Good breakdown. Our defense made offenses go offsides all season.

Like the clip of Antoine!

I disagree with his conclusion. Even if we assume that having Andre wouldn’t have made a difference on those two plays (something I think greatly over-simplifies the offensive line dynamic) let’s keep in mind that two plays do not make or break a game.

Football is situational. With a healthy offensive line, the Utes might never have found Alabama in a “must pass” situation like the one that resulted in the fumble. Wilson likely wouldn’t have seen anywhere near the number of sacks, pressures, and knockdowns that he did . . . which could have turned a sack and fumble on that play into just a sack.

To say nothing of the fact that with a healthy offensive line, this might have been the only defensive tactic that was working, allowing for play calls which focused on exploiting it instead of having to second guess everything.

You just can’t look at two plays and say “Oh, losing that All-American tackle didn’t make a difference.”

Losing Andre made a huge difference, both from the Xs and Os side and the emotional/leadership side, but a bigger part was that the Tide just wasn’t up for the game. They played lazy, slow, and disinterested.

They played like they didn’t really want to be there.

My guess is that the outcome would’ve been more like the Tulane game with Smith in the line-up — out-played, but pulling out the win.

Bottom line: I can’t think of a team in the top 10 (and not many in the top 25) that wouldn’t have beaten us the way we played that day.

As my wife and I located our seats in the second tier endzone we came across shakers in our seats. They looked a lot like the Alabama colors, although the red was more reflective. On the handle it said Utah 12-0. Instead of tossing them, we held on to them for the 1st quarter. So basically It is really my fault. Won’t happen again.

Good analysis, however it is short sighted. Bama missed the oppurtunities we had to ,figuratively, change the tide. We were not motivated and believed the hype. Smith was a distration and Johnson got injured quickly in the game. two plays dont make a game. Again, we missed signifigant scoring oppurtunities and lost to a better prepared team.
In the end an overachieving tide lost to the number 1 and legitimate number 2 team. Further, I would of loved to see Florida play Utah that night -they were on fire.

Those two plays are huge, and a couple of plays can certainly alter the outcome of a football game. And yeah, I’d admit Andre Smith wasn’t a factor perhaps if we ran for 300 yards in that game. But losing him, and another left tackle (Mike Johnson?) who was out of position to begin with in the first quarter certainly did have an effect on our running and passing game for the full 60 minutes.

but with Smith & Johnson we would run more and pass less. Plus, JPW panicked when Smith was not there and the result was the 1st INT which really turned the game. The Sugar Bowl showed us the JPW of 07 and not 08. He was only as good as his line. Once the line was shot our only hope to win was special teams and turnovers. We could have won like that if we had not gotten so far behind at the start.

We will fix this in 09.