda, coulda, woulda doesn't cut it when you are GIVEN 130 yards in penalties, 4 turnovers, and you still don't win. They had so many weapons that they over came all that. That should tell you something. They are (unfortunately) studs over there. But slowly/surely, Saban is building us a studhouse as well, but it will take a little time. Not that our players are riff-raff, but besides Andre Smith, we're not really that loaded with raw talent that has been molded over the years... and Saban is just having to squeeze out as much as he can with what he's got. It's not like the pros where we can just pick up free agents. Your team is what it is. Anywho, let's take a look at the game...

OFFENSE - Bama's offense honestly looked like a deer in the headlights until JP got his clock rattled in the 2nd quarter. The very next play, Applewhite called the bomb to DJ Hall and JPW hit him (almost overthrown) for the long TD. At that point, Bama made a huge comeback and actually took the lead by halftime 20-17. Wilson ended up throwing 3 TDs, but was sacked 7 times, 50% more times than he had been sacked the rest of the season. What was this - the Auburn game last year?? Gotta protect our QB guys, backups or not. But the WRs did their job for the most part, Keith Brown especially. He finally had a big game with only 2 catches but those going for spectacular TD grabs. Caddell also had some nice catches and one ended up coming back after replay. That's the only call I believe should have not gone the other way. I can see where they were talking about the nose of the ball possibly hitting the ground, but his hands were still in control of the ball the entire time. If you catch a ball like that, it will ALWAYS "TOUCH" the ground in some form... so I'm surprised it was actually reversed as an incomplete pass. That would have definitely changed the face of the game somehow. The rest of the reversed calls were ok in my book though I wasn't happy they went against the Tide.

Now Bama's running game was pretty much what I said it would be - non-existent. We couldn't run the ball the entire day. But that's to be expected when you have the best DL in the conference vs 2 backups and 3 regular offensive linemen. I wish there could have been a way to run the ball in other ways, but I guess we didn't have that in the gameplan. They just had too much speed and forced JP to throw early for most of the day. It was good to see Jonathan Lowe get some carries though since Grant and Upchurch didn't really do much.

What else...? Oh, and then there's the fumble at the end of the game. What can you say? JPW just didn't secure it like he should have - and he'll definitely see it in the game film. They ran it in slow-mo on CBS and you can see that even when JP was going down, he just kept that ball out there like a crazy man. That ball should have been tucked in his body and tight. That's the only reason it came out - because it was in his out-stretched arms. Man, that hurt.

And you have to be glad Keith Brown showed up with those 2 huge TD catches, but dang if he didn't catch that one ball at the end there. It just makes you want to scream - Why didn't you hang on to it?? :) He got hit hard, but man, those guys need to come up in the clutch (again) when it matters. Yeah, he made 2 great plays earlier, but we really needed this 3rd one just as bad... cuz with that drop, Bama's chance for a comeback was officially over. That's what being a senior is all about, and he just didn't come thru for that one. Better luck next time hopefully. But good game anyway... So with the help of LSU's non-discipline, we were able to come close to winning, but couldn't close the deal even after that and the turnovers Bama's D gave us. Running the ball like crap really hurt us more than anything - but give credit where credit is due... we couldn't run because LSU made that a priority. Maybe we executed, but LSU executed better, you know? They just had better athletes in the trenches and that's where the ballgame was won. We couldn't get that much-needed 1st down near the end of the game... and we just have to do better in the future. 34 points was good, but against LSU, you knew we'd need more, especially a running game, and LOTS better protection of the QB.
GRADE: C+

DEFENSE - The defense gave up a ton of yards (475), but came up with big turnovers to get the Tide back in the game in the 2nd quarter when it looked like it could be a blowout. Flynn got rattled and Bama's defense got us going. We were able to get mediocre pressure on Flynn parts of the game though the pressure wasn't consistent (and hasn't really been all year). But Kareem Jackson came up big once again and so did Rashaad Johnson, making some nice grabs. Even Zeke Knight got in on the action again. But in the end, Bama still gave up a lot of yards and then the big play to Doucett which tied the game when we had them at 4th down and 4. That (again) coulda/shoulda/woulda) won the game for us if we could have held firm there. At that point, we actually looked more like the Shula-coached team from years past. We gave up 41 points though 14 of those came off of very short field turnovers by the offense including the game-winner. We actually did better than expected against their running game, but you have to play the whole field - and we couldn't stop them, even with all the penalties they got. Again, they're (right now) just better than us and it'll take some time to build up to that level. Just go out there and do better next week. Gotta get better. Did I mention we need to get better? Turnovers we generated were huge, but in the end, we still gave up 41 points and nearly 500 yards of offense. It's hard to win games when you give that up.
GRADE: C+

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams were the only bright spot of the day for Alabama - well, at least the only part of the game that didn't screw us except for the poor punting by PJ Fitzgerald. In the early goings I thought for sure he was going to get one blocked, but later in the game LSU called off the dogs to get some returns instead. Then with the return game, Arenas didn't disappoint once again bringing back a punt right up the middle for a score to put the Tide up by 7. At that point, I felt good, but I still had an uneasy feeling in my stomach like something bad would happen - we just didn't have a big enough lead. But those guys did a good job blocking and also did great in coverage. LSU didn't get any significant punt or kick returns on the day... something I can live with. Tiffin also hit both of his FGs and PATs. Solid day from Special teams plus the bonus score from Arenas. Good job there.
GRADE: A-

OVERALL - Overall, we have to be proud of how we played considering we were down 3 men on offense and were playing much better skilled players than us. LSU tried to give us the game with all their dumb penalties. They gave us nearly a football field and a half of freebies....and NO, it wasn't the refs making bad calls like a lot of the LSU fans are crying about on all the forum boards out there. When you hit a QB late, that's a lack of discipline (possibly bad coaching too, right?). When you take your helmet off after a penalty, that's also a lack of discipline. You just dug yourself a hole that ONLY YOU caused - no one else. Yeah, Bama had 2 penalties in the game, but it definitely wasn't freaking bias. We had to play errorless ball if we even had a chance at winning - and that's what we did... and we nearly pulled it out.

Let me say it again - we're not there yet. We needed a very undisciplined LSU team to show up to even have a chance at winning this game. Even after all the penaties and turnovers ON THE ROAD, they still won, even though it was barely - give them credit - because what they did to our running game and sacking the QB really kept them in the game. If we had been able to run against them (no one has but UK), we would have pulled off the upset. But instead, we had to go one-dimensional and play like pass-happy Hawaii. It ultimately came down to them making more plays and overcoming more than us, and they pulled it out. Even when we were making our last-ditch effort, JP hit Brown for a 1st down but LSU hit him hard and jarred the ball loose to end the game. Soon, we'll have that type of team - and guys that won't play stupid penalty ball hopefully. Had Shula coached this team in this game, it wouldn't have been close (as he proved all of last year). We're on the rise - and we're still the 2nd-best team in the SEC... let's finish strong and maybe we can make it to the Cotton Bowl so I won't have to travel to see the Tide play in the bowl game this year. Great effort - just a few plays short to win this one. LSU better watch out in the very close future. Bama is clearly on the rise and will be on top soon enough. :) ROLL TIDE!
GRADE: B-

BAMA 41 - #20 TENNESSEE 17

Wow - what an incredible 4 quarters of a football game. Bama finally got a BIG win in Bryant-Denny. Not since Bama demolished Florida in 2005 has the Tide been so dominant in a football game at home. I'm still stunned as I (like many people) picked UT to win this game with their running game. Oddly enough, Bama got ahead early and forced UT to go more passing offense and Bama shut them down.

