About Last Night...
by kleph on Nov 9, 2008 11:25 AM CST
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The morning media-ocrity has awakened from it's blissful slumbers, rolled out of bed and belched forth its usual pile of pomposity. So here's the highlights of the offerings for you to peruse at your leisure...
The Crimson Tide looked like an upset victim because its usually reliable run defense, which entered the game allowing just 65 yards a game, was gashed for 201 yards. Alabama inverted its offense and threw on first down when it usually runs, but Wilson was spotty. He completed 15 of 31 passes as he tried to involve other receivers in the game besides the fabulous freshman Julio Jones. “After it’s done, you look at the overall picture, the overall situation, it does your heart good,” Alabama defensive back and kick returner Javier Arenas said. “Coach had a huge smile on his face. We did it for coach and for ourselves.”
Alabama didn't offer anything awesome or outstanding against LSU on Saturday, but the Tide actually increased their stature because they managed to survive without their best stuff... The name of the game — especially in the sport with the shortest of seasons — is to get out of town with a W, and that's exactly what Alabama did on Saturday against an opponent that wanted to knock off the Tide in the worst possible way.
And so Saban, who led LSU to a 2003 national title before a brief detour to the NFL and his return to college ball at Alabama last year, can afford to be conciliatory toward LSU's fans, including those who screamed, "(Bleep) you, Saban, (bleep) you, Saban," after the Tide scored the winning touchdown. "You name it, I heard it, he said. "None of it was that creative."
The student section at Tiger Stadium serenaded the Crimson Tide coach with an expletive-laced chant at the close, as Alabama players raced onto the field in celebration. The Crimson Tide fans, a noticeable presence in the southeast corner of the stadium, roared with glee as Alabama (10-0, 6-0 Southeastern Conference) clinched the SEC's West Division.
[Saban's] assessment of the Tide's performance here Saturday was considerably harsher -- not that you could blame him.He'd just watched his team commit an uncharacteristic number of miscues -- three turnovers, several costly penalties and a blocked field-goal attempt that would have won the game in regulation -- that kept the Tide from putting away a pesky but overmatched opponent whose quarterback seemed bent on giving the ball (and the game) to the other team.
"My emotions for this place [LSU] are positive, not negative," Saban said. The biggest reason those emotions are not returned in kind by so many LSU fans is simple: They're seeing, firsthand, the brilliance of a coach who used to be theirs. This is jealousy, pure and simple. They want him and can't have him. They used to love him, but the depth of the embrace was never fully reciprocal.
With a few more plays here, a few more breaks made or chances seized there, the Tigers could have stalled that celebration for the Tide and ended its run at the top of the rankings. Instead, four Jarrett Lee interceptions — the last in overtime — sent the Tigers to a third regular-season loss for the first time in Miles’ four seasons and left them to pick up the pieces of a season when very little seems left to salvage.
At its heart is a fear over what Alabama can become. It’s already 10-0 and top ranked. In just two years this rivalry has “flipped flopped” as Johnson put it. Wait until Saban gets his recruits in and maybe there aren’t so many turnovers to overcome, Tide fans say. Maybe then LSU doesn’t even have the chance to block a winning extra point to force overtime and send Tiger Stadium into an earth-rattling roar.
As I said earlier today, style points don't come into play in Baton Rouge, no matter how brutal Jarrett Lee is, or how vulnerable the run defense looked for the first time all year. All the Tide had to do was survive, which Penn State couldn't do at Iowa, and shoot itself full of whatever completely legal painkiller it needs to get through Mississippi State.
While its unlikely any Alabama fans were watching Penn State's implosion, they might have gotten a good gist of how it happened by watching the Tide. A slumping quarterback. A rush defense growing increasingly suspect. Special teams not up to snuff. Stop us when you've heard this one before. Returning head coach Nick Saban showed up in Baton Rouge with a 13-member police escort, the kind of entourage you only see in football if Pacman Jones is in town, but it was the kind of homecoming the Jacksons might find uncivil.The team wasn't much better, and for Alabama, the paint is starting to peel off the 2008 season.
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Thanks for that!
Part of my Sunday afternoon ritual is to read the sports page, however I had almost decided I was in TOO GOOD of a mood this day to read it. I watched the game and know almost everything they do from this and other sites. You just sealed the deal! I will stick with my OWN opinion of this game this week and leave my blood pressure and heart rate at a resting pace. Thanks, Kleph, you may have just saved my life. And to everyone else who posts relevant news during my one-day boycott.
