Crimson Red Sports

Great victory for the Tide & puts us in driver's seat for SECCG berth.


GOOD

Adam Griffith looking good, finally. This is a huge positive for future games. Good for him.
Henry was a bulldozer with over 200 yards with tough running.
We didn't just win, we dominated on national TV, a huge plus.
Henry may be the Heisman leader now.
Ole Miss lost, Michigan State lost, Memphis lost, & TCU lost.
D-Line awesome
O-Line was awesome most times
Didn't see any injuries.
Tide won 5th in-a-row against LSU


BAD


Still fumbling deep in other teams territory after a good drive.
Got sloppy with penalties late.



 #+ #+ #+

Sounds about right.  One thing that concerns me a little is that we still have spurts were we seem to lose our focus and can't snap out of it for a little bit.  It does seem that we are snapping out of it much quicker than earlier in the year though.  All teams do this to some extent, so I'm not too concerned about it.

Fortunately we will probably be double digit favorites the rest of the way all the way until the playoffs.

Fumbles and stupid penalties are the only concern I have about this team at this point.  They've faced three undefeated top-10 (at the time) teams and dominated all three.  The loss to Ole Miss was all turnovers and fluke plays, and the team has shown great improvement since week three.  I don't think there's a defense in the country that can stop Bama's running game, and Coker is just good enough to make the plays needed to keep opposing defenses honest. 

Bama should roll through the final three regular season games. 

I don't know about that but...I don't believe there is a running game that our defense can't stop...well, except for our own that is... ???

I didn't attribute the quote because it is a common sentiment shared by most Bama fans.

But let's nip that thinking in the bud.  Now is not the time to get complacent.  Now is the time to get serious.

Mississippi State has improved this year, and a mobile QB who can pass is a tougher challenge for Bama's defense than a power rushing team. 

Auburn was terrible early in the season with young players, but they seem to have found their groove, and Bama will get their best game of the season.  You can throw out the records for that game.

Hopefully Saban does a good job reminding the team to stay focused and take the season one week at a time.  It seems that after the Ole Miss loss, the entirety of last year's season hit home with the players, and they've done a great job getting their head in the game and focusing on the task at hand.

#16 is within reach.  This team has the potential to dominate the remaining competition.  The only way that might not happen is if the team loses focus, starts looking ahead, starts thinking about playoffs and championships.  The press has started the accolades, and the players are hearing it.  But as dominant a performance as it was, LSU was just one game.  And while I doubