I think it was a 90% pychological let down when Cody left. Now I have to to do a Yogi there and say the other 50% was physical. But seriously, after the team practices without him, they will develop confidence as a great, physical team, minus one very physical player. That is part of the Nicktator’s job and he as well versed in despelling fear and inspiring confidence as any coach out there.

To me, this strikes as one of those nice little facially significant statistics that, upon a deeper examination, don’t actually tell you anything.

Yes the Ole Miss offense moved the ball a bit better after Cody went out, but frankly they were making their way by throwing the football. I love Cody just as much as anyone, but he’s pretty much a non-factor in the passing game, and his specialty is shutting down the interior running game of opposing teams. I cannot say that the result would have been demonstrably different had Cody stayed in the game from a strategic perspective.

Moreover, the actual drive statistic is very misleading. Yes they did take five of those six possessions into Alabama territory, but what is not mentioned is that one of those drives actually started in Alabama territory (due to the Coffee fumble), and two others actually started on the Ole Miss 48. In other words, the Ole Miss needed a combined four yards to get the ball in our territory; big whoop. That doesn’t tell you anything.

Furthermore, three of those drives actually resulted in turnovers, two on downs and one on a fumble.

The real telling statistic, as was mentioned in the other thread, is that in the 10 runs by Ole Miss tailbacks following Cody’s injury, they got a grand total of 16 yards.

Since I did a Yogi, I might as well do a Mark Twain. There are 3 kinds of liars: liars, damn liars and statistics.

I mean, I love the big guy. But our D was great without him, and Chapman is more than capable. As stated above, our team will get better and better.

Look at this; how many trick plays and gambles did Nutt (and Richt) need to run (fake field goal, two onside kicks – GA – etc.) to get back in the game? And we held when we needed to. If it were not for being so far behind, they wouldn’t have had to reach into their bags. Bama, on the other hand, didn’t really do much of anything surprising other than Cody at FB and the Flea Flicker (which was the most beautiful thing I have seen this year). I am more confident now than I was after Arkey and GA. We have the guts to hang in there, even when we shoot ourselves in the foot. This is a special year, and the way Saban is recruiting and the number of younger guys playing, we could have a nice string of really good years coming up – think USC but with Defense!