I'll bet,
that with the exception of TTU, Ball State, Boise State, Utah, every other team in the country would love to have “the paint peel off” of their seasons like Alabama’s has. Ray Holloman is an idiot.
by Stuck in the Plains on Nov 9, 2008 1:22 PM CST reply actions
the constant naysaying of holloman and deadspin’s travis is becoming more ludicrous by the week. just about every halfway objective observer is acutely aware of how this season has been an unqualified success for us given the expectations from the onset. if you told me on Aug. 29 we would have ten wins this season and would make it to the SEC championship i would have been estatic – and i still am.
as pantsfucious pointed out, this team has systematically obliterated a number of streaks that have hung over the program far too long. there is just one more streak i want to see end and, if that happens, there’s nothing else that can happen this year i can possibly classify as “bad.”
but the question remains, does this team have a chance to make it to the mnc? sure, but it’ll be tough thing to pull off even if everything goes our way (which is doubtful). what eclipses that in importance is what saban has refered to repeatedly as ‘the process.’ the achievements of this squad should still be viewed in light of the overall effort that is still ongoing. the goal here isn’t to hoist one crystal ball – the goal is to create an ongoing power that contends every year.
the problems at the start of the year are the problems today – depth and experience. that we are not dominating like before can clearly be attributed to the former. if this is the worst that the particular problem doles out then we are luckier than we’ve probably any right to be. as for experience… look at the performance of the freshmen this year and try to imagine them over the next two years. spooky good, isn’t it?
so pundits like this are really not worth the time to get irritated over. they never really gave the team a chance from the start and even as the production on the field has countered every one of their objections they refuse to admit their error. it’s simpler to pretend each week expectations were higher than they were and tear this team down than give a cogent analysis of what has actually happened.
Two streaks
don’t forget MSU has beaten us the last two years. I condsider that enough to call it a streak I’d like to see end as well, so I’m going to say two more games, two more potential streak-killing victories.
The Fox Sports comment
Getting out of town with a W IS the name of the game! It is ridiculous to expect a team to blow out every opponent and play perfect football in order to be #1. Penn State was supposed to have the easiest road and blew it. Florida and USC have been beaten on the field by heavy underdogs, yet are once again proclaimed ‘unbeatable’. Alabama has looked unstoppable at times and have also looked average at times, but not to the point of losing games we were supposed to win.
LSU fans have a reputation of being hostile and they relish in making Tiger Stadium a nightmare for the opposing teams, but last night, with the LSU team bringing their ‘A’ game (except QB) and their fans bringing their ‘F’ game, the fact we got out of there with a W is a tribute to our team’s ability to overcome adversity, something all those 1 loss teams could not and did not do.
wow. great post kleph, thanky
i gotta say, i was hoping for and predicted a 10 win regular season, and wasn’t sure if we’d win the west. If we can just beat auburn then this year will surpass my own hopes/expectations. so while i am certainly never going to concede defeat for this squad to ANY TEAM, i guess i really dont have any right to be pissed off if a confluence of bad luck and piss poor officiating cost us the SECCG. We’ll still go to the sugar bowl at worst, i just hope we get a “top notch” big 12 team to play against, both us and florida, so the SEC can go 2-0 against them in BCS bowls. i wonder if that’ll shut any of the big 12 proponents up, but i doubt it, they’ll likely try to argue that if harrell, mccoy, or bradford could also play D-line then they woulda coulda shoulda…..
This is PRECISELY why the stereo is on today!
I only want my “sports news” from biased sources at RBR, so thanks to all of you for your posts. Kelph is right that it isn’t WORTH being irritated over, however the fact remains that I will be irritated at the end! I love this team and hate to hear this garbage about them. So I have chosen NOT TO HEAR IT, and I must say I am happier for it—and my house is a good bit cleaner as a bonus!!
I am proud of what this young group has accomplished. I was there (actually lived in Ttown then) in 1992 with all of the nay-sayers for that group too. I know how angry I was at that time, and it really ISN’T worth my energy. I am very thankful for you guys to keep me informed here.
I think most, if not ALL, of the Bama fans I am around are of like mind about this season. The NC and SEC are great, but they are NOT what our immediate goals are right now. Streak-breaking has been the name of the season. We are half-way through November……..
A secon year coach
with only 9 seniors and a slew of freshmen and sophomores 10-0, #1 in the country, SEC West champs, and fought to victory in the midst hostile stadium X 10. Peel off the season? It’s only beginning, haters.
Alabama judges its team by national and SEC titles. Auburn judges its team by how many times it beats Alabama. You tell me who the dominant team in the state is.
Plus
Had this been Texas, Florida, Oklahoma. or Tech it would have gloried in a team that showed guts and determination to win as all great teams do on the way to a possible national title. But Alabama?
Does anyone else relish being the villain like I do?
Alabama judges its team by national and SEC titles. Auburn judges its team by how many times it beats Alabama. You tell me who the dominant team in the state is.
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