Cardiac Bowl Observations and such

Here are a few mental regurgitations after watching the game again this morning:

* As much as I hate to admit it, that reverse was a beautifully executed play; mostly in relation to downfield blocking.  Every defender that had a chance to bring down Zachary was picked up at the last minute, and after the fact I can definitely appreciate how well it was planned out.

* Auburn's D surprised the hell out of me.  Especially the middle linebacker (I didn't catch his name, but he was #U).  Dude had two pass deflections and a perfectly timed pass break up on Ingram.  Bottom line, the guy stepped up in the clutch and got the job done for the AU D.

* Upchurch.  That is all.

* AU's last drive was very LSU-esque.  In a minute-13 and one timeout, they only pulled out 6 plays, I believe; while a ton of time was wasted audibling at the line by Todd.  Two short passes over the middle, two draws up the middle, a long slant, and a hail mary.  No sideline passes, and very little attempt at getting first downs to at least stop the clock momentarily.  Very surprising.

* Our inability to check down at the line is what led to Ingram getting banged up.  McElroy and the O line up on 2nd and whatever in an obvious running down late in The Drive.  Not only does AU line up 8 in the box, the put 8 ON the line.  McElroy sees this (as does everyone else on Earth), but instead of checking down to a quick out to Julio (who is covered 1 on 1 down low), we run the dive up the middle as called and Ingram gets hit about 47 times.  What happened to calling two plays in the huddle?  That would have been the perfect time to check down to ANYTHING else in the playbook.

* McElroy... buddy... WHO THE F- WERE YOU THROWING TO ON THE 2 PT CONV?  Great game otherwise!  Needed you to step up, and you did.

* The 3rd AU TD was as a result of the corner blitz that left Barron on an island, but did was stop running it? NO!  And it led to 2 stops behind the line, a sack, and a stop for short yardage; and that was just in the late 3rd and 4th quarter.  What differences does Saban and Co. bring to the table that other coaching staffs didn't?  The lack of fear to keep running a play when you've gotten burnt once already.  Way to play balls out, CNS!

* We almost got to the punter thrice.  We may need to get to one next week to counteract the fact that we will likely not have ANY punt return yards.  The Gators are pretty good in that aspect.

* Roll Tide!  Cheers!