OFFENSE - First of all, 3 offensive starters didn't even play in the game. That in itself is mind-boggling especially when you find out that they didn't practice that way all week - this was something that was determined the night before the game. Wow. Pretty impressive. Like Nick Saban said - he didn't make it a problem. Other guys just stepped in there and did their job. Bam. 41-17 final score.

JP Wilson looked great in this game. He threw it away when he was supposed to and rarely did he make a bad decision. The running game was solid as Terry Grant again broke some more Freshman rushing records and got over 100 yards on the ground yet again. The other big day came from the obvious - DJ Hall. He caught 13 passes for 185 yards. What are going to do next year when DJ leaves??? Hopefully some of those other guys are taking notes. Congrats to all of the offense for playing such a great game. Some other random notes - this was Bama's first game since the opener to not turn the ball over. That's a HUGE stat. Turnovers is what costs you games - just ask UT about those 2 interceptions. They hurt.

Also, Alabama batting 1.000 in the red zone. Freaky, huh? Bama was 5 for 5 in scoring chances inside the 20 yard line. And in keeping the ball and scoring on nearly every possession, Bama only had to punt twice in the game while not turning the ball over. Not bad at all. Then throw in the fact that while we were starting 3 new guys, we still converted on a 4th and 1 play to keep a drive alive. Talk about giving the offense some confidence from Saban. He's telling them that he can trust them to get that yard, and they did it. And while Bama was flagged 6 times in the 1st half, they played good mental football in the 2nd half, only getting one false start call the rest of the way.

So along with all this JP ended up having the game of his life without having to come back from behind to win it. This game and the Arkansas game he'll remember forever - but this woodshed beating by the Tide, well, what a game. Congrats to the offense for a huge day. No turnovers, great 3rd down conversion rate, excellent red-zone offense....and 41 points against #20 Tennessee with 3 missing starters. Need I say more?
GRADE: A+

DEFENSE - The defense had about an equal positive day holding UT's powerful ground game to only 103 yards on the day. Foster still had a good day with 91 yards, but once Bama's offense got ahead, UT had to start playing catchup ball. This played right into the hands of the defense which ended up picking off Erik Ainge twice - both by true freshman Kareem Jackson. In all games leading up to UT, Jackson has been the guy teams have thrown to, and he has gotten burned quite a bit. But in this game, he realy stepped it up getting 2 picks and knocking down a couple of others... great defense overall by this new cornerback.

The rest of the defense also played well... and when Tennessee started to get some steam, Bama stopped them on a 3rd and 1 play that forced the punt. That was huge because UT started carving up the Bama defense in the 2nd quarter, moving up the field with ease. But in the 2nd half of the game, Bama pitched the shutout and didn't give UT anything. For once, the defense also played the entire game and made them earn everything they got. Mustin was huge... Gilberry was huge... they really kept UT from doing everything they wanted to do, and it allowed Bama's offense to get on the field and stay there for most of the game - 37+ minutes. THAT is the kind of game the offense needs in order to keep our defense on the sidelines. Without the offense playing so well, our defense might not have done as well either. You could see the UT defense was definitely tired after being out there for so long... The 2nd-half shutout is just what the doctor ordered in getting Bama the 24-point win. And to give UT only 17 points in the game... our offense should be able to handle that, so great job!
GRADE: A-

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams really lit up the playing field starting with the opening kickoff. Talk about Saban throwing a confidence booster their way. It was a great call. Bama obviously saw the same thing we saw on this kickoff - UT special team guys already heading back while the ball was being kicked. Gotta watch the ball be kicked before retreating - oh well. As for the special teams player of the day, it has to be Demarcus Waldrop. That guy was all over the place on kickoffs and punts. He also recovered the onsides kick to start the game before the ball went out of bounds.

Then we have the usual great return of Javier Arenas. His 66 yard kickoff return just put a stake in the backs of the UT coaches. Talk about following your blocks. THAT is how you run back a kick. Don't outrun your blockers and you'll get more yards. And to think that we have this guy 2 more years - that's awesome. Tiffin also had a good game hitting 4 of 5 FGs with his one miss being from 49 yards out. He's definitely improving from last year and seems to be getting better and better though misses are expected from time to time. Even NFL kickers miss FGs now and then - even PATs. But overall, the special teams did a great job in covering kickoffs and returning ours.
I WILL say, however, that I was TOTALLY steamed at the out-of-bounds kick by Tiffin just before halftime when all we needed to do was burn off a few more seconds and go into the locker room with a 10-point lead. Instead, he kicked it out of bounds, and UT got some serious ground on the next kick. Tack on the fact that we got a late hit the very next play, and I was as heated as Nick Saban. STUPID - plain down-right stupid play to hit a guy late, even it if was close. It gave them 15 yards and a FG attempt which ended up being good. Don't commit that late hit and UT is looking at a very iffy hail mary pass to end the half at best. Anyway, that was more on the defense, but it was setup by the poor execution of the kickoff... but anyway, keep it up, and keep the momentum going into Bama's next game against LSU.
GRADE: A

OVERALL - What better way to show you have confidence in your team than with an onside kick to start the game. Alabama only got three points out of it, but the Tide played like it had something to prove the rest of the way. And that's the way I want to see my Crimson Tide play the rest of the way. Almost with a wreckless abandon... playing to win. Take this: Bama's last 6 games were decided by a combined 22 points. This win was 24 points in itself against a formidable opponent. Tennessee is no pushover team though they did become a punching bag by the end of the game. But the last few Bama/UT games have been close, as have Bama's games this season. Has something just 'clicked'? We shall see. But I liked what I saw - especially the agony of Phillip Fulmer on the sideline. He just looked like he was going to cough up a ton of doughnuts over there. Oh the agony! This was his worst loss to Alabama in his 15 years as UT's coach. Ouch!

So what can you say? It was a 41-17 butt-whipping by the Crimson Tide - one we haven't seen in our own backyard in forever it seems. These are the games we need to start dominating from the get-go, and that's exactly what Bama did. The offense didn't quit (and why would they, giving up [sometimes] huge leads in every game this year besides WCU), and the defense got a couple of huge turnovers in the 2nd half to keep UT from making a comeback. There was no last-minute hail mary. There was no last-minute drive by Alabama to win the game. There was no UT offense on the field driving to get that last TD to win the game. There were no 2nd half heroics needed from Leigh Tiffin to win by 3. This is how to win a game - period. And now, Bama's back in the Top 25 and looking to move up from here. Bama's bowl-eligible and looking for more in 2 weeks against L.S.U. Now Bama's not completely 'back' by any means - we still have work to do. It's STILL the same team that has struggled all season long... BUT, if they play like this the rest of the way, then we'll have a very good chance of winning those games as well. Until then, enjoy this one, light up your stogey, and get ready for #3 L.S.U. ROLL TIDE!
GRADE: A

BAMA 27 - OLE MISS 24

Ok, after absorbing all there is to hear about the Ole Miss game, I think I'm ready to give my take. So let's get started...

OFFENSE - The offense actually played a decent game Saturday. They played for most of the game but had mistakes that could have cost us the game (fumble at the 3 yard line). Plays like that hurt your chances at being successful (ie. winning the game), so that was a huge momentum changer. Wilson seemed to be a bit more on target though he still missed some easy passes. At least we didn't see as much Andrew Zow Syndrome in this game (constant overthrows out of bounds). The running game was big for us minus the turnover, and Grant got back on track. 3 total fumbles is still unacceptable though and needs to be worked on in practice. Secure the football! Nothing is worse than a turnover. The passing game got DJ Hall some serious action for 140 yards. He couldn't be stopped. That's the passing game I'm used to seeing. Though no one but Hall any decent receiving stats, the ball actually was spread out over a bunch of guys. That's the best way to get the passing game going. You never know where it's going to go. We had 9 guys catch at least one pass. Matt Caddell had the hot hand early on catching everything in sight. There were no receiving TDs on the day though, but because the passing game was so good on 3rd down, we kept the ball like we're supposed to do instead of punting it all day. That's the difference in the game - ball control. Had we punted even one more time, who knows what would have happened. It kept our defense off the field just long enough to hang in there to the end. Good overall day, but definitely some little things need to be tweeked here and there to get ready for the meat of the SEC schedule. And remember - secure that football, Glen Coffee. 3 fumbles is NOT what we need against UT next week.
GRADE: A-

DEFENSE - The defense against lacked intensity in this game, but it only lacked for the 1st half. In the 2nd half, Alabama got more pressure on the QB and it showed, especially on the last drive Ole Miss had. Our guys are definitely getting tired by the end of the game, but at least this time, they held on. Time was practically even and that's what we need if we're going to have a chance. Rashad Johnson is a beast in the 2ndary. The pass that the Ole Miss WR caught in front of Castille for a TD was just a good play. Castille definitely would have picked it off... he just needed to get slightly better position to get the int. But overall on D, we did ok. Run defense is definitely not where it needs to be, but it was enough on this day. If we can start hitting the gaps a lot better, who knows what might happen. But for now, we just have to take the good with the bad... Just survive guys and do your best. Our best defense is definitely our offense if they can stay on the field. We're depleted and need rest. That's the only way we're going to win games. You could definitely tell that fatigue set in on that last drive. 4th and a mile and we blow the coverage and have to play more downs. Gotta keep your focus, regardless.
GRADE: B

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams played well except for the blocked punt. Tiffin hit his FGs and Arenas ran like a madman. The last return he had really set up the Tide to win the game. We need more returns like that. The problem is that teams aren't kicking to him. Ole Miss had some balls to kick to him, and he made them pay. Hopefully UT does the same, because when Arenas gets in the open field, he's one hard dude to stop. Tiffin even had a kickoff for a touchback, something we haven't seen in a while. Good job guys - just fix that punt blocking formation... that really screwed us and overshadows what was a really good day for the rest of the special teams' day.
GRADE: B

OVERALL - For the most part, Bama played the whole game. We made some mistakes here and there that could have cost us the game, but instead of just playing 1 quarter, playing all 60 minutes was the difference. The fumble hurt, and the blocked punt hurt - and bigtime. Things like that are huge momentum changers and a lot of times change the outcome of the game. We were lucky that didn't happen though it easily could have if not for the timeout Saban called to challenge the last Ole Miss play of the game. Call it luck or whatever, but it happened. The Ole Miss WR stepped out of bounds and came back in. Ole Miss fans can't gripe because it is what it is. If he hadn't gone out of bounds, there's a chance they may have won on the very next play with 7 seconds remaining. One will never know though. And I can live with that. Another Bama game - another heart attack. Will it ever stop? :) Good win, Bama. Now clean up the mess and let's finish the season strong. We still control our own destiny in the SEC West. Atlanta, right now, is a dream, but we can still make it come true if we just play sound football. ROLL TIDE!
GRADE: B

BAMA 30 - HOUSTON 24

Ok, I'm back in the Big D and have finally gotten settled back in. Had a lot to unpack, and also had to go to work a couple of hours after I got back into town. I'm glad I was able to actually SEE the game this weekend because the game was actually blacked out in Dallas since I live IN TEXAS, where you can't watch it on Gameplan. Talk about freaking stressful. Homecoming is NOT supposed to be like that, but at least we won... lemme take a quick look at the game from what I remember (and couldn't rewatch it on TV)... OFFENSE - The offense took off at the get-go. Bam bam bam. 23-0 in the 1st quarter. Looks like we'll be sailing thru this one, but no. There was a huge breakdown on offense and defense for some reason. This was the 1st quarter game and 1/2 the 3rd quarter. I don't know what's going on, but the offense needs to get on track and STAY on track. That's the key. I don't know if we're getting tired or if we're just getting complacent. We need to keep attacking and not let up unless the game is WELL (and I mean WELL) in hand. At that point, the non-starters can get in the game and finish things out. This isn't really helping things with games going down to the last drive or play.

Wilson seemed like he couldn't be stopped, then he returned to form so it seemed. For the last 2 games, the other team has put in its backup QB and gotten some serious results. Saban has said that those QBs actually changed the style of play and that putting in McElroy wouldn't really change the style we have since neither QB is a mobile QB. But something tells me that if one QB isn't working to possibly try another one - I mean, it honestly cannot hurt things if your starter is just not producing. You never know - maybe you'll get a spark out of the 2nd guy. Maybe he'll see things a little differently, I don't know. But if things aren't working, then things OBVIOUSLY need to change. If that starts with the QB, then so be it. You do that with every other position on the team, so why not QB? Yeah, he's the "field general", but even the general can mess up, right? Might be good for the team, but we'll never know unless it happens.

As for the rest of the offense, they played pretty well, but mostly in the 1st quarter. Not much of the passing game really got going as the WR's only caught 6 passes the whole game. Congrats to DJ Hall for breaking yet another receiving record. He now has more receptions than any other WR in Alabama Football history. Millons was the previous record-holder. Anyway, it was good to get the win, but as Saban said, the offense was way too conservative, and we nearly gave it away. Without the heroics of Simeon Castille, Bama would be 3-3 with a loss to Houston. They would have made their PAT more than likely... and we'd be going back to the drawing board with a lame non-conference loss. Good start, but we didn't finish even mediocre. The turnover was killer as that nearly cost us the game. Call it luck or whatever, but we escaped with a win.
GRADE: C

DEFENSE - The defense did about what we expected. For the most part, they did well, but whatever we need to do to start covering crossing routes, let's do that. From my vantage point at the game, it seems like we blitzed the LB (in dime coverage) quite a bit leaving the center of the field open, and they burned us nearly every time. We just could not stop the quick slants across the middle. Can the defensive coaches not see that? Surely they watch game film and can see at least what I see. Anyway, we always know the defense is going to give up points... I'm just glad we were able to actually get an interception on the last play or it would have been another La Tech on Homecoming. What happened to the intensity we had in the 1st quarter? The rest of the game, we just sat back and didn't force them into anything. They carved us up like a Thanksgiving turkey. Statwise, you would have thought they won. Not good... but they made the play at the end when we needed it. Let's keep the intesity up the whole game from now on. NO LEAD IS EVER SAFE with this team, so we have no choice.
GRADE: B-

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams went ok. Nothing to shout home about. It's too bad Arenas isn't getting more punt returns lately. Kickoffs are average right now. Tiffin is doing ok as well. Can't complain though we still need to do better. At least they didn't cost us the game. This isn't a huge problem with our team like the offense.
GRADE: B+

OVERALL - Overall, our team is mediocre but can play well at times. We're a very good spurt team. We definitely play in spurts. Good times, and bad times - and it's to an extreme when we play, meaning we're either really good (Houston - 1st quarter; Arkansas 1st quarter) or really bad (FSU - 1-3 quarters; Arkansas 2-4 quarters). We need to play solid and be more consistent in every phase of the game. If we can do that, we'll be ok... but that's really the biggest problem. Our offense is either too predictable, or the play-calling is sucking out the butt. To me, it doesn't appear much of an Applewhite gameplan. He's much better than this. My opinion is that there are other influences in the play-calling - Pendry perhaps - but I don't know for sure. I just know that Applewhite knows the game of football - and if something isn't working, he'll adjust, and I'm just not seeing much adjustment anywhere. Too many 3-and-out's for my taste. We just sit on that lead and fart around. Gotta get consistent.

One other note of interest that really chaps my hide... the morons who call in about the stupid Rammer Jammer cheer being played at the end of the game. Yeah the band played it - so what? It's a freaking CHEER just like the rest of them. When Bama wins, we usually play it. It's a 60-minute game, and even though Houston is a non-conference team, parity in college football makes it so that everyone has a chance to win. If we had beaten Tennessee the EXACT same way, we'd play the song, sing it, and enjoy it, and NO ONE would object. Just because it's Houston shouldn't take away from ANYTHING. It's a W, and a much-needed one. And if that's what you morons are calling in about on the post-game radio show in Tuscaloosa, you're an idiot. We have a team that barely beat Houston, and who knows how the crap they're going to play next week in ALWAYS-TOUGH Oxford, and YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT A STUPID CHEER??? Get real, people. Get your priorities straight. Whether it's Houston, Tennessee, or Auburn, it shouldn't make a freaking difference. We're a struggling team right now, and we need to keep the spirit high. Just keep that lame crap off the air. We have MUCH BIGGER things to worry about than whether or not YOU don't think we should have played Rammer Jammer. Move on. That's the least of our concerns... I'll step down off the soapbox now.... but that just chapped my hide when I heard that on the radio the other day going home from the game.

Aight, That's it. Sorry for the late take this week. Again, it was a busy weekend and a long trip back. No/limited internet access didn't help either.... but now we're back on track. ROLL TIDE and stuff...
GRADE: C-

#22 BAMA 14 - FLORIDA STATE 21

Two weeks in a row, and two weeks of similar outcomes. Seems like this year, we're playing ONLY in the 4th quarter. What has Nick Saban done??? He has found a way so that all of our energy has left the rest of the game and ended up only in the 4th quarter. LOL Ok, that's really not the case, but wow - how things have changed. Now we're not even moving the ball between the 20's like last year. The offense is sputtering and now against better teams. We're definitely more talented than we're showing... so why isn't it showing up on the field? Very strange. Things better shape up soon, because Houston and Ole Miss are not pushover teams - ESPECIALLY WITH THE WAY WE ARE PLAYING RIGHT NOW. They're looking at us like we're looking at them - and rightfully so. We are sucking right now... let's take a quick look...

OFFENSE - The offense is pretty inept right now. Last year, we moved the ball between the redzones and saw JPW break all kinds of passing records. This year, it's just not working though his numbers are still up. Most of these numbers are just 4th quarter padded stats when the defense is in 'prevent' to prevent the long bomb. But look at the main part of the game and he's not doing anything. Neither did Weatherford. What happened?? Two other QBs came in to see if they could generate a spark. I honestly couldn't figure out why McElroy didn't come in the game. Not to say he would have done anything, but honestly, 10 punts in the ballgame - what do you honestly have to lose?? We punted on every possession in the 1st half. The defense was staying strong though we couldn't muster up a 1st down until 1/2-way thru the 2nd quarter. I would have liked to see McElroy come in the game - not to cause controversey - but just to see if he could like a spark in this team. Look at JPW in Brodie's senior season. Brodie was getting sacked and chased around the whole game in the Iron Bowl that year - then JPW came in the game and got a TD drive, moved the ball, and made our offense look like they could actually do something. Now JPW is in Brodie's role, and maybe someone else needs to temporarily come off the bench to see what good could be done. I guess you just never know. But with the score tied at that point, you also have to think about what if McElroy throws a pick? Then you're 2nd-guessing yourself again. Tough call either way - but I think after that many punts, I would have taken the chance.

As for the rest of the offense, the offensive line, namely Mike Johnson, struggled even when FSU only rushed 3 DL. That's honestly pretty pathetic. We have 5, let me rephrase that - FIVE - guys blocking 3 rushers and JPW is still getting pressured and chased down. That's pathetic, period. How are we supposed to dominate a running game if we can't stop 3 freaking rushers??? UGH.

The WR's did an ok job, but the catch of the day was DJ's TD grab. Again, JPW (who has now come down with Andrew Zow Overthrow Syndrome [AZOS]) threw the ball about 12 feet in the air and somehow DJ Hall climbed up those 4 stories to catch it and then get a foot down in bounds. Incredible - even moreso than the Caddell catch that beat Arkansas. Then Keith Brown catches a pass across the goal line, scores, and gets clocked, hangs on to the ball long enough, and the CBS camera zooms in on his face bigtime only to see his face go totally dead/limp. Dude was totally unconcious for a few seconds. He just laid there flat on this stomach and didn't flinch. I'm just glad he got up because it didn't look good when he went down. Same with McCall. Lot of big hits in that game.

Last, the running game. Grant has almost become a non-factor because of the lack of blocking. He's a huge talent in the backfield and we're just not blocking well enough to show what he can do. We have seen his moves and speed. Let's make some holes. Seems like when he did find a hole, he ran for at least 9-10 yards each time. The rest of the time, there was just NOTHING there. Gotta do better. Maybe the talent on the OL has actually peaked. It's the same guys as last year with the addition of Johnson. You'd think they would have another year of experience, etc etc etc...as the story goes. But maybe these once-recruits finally got as good as they could get. If so, we're in deep doo-doo.

