Well, yet another heart stopper in Tuscaloosa. I'm sooo ready to whip somebody's ass so that I don't have to worry about the outcome on the last play of the game. Regardless, the team looked like they were sleepwalking through the 2nd quarter and the entire 2nd half.
The first quarter looked like what we want out of our football team. Fast, quick, and relentless. They were destroying Houston on the line on every single play. We owned the time of possession in the first quarter, but allowed them to even it up towards the end of the game because we couldn't sustain a drive.
Which leads me to this - John Parker's days could be numbered. The post game interview with Coach Saban brought up that they were making it a somewhat simple offense Saturday. If Houston's safeties were back in cover 2, we were going to run the football. If the safeties came up to stop the run, we were going to audible to a passing play. Sounds simple. But JP couldn't pull it off. Which leads me to believe that he's having trouble reading defenses, which also leads me to believe that he's not the person who should be playing quarterback at Alabama.
Now, let me get this straight - I will support WHOEVER is playing QB, but based on what I've seen, I don't think JP should be the quarterback. I won't "boo" or complain, and neither should anyone else. But I think the writing is on the wall here. At least for right now.
Terry Grant didn't play much. I'm not sure exactly what happened with that, but Glen Coffee did get 30+ carries, which was unbelievable. I'm sure he's pretty banged up. I think the entire team will be ready to come out firing again at Ole Miss, and will try to prove that they can sustain a big lead in a ball game before the Vols come to town in 2 weeks. I won't be posting any links today - mainly just thoughts from the weekend, since I wasn't around a computer.
If you don't have your tickets for this weekend yet, go check out the Alabama / Ole Miss tickets at TickCo.com. They also have just a regular Alabama section where you can get tickets to ANY of the upcoming games left on the schedule. They've got some good prices, so go check those out.
Tennessee absolutely blasted Georgia. I was able to have two TVs going at the same time, so I was able to watch both games. What the hell happened with Georgia's offensive and defensive lines? They got blown of the ball almost every snap. They made some headway in the 2nd half, but by that point they were already down 28-0. Not much you can do after that.
Regardless of Tennessee's beatdown of Georgia, Las Vegas thinks it was a fluke. Tennessee is only a 6.5 point favorite in Starkville this weekend, and Georgia is still a 7 point favorite at Vanderbilt. Apparently the oddsmakers didn't watch Alabama and Houston because they have Bama as a 6.5 point favorite at Ole Miss. Las Vegas also found that there are weaknesses in LSU's defense, because they've only got the Tigers as a 9 point favorite heading into Lexington this weekend to face Kentucky.
The LSU / Florida game was one for the ages, as gay as that may sound. It was just a wonderfully played football game, with each team taking shots at the other team's weaknesses. Yes, the officiating smelled incredibly Cajun, and yes, Les Miles is still an idiot, but the game was a classic. There were so many "important" plays in the game that went both ways, the entire game was basically one long highlight reel. Tebow is too cocky for my taste, and LSU's kicking game sucks. Les Miles challenging whether or not the Florida player stepped out of bounds, which only resulted in a change of 7 yards, in the 4th quarter, was idiotic at best. Had they lost that timeout, there's no telling how that could have changed the game. Going for it on 4th-and-whatever 5 times in the game, despite being in field goal range for 3 of them, could have been disastrous. He's a lucky bastard for having the most talent of any team in the country for the past 3 years, so he can make calls like that.
Ole Miss did, in fact, win a game on Saturday. They handled La Tech 24-0, and even though the score looked lopsided, it really wasn't as dominating as you would think. Seth Adams threw 3 picks, and the offense didn't get a whole lot going. I think they only had about 100 yards rushing for the game, against a defense that gives up close to 200 to everyone else (including Hawaii and California - both predominantly passing teams). Ole Miss is giving up 200+ rushing yards per game, so if that's not in this week's game plan, our offensive coaching staff needs to have their heads examined.
Nebraska got their brains beat in by Missouri, and Missou's fake field goal in the 4th quarter was almost as pretty as LSU's was a couple of weeks ago against South Carolina. So now, even though we thought we were going to have answers after this weekend, now we just have more questions. Like, for example, is Missouri for real, or is Nebraska really just that bad?
Oklahoma should've beaten Texas by 3 touchdowns. But they didn't. They still got the W, and I suppose that's ok.
Purdue is a pretender. Surprise surprise.
I thought Vandy would hang with Auburn for a little bit, but apparently the AU offense is rolling now. Vegas isn't buying it though - they're a 3.5 point dog at Arkansas this weekend. THAT should be a helluva game. Two incredibly physical football teams. Should be fun to watch.
South Florida almost laid an egg at Florida Atlantic, but I guess that's ok. The Schnell knows how to pick off teams coming off emotional victories - sadly he just doesn't have the talent that South Florida does.
I have nothing to really say about Alabama, other than I swear I'm going to have a heart attack before this season is done if games keep going down to the wire like this. I could understand close games with Arkansas, Georgia, and Florida St, but Houston is a different story.
We'll have more news tomorrow. Take care!
¶ 11:34 AM
Tennessee absolutely blasted Georgia. I was able to have two TVs going at the same time, so I was able to watch both games. What the hell happened with Georgia's offensive and defensive lines? They got blown of the ball almost every snap. They made some headway in the 2nd half, but by that point they were already down 28-0. Not much you can do after that.