This is one of the worst stats of the weekend....148 - Alabama yards in the first 51:03 of the game. 181 - Alabama yards in the final 8:57 of the game. That ain't gonna do it. All those yards at the end of the game were just FSU prevent defense yards. Too little too late. If you play the whole game, then we wax the crap outta those guys, as the defense did their job honestly. And they're WAY depleted right now with everyone dropping like flies. Just unacceptable - period. Improve or be replaced. It's as simple as that. I'm tired of the overall mediocrity.
GRADE: D+

DEFENSE - Considering what the offense gave us, the defense did a heck of a job until the 70-yard bomb in the 2nd half. But it was the coach's call to blitz the safeties... and we got burned when the CB didn't make the tackle. If we had guys up front that could rush the QB without having to blitz, we wouldn't be having this dicussion right now. The LBs and DL just didn't do enough to force the QB into making more mistakes. He threw one int, but that wasn't enough. We needed to stop the run, and we couldn't do that the 2nd half. We started playing lazy. FSU's 2nd TD couldn't be blamed on the defense though as JPW set them up good with his nice little fumble on the 5ish yard line. What can you do, seriously? Not much. Again, it's the offense that's really causing the problems right now - so if we sort that out, we should be ok.

The defense played well enough to win this game. Too many times they left the field only to be out there again in 3-5 plays. That's what happens when a team doesn't muster up a 1st down until midway thru the 2nd quarter. Horrible. I won't blame the D at all. As in as bad a shape as they are in injurywise, I say kudos to everything but the big 70-yd TD pass. But what can you do? Eventually, everyone gets burned - there was just no sense in us getting burned while not scoring the 1st three quarters of the game. Crazy crap in T-town.... But decent outing guys. We just need more mules in the trenches, and recruiting will fix that in the next couple of years...
GRADE: B

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special Teams was just ordinary at best. We didn't do anything to throw the game away, but we didn't do anything to help ourselves either. Both PATs were made, but no good returns were made on kickoffs. We looked slightly inept there too for some reason. On punt returns, we couldn't even return one which hurt us a lot in field position. Maybe it was the wind or something, but we just didn't get it done. Our punts, on the other hand, were ok, but nothing special. Again, the wind seemed to knock down a lot of punts when we kicked the ball. But none of that should have affected the score of the game - it still came back to the offense not moving the ball. In order to win a football game, you have to score more points than the opponent...and that's the job of the offense. Anything you get from special teams or defense is just icing on the cake - and should not be counted on.
GRADE: B-

OVERALL - Like this whole 'Take on the Game' has stated, no offense, no win. It's that simple. You have to score to win. The defense did just enough to win, but the offense sputtered thru 80% of the game. Surely we have coaches that can analyze the defense and do SOMETHING/ANYTHING to combat against it. Overthrows are getting SERIOUSLY OLD. When you throw a WR a ball and actually aren't throwing it away - AND YOU THROW IT AWAY ANYWAY, NOT GIVING THE WR A CHANCE TO MAKE A PLAY, you're just screwing yourself yet again. How many times are we going to throw fade passes out of bounds???? There is NO point. If you're going to CONSISTANTLY throw the ball out of bounds on fade routes, then just spike the ball into the freaking earth and take a seat on the bench. I, I repeat, I can throw a ball out of bounds. We need someone with skills that can put the ball IN THE FIELD OF PLAY so we can make a play on it. AZOS is a disease we need to get rid of, and now. If one guy can't make the pass, then someone else should be given the chance to at least try. Even when there is plenty of time in the pocket, these passes are still being missed. No excuses. Just get it done. And let's find the TE a bit more too. But then I guess we miss a much-needed blocker in that case... so maybe not. How about everybody do they job so we can win, aight? I'm sick of losing, even if it's just 2 games. It's getting VERY OLD. I've had enough of writing this bull... let's get our crap together and play like a freaking team next week. Out..........
GRADE: C+

#16 BAMA 23 - #23 GEORGIA 26 in OT

I was going to re-watch the game to figure out what went wrong, but it's too painful to do. I just know that Saturday night, I was a ball of nerves, couldn't sleep, frustrated... everything that Hog fans were feeling the week before. Let's take a quick look.....

OFFENSE - The offense is basically what killed us on this non-joyous day. The lack of it put Bama's defense on the field for most of the day. You can't expect a GREAT defense to do much with that let alone a defense that is already worn thin. The bottom line is that we didn't sustain any drives, and our D tired out. JPW continued to throw deep passes out-of-bounds - why??? I have never understood that. Brodie did it as well when Shula was here. JP did it last year also while Shula was here. Was that the stupid gameplan? Throw the ball out-of-bounds to no one could make a play on it? I mean, seriously, these throws HAVE to get better. If you can throw a fade route and you continually throw the ball where NO ONE can get it, you need to re-evaluate what the crap you're doing at QB. Something's gotta give.

The running game seemed to work for the most part though it did get stuffed a bit as well. Grant looked pretty good while he was in there, but we didn't see enough of him. Coffee ended up getting more carries - maybe it's due to UGA focusing more on Grant when he was in there, not sure. But he had some decent runs here and there. Upchurch had a HUGE run there at the end to get the first down. I don't think anyone saw that one coming.

The WR's and TE's did what they had to do to make a few plays. They caught a good bit when it was actually thrown to them. For some reason we can't seem to get open as well as past weeks - and it's not like the offense is tired - they were rarely on the field. Strange how you see all these other teams with spread offenses getting open all the time. I want that.

The offense did good coming back at the end of the game - kudos to that - but dang if they didn't play like a pile of dung in the 1st half and most of the 2nd. You have to play for 60 minutes, and for some reason, we're now only playing in the 4th quarter. ha ha I just don't get it - but maybe the coaches can fix whatever the crap is wrong. They're not tired, so it comes down to personnel and talent. Maybe we don't have the talent, I'm not sure. But UGA's DL was all in the Bama backfield. What happened to the dominant OL? Looked pretty soft to me. Good comeback, but we should have have been put in that situation... too many dead drives cost us the game.
GRADE: C

DEFENSE - The defense did about as good as you could hope for. I mean, 20 points over 4 quarters with Mustin out, isn't too bad. Of course, UGA started some freshmen up front on the OL and we still couldn't do much. I just don't get it... guess we just need to get some bigger mules up front huh?

Mustin really needs to heal up. With his absence, we're lacking some serious meat in the middle of the defense. Hall filled in ok, but Mustin is the playmaker and one more player we need to keep fresh legs on the field. Let's hope that changes next week. The 2ndary played ok, but honestly, we should have been toast quite a few more times than we did. UGA WRs and TEs continually dropped easy & catchable passes. We REALLY got lucky a few times, and it could have been way worse than what it was. We're going to have to do something. And with Saban being a defensive coach, I really think he has milked about as much as one could hope for out of this defense. As long as they were on the field due to the offense's lack of offense, what more could they have done? They were dawg tired (pardon the pun). Maybe we should have subbed in some offensive players to the defense since they didn't even have their uniforms dirtied up. Sheesh. For what they had to deal with, I still give them some decent props... but giving them 20 points is all they needed to take the game into OT and win the game.
GRADE: B+

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams did a good job. Tiffin seems to be coming around and made a huge clutch kick to start the last 10-point Bama rally and then the long FG in OT to take the short-lived lead. Arenas did a decent job, but the fumble on the kickoff by Lowe really hurt Bama coming out of the gate in the 2nd half. The defense had halftime to get some rest, but you expect to get a little more rest and hopefully score, and then that takes the wind right out of your sails. Gotta do better... who knows if that turnover could have been the gamechanger. Besides the turnover, which was HUGE, this facet of the game worked ok for Bama, especially FGs for once.
GRADE: B+

OVERALL - Some people have talked about why we didn't go for two points at the end of the game. Well, I agree with going for one. You don't make a comeback and not give your players a good chance to win the game. When going for 2 and the other teams knows it, it's a very low percentage play. Now think about how Bama plays in the red zone and you can see it was a good decision. Say Bama doesn't get it, we are STILL trailing... and you don't want that. Get the point, and maybe UGA messes up and fumbles the kickoff or something - or we get a quick stop. You never know. In our case, they luckily missed a FG, then we go into OT only for the offense to squander yet again, which cost us the game. We lost to a good team, a ranked team. Georgia is no pushover. But we still should have won the game had our offense had any pride in how they played.

In my opinion, I think Saban is getting all he can out of this team. We're still lacking in talent all over the field. The numbers just aren't there yet, but they will be in the next couple of years. Help is on the way. But I do like the fact that this team won't quit, and has proven for 2 weeks in a row that they can actually come back and give themselves a chance to win the game. Last year, we'd be 2-2 or 1-3 at this point, so I'm ok with where we're headed right now. We will lose again this year - our defense just can't stop everybody when the offense doesn't produce. This isn't 2005 unfortunately. We're thin on D... but hopefully things start looking up and we start playing better. If anyone can do it, this coaching staff can.

As far as ESPN's College Gameday, they can stay off the Alabama campus from now on. Sure, superstition is just that - but dang it if we lose another game when they show up, we're going to burn their stupid bus down to the ground. This is getting ridiculous. :) Make the call, make your predictions - just not in T-Town, aight? Stay away!

That's it. Offense needs serious looks at the passing game, and Terry Grant needs to get the ball more. The defense can only do so much with any team. Let's continue to get better instead of digressing as in years passed. ROLL TIDE!
GRADE: C+

BAMA 41 - #16 ARKANSAS 38

Wow - what a game! It's been a while since I have been able to say that. Talk about an exuberating feeling at the end of a game - I haven't felt that way in forever. I guess that's the difference in having a team that believes they can win and a team that is used to failure and accepts it. Saban won't accept failure unless we did everything we could do humanly possible and still came out on the short end of the stick. Anyway, it was a great game against the Hogs, and quite possibly the hardest game on the rest of our schedule up to LSU. Let's see what went right and wrong for the Tide...

OFFENSE - Bama offense came out of the gate ON FIRE. JP and DJ were in sync from the get-go and did we every strike quickly. Coffee got in on the action as well scoring another rushing TD. But Saturday's game was really about 3 things - DJ getting the record, the team coming from behind in the 4th quarter, and beating a quality team on top of that. There are a ton of other things that we can take from this game, but these were the big 3. John Parker really put us in a hole with the fumble and 2 interceptions. But when it came down to HAVING to make plays, he got the job done. It would have been great to just take care of business, but if you could guarantee me a victory in this way each week, I'd take it. Man, that's just too close for comfort. Wow. Anyway, everyone looked pretty good on offense - the turnovers stung more than anything as that's what got the Hogs back in the game. We definitely need to knock the opponent off the ball more, so hopefully we can improve there. But scoring 41 points was barely enough to win... we knew that coming into the season - that the offense would have to score a lot due to a thin defense. Well, as crazy as it was, we got the job done. Good job - now let's take care of the ball, otherwise a perfect night on offense.
GRADE: B

DEFENSE - Bama's defense barely had enough gas in the tank for one last stop. After the offense hosed up 2 consecutive drives making our already-thin defense even more tired, they still found enough umphf to stop a 3rd down play at the end of the game. I don't know how they did it, especially with a few guys banged up, but I'm glad they dug down deep. The LBs really played a good game, but in the 2nd half, DMac just ran and ran and ran. There wasn't much we could do because they were out there so long. If the defense gets a rest, the stats probably aren't nearly as bad. Everything is said how the defense gave up around 200 yards rushing to DMac... well, if the offense would have done their job and stayed out there more than 1 play, well, the results definitely would have been better. It's such a downer to stop a team, then you have to go right back out and do it again. And against those type of players, you just can't - and we didn't. The Hogs scored 4 straight TDs to take the lead after we were leading 31-10. They are never out of it, and they never have been when they play Bama. We always find a way to let them back in it. Anyway, we came up with just enough to get the job done, and you have to give 'em that. If the Hogs had had one more minute, we might not have survived.
GRADE: B-

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams did a lot better this week, even in the kicking game. Tiffin missed one, but made one which was very big to get the first 3 points of the final 10 Bama got. Arenas did another excellent job at punt returns and on kick returns, he had a good average as well. Punt and kick coverage were probably some of the best we have seen considering the athletes we played against. I definitely liked what I saw, but we could have used a bit better blocking on one punt where Arenas nearly got killed. I'm sure the coaches will fix that this week. Good job guys - you were the difference in the game this week, especially the FG and long punt return after the muffed snap.
GRADE: A-

OVERALL - Overall, it was basically 3 games rolled into one. Bama scored a lot in Game 1. Hogs scored a lot in Game 2. Then Bama capped off the last 10 points in Game 3. In between, there wasn't much going on for each of the other teams. If Game 4 had been played, Arkansas likely would have won. We were just worn out and out of gas. It was good to see this team dig down deep and get a 4th quarter win - something Bama hasn't done since the Independence Bowl back in 2001. These guys have NEVER experienced this in their Bama careers - not DJ, not Brown, not Caldwell, not Wilson, not Castille. Everytime Bama trailed in the 4th quarter in these guys' careers at Bama, we could never come back. The difference? Major Applewhite and Coach Saban. For once, we have an offense that can move the ball, and a Coach that has made this team believe they can win again. Make them believe that there is magic out there in Bryant-Denny. It took a little help from Arkansas with some passing interference calls, but that's all part of the game. There are also calls that were made in their favor - like the missed passing interference across the middle on the final drive, and also the push-off on Castille that wasn't called - should have been an interception for Bama, instead was an incomplete pass. Another no-call bad call.

Arkansas can say they were robbed all they want, but I remember PLENTY of times in years past where a MAJOR call has always occurred in the Hogs favor to win the game... from 12 men on the field, to a pass that skimmed the grass before it was caught for a "TD", to pushoffs... it's insane how many breaks those guys have gotten over the years and we literally were robbed of wins. This game should not have even been this close. The turnovers back-to-back were just uncalled for. You HAVE to protect the football, period. Fumbles on the snap are just inexcusable. Just gotta make sure it doesn't happen again.

A gameball could really go out to a handful of people because so many people contributed... Knight for knocking down the 3rd down pass that would have sealed the deal for a Hog win, DJ for the biggest night he has ever had including breaking Newsome's record, Wilson for throwing well over 300 yards and 4 TDs (but yet 2 ints), the defense for shutting down the Hogs in the first half allowing Bama to get ahead quickly, Oakley for that SUPER HUGE 3rd down catch on the game-winning drive... the list goes on. But my gameball goes to Matt Caddell for coming up as MR. CONSISTENT in the final drive especially. Talk about clutch catches and overall confidence boost - wow. Then JP has the confidence in him to throw up a prayer and hope Cadell could outjump the DB which he did for the game-winning score. Just incredible. I'm getting chills thinking about it all over. He definitely showed up Saturday and got his first catches of the season when DJ was physically unable to go. Someone HAD to step up, and all the guys did their jobs - Caddell, Brown, Oakley, and McCoy. It honestly took the full team effort including that AMAZING BLOCKING of JP when they blitzed like a wild hog at the end. Everything was huge and played with much discipline - and that's where the difference in coaching staffs has made such a huge difference this year. Hopefully they'll continue to learn, and maybe, just maybe Bama can make a run at the West title against LSU later on. It'll be tough, but if we keep improving, you just never know. But we gotta stay healthy and that's my biggest concern right now. Great game guys - great comeback - you're the talk of the town, even on the radio here in Dallas at 4am yesterday. ROLL TIDE!
GRADE: B+

BAMA 24 - VANDERBILT 10

This game was nothing more than a warm-up game for the rest of the SEC season as it turns out. Some people, including myself, thought that Vandy had a small chance of upsetting the Tide this year... but all that nonsense was put to rest after one quarter of play. The Tide came to play and they weren't leaving Nashville with a loss. And as usual, this game was more of a home away from home game for Alabama since there were again more Bama fans there than Vandy fans. Nothing new...

OFFENSE - The offense had a decent day, but mostly on the ground and in the 2nd half. JPW didn't seem to get in sync with his WRs and also threw horrible passes which should have been picked off. He got lucky and only had one interception, but it should have been at least 3. The 2 men of the day were Terry Grant and Glen Coffee. Those 2 RBs, if they can stay healthy, will carry the Tide the rest of the way if the passing game continues to struggle. The OL did a great job, especially the left side of the line. Smith and Britt are a force to be reckoned with, especially Smith. The guy is so strong, athletic, AND QUICK, it's no wonder that he'll likely be the #1 draft pick when he leaves Alabama. It was good to see my boy Michael Johnson come back into the game as well. I thought the switch with Evan Cardwell to Center was a good one with Caldwell going to RG. On the next play or two, Bama would score. At WR, we still need guys that can get open and run better routes. For some reason, Bama is having trouble connecting on the deep ball as well. We just have to get better in that area, and someone has got to step up in SEC competition. Earl Alexander didn't even catch one pass Saturday. Only Hall and McCoy made any impact at the WR position. There were dropped passes, and passes overthrown by JPW. We definitely need to improve there if our running game is supposed to continue to flourish. On a season where WR was supposed to be one of our biggest assets, it's turning in to be one of the worst-played positions on offense. Gotta get better. Red zone TD-scoring will definitely be an emphasis in upcoming days. Still too many attempts at FGs. The good ground game gives Bama's offense a decent grade this week.
GRADE: B

DEFENSE - The defense did a great job in holding Nickson and Bennett in check. They ended up taking both of them out by the 4th quarter with injuries, not to mention the RB. The defense swarmed to the ball most of the day and only had a relapse in the 4th quarter when Vandy got their only TD of the day. Like Saban said, it's how YOU play the game, and you have to play to the end... and we just kinda lazied it up on that TD drive. But overall, I think we did well and got a good bit of pressure on the QB. If we continue this type of play on defense, it will really help our chances at winning some ballgames this year. Kudos to Rashad Johnson on a good interception in the game. I like what I saw - now let's see some more of it next week when it will matter more than ever.
GRADE: A-

SPECIAL TEAMS - Special teams can almost be a replica of last week's take with the difference being that Tiffin missed 2 long FGs this time. He went 3 for 5 this week with his misses coming from 48 and 49 yards. One snap was reportedly low and threw off his timing. Hopefully he'll have it all downpat by next week as the Hogs game will mark his anniversary of THE GAME that he lost (in his eyes). It's a game where there was horrible play-calling as well on Shula's part, but missing 4 FG/PAT attempts is not how you want to leave your presence at the end of a game when you lose. This week, the star was definitely Arenas. What a way to start off a season. If he keeps this up, teams aren't even going to punt to him anymore. He took the opening punt all the way down inside the 5 yard line where Grant punched it in on the very next play (for the 2nd week in a row). If you want another team to get down early, THAT is how you do it. Put the nails in the coffin early and don't let them out. Kickoffs were also good as coverage was quick getting downfield. The only blemmish was the Vandy punt return for a TD that got called back. The facemask didn't appear to have much to do with the play though I could be wrong - but that's 2 weeks in a row where the other team has scored but had to come back due to a penalty. So did Vandy's first pass play to Bennett. He did push off and it was a good call. Bennett even knows that. We just need to be a bit more sound to make sure there are no easy TDs on special teams. But with decent play all around, they get a decent grade. Tiffin still needs some work obviously, but hopefully he's coming around...Good job guys.
GRADE: B-

OVERALL - It was a good day. Bama won, Auburn lost to South Florida where Mike Ford (ex-Bama signee) ran loose on the Tigers, Michigan lost again, Notre Dame lost again, and well, did I mention Bama's 2-0? That's big. Players are getting confidence and they are getting that "it's ok to lose" mentality out of their heads. This coaching staff has CLEARLY made an impact on the players this season. Punt returns and kick returns alone have seen a drastic increase in yardage, the running game is unbelieveable, and the defense had abandoned that stupid 3-3-5 from a year ago. I love it. Now let's just continue to win games, and everything else will hopefully take care of itself. I like what I saw though. Bama gave up one TD drive, but the game was never really in doubt as the crimson guys dominated the game. I want to see more of the same next week, but the WRs really need to find themselves an identity now. The RBs have found their groove - now it's time for the passing game to show what they've got. If we can do that, this team will be downright difficult to stop by anyone. Keep it up Tide, and keep rollin'. Last, work on that red zone offense, aight?
GRADE: B

BAMA 52 - WESTERN CAROLINA 6

This was a game that everyone expected to win, especially after beating this team 52-0 a few years ago. It wasn't a championship team then, and surely wouldn't be now. It was just a matter of how many points we'd beat them buy... lucky for us, we weren't Michigan. I've never seen so much press on any single NCAA Football event since Nick Saban was hired earlier this year. The coverage on that game has been totally insane. But I guess rightly so...

Anyway, it was a good overall game with Bama taking care of business like they should, and we were able to get backups into the game so make sure we don't get any injuries before heading into SEC play. That alone is huge, and something the previous coaching staff was unable to do. Let's take a quick look at the game...

OFFENSE - We finally got to see the new Alabama offense. Many believed that Alabama would air it out, but on Saturday, the opposite was true. Bama ran quite a bit more than it passed. Passing really wasn't necessary since Bama moved the ball so well on the ground. Terry Grant and company took care of business and it allowed the passing game to be used as an option instead of out of necessity.

Everyone talks about the first play from scrimmage - the 47 yard run by Grant for a TD. That brings back memories of Shaud Williams' run up the gut against Arkansas a few years back in Fayettville. That's how you start off the game right. Get the other team down immediately. And the thing is, is that if we really had wanted to, Grant could have easily beaten Shaun Alexander's 291-yard game vs LSU a few years ago. But we don't care about records right now, except the final score and injuries. Anything else that happens is mere gravy. And in this game, we won and had no major injuries. A+ there.

But back to the offense, the RBs did a very good job. Grant only played for the first 2 quarters, and backups Coffee and Upchurch got the rest of the work. They looked good as well. Funny thing is, is that Terry Grant got 3 rushing TDs; Coffee got 1 rushing TD; Johns got 1 rushing TD; and Upchurch got 1 rushing TD. Hmmm... how many rushing TDs did Darby get in ALL of last year?? Yes, if you answered ZERO, you are correct. He never hit the hole like he was supposed to, and frankly, it shows how undominating Bama's running game was last year. Sure Tim Castille and Ron McClain always came in for the inferior 'Jumbo Package' and that didn't help Darby's TD numbers, but dang - how are you a RB and you get no rushing TDs? He ended the year with 1 receiving TD which came against LSU I believe.

Anyway, all of our RBs are the real deal. I feel confident in all 3 starting actually, but Grant by far, is the fastest, smartest, and most talented. Incidently, both of our RBs (Grant and Johns) are former Mr. Football in the state of Mississippi. Our other great RBs are from Florida.

Bama's WRs and TEs did a good job catching the ball. The TE position had the most catches with play-action bootlegs which worked to perfection every time. In the SEC, those plays will most definitely be covered most of the time. But in this game, they picked up good yards. DJ Hall had a good game, but dropped a couple of passes... I still have faith in our #1 pass-catcher. He now needs 101 yards to be Alabama's all-time receiving yards leader. That should probably happen in the next 2-3 games at the least. Earl Alexander really impressed me with his hands and so did Mike McCoy. There were quesitons on who would actually be able to contribute behind Brown and Caddell. Well, it looks like those two have stepped up to the plate and make Saban's worry of recruiting good WRs not so much. These other WRs are still young and can play well. Getting even better WRs in this next class will really beef up this position. But overall, the WRs did their job and also blocked well. DJ Hall got the block of the night on offense when he tagged that guy before he could get to Wilson. Ouch. Dude didn't see it coming and he was laid out flat.

Last, the OL did well, and only gave up one sack. For the most part, Wilson was protected the whole night, and the RBs had plenty of room to run. This definitely could be a rock position for the offense this year. They were so dominating that we tallied 35 first downs, an Alabama record - incredible. I can stand to see more of that... Domination at the line is huge, but we'll be able to tell more later in the year. Overall, a good job against inferior competition. Anything less would have been worrisome, but I feel good about this first outing though it was against a championship series division team. Good job guys!
GRADE: A+

DEFENSE - The defense played well. One play, WCU could have gotten a TD, but only because of a holding call. The defense still shouldn't have needed that call to stop the WR from scoring, but that's what happened. They didn't allow a TD which was a positive sign, but like Saban said in his post-game comments, this team still isn't physical enough on its front seven. We're "soft". I agree. We played hard, but there still isn't enough penetration into the backfield. We still gave up 245 or so yards and that didn't include the long pass that called back, else they would have eclipsed the 300+ yard mark. So he (and us, the fans) still need to be wary of our defensive play right now. We need to get tougher and get turnovers. Of course, the offense also has to help us out too and make decisions that allow us to get turnovers. WCU, like Bama, played well enough on offense that they didn't cough up the ball. Credit both offenses for protecting the football. If you can't get turnovers, then stop the ground game first, then the passing game. That's what we did as WCU only got 76 yards on the ground. So good game plan and good execution. Again, against SEC competition, we'll need to beef it up a bit. It won't get any easier than this, that's for sure.

The 2ndary did a pretty good job too making plays. We didn't get an int's, but we did get some good blitzes from the outside from time to time, and we held their WRs in check. It was very obvious that WCU wanted to avoid throwing to Castille's side of the field. If you can do that, you've limited their offense to one side of the field, and that's impressive. The defensive hit of the game was when WCUs RB got creamed by McClain up the middle. Knocked his helmet off too, but dang, his world got rocked on that hit. After watching it time after time on ESPN's Sportscenter, it's amazing he even got up after that hit. Wow. So good job... but in the future, get more aggressive up front, and we have to start creating turnovers even if the opposing offense is playing well. The coaches will definitely address these issues this week at practice. Good job. No TD's allowed is always a plus. But honestly, that's what you should expect given who we were playing.
GRADE: A-

SPECIAL TEAMS - I really have mixed feelings about special teams play this week. The return game was huge. Arenas is picking up where he left off last year and doing a great job. Kickoff coverage and strategy was also good. Punting was also good enough for me. My beef right now is with FG kicking. Here we are in the 1st and easiest game all year, and we're missing chip-shot FGs. Obviously Tiffin has not gotten over the Arkansas hex that happened last year. Hopefully he gets that out of his head soon (he says he already has though), because he's going to be called upon someday soon possibly, and we're going to need a solid FG kicker. Now you're obviously going to miss from time to time - heck, even NFL kickers miss. But when you miss a 27-yarder, that's not good. Even a 40 yarder down the middle isn't really acceptable. I just hope that he can iron out these problems sooner rather than later. I know they are all kids, but this is his 2nd year as a scholarship player in college. This IS his job. The RB's job is to RUN THE BALL. The WR's job is to CATCH THE BALL. The Defense's job is to TACKLE and/or make interceptions. Same holds true with the kicker. Your job is to KICK THE BALL THRU THE GOALPOSTS. That's all. In practice, you don't run thru passing drills... or running thru tackles drills... or passing the ball drills. You just do your stretches, do excercises, run some laps, keep in shape, workout, and KICK THE BALL. Now, of course, this is actually one of the hardest things to do in football, but by George, it's time to start getting it downpat, seriously. If you can't kick the ball accurately, then let's revoke your scholarship and give it to someone who can. I see kickers all over the country even on pip-squeak teams that know how to kick a ball. It's really strange. I see other kickers kick the ball in the end zone too, even from the 30. I don't ask that - I just ask that we kick the ball thru the FG posts on a consistent basis. We're 1 for 3 on the year and counting. We're perfect on PATs at least. Just get better. We have no one else until Christensen gets healed up, if that even happens this season. So bad FG kicking paired up with great other special teams play give it what it is. We left 6 points out on the field basically. One game, we'll need those 6 points just like the ones we needed to win those 3 games in 2005 that Christensen hit. We can't have a floundering kicker, whoever it is. Gotta be solid here. I'd rather hit those 2 FGs and have bad field position than miss 2 FGs and have good field position which we had. Points win games. We can always move the ball from bad field position - you can't get points back when you miss.
GRADE: C+

OVERALL - Overall, the coaching staff had this team ready to play against something slightly better than a high school team. We didn't really get outplayed in any aspect of the game except FGs made. Bama 1-3 and WCU 2-2. I look forward to this team improving from week-to-week instead of digressing like last year. There's nothing worse than a team NOT learning from their mistakes. With the SEC slate coming up, at least now we have a remote idea of what this team can do. Against heftier competition, the score will obviously be lower, so that means we just need to play a lot better to take care of business. But in this particular game, Bama did their job and took care of business, and didn't have to wait until the last play of the game to see if we would win or not. It was relaxing to watch and fun as well. In the end, this is how I wish every Bama game would end...without the stress and anger like all of us had in 2006. :) ROLL TIDE!
OVERALL GRADE: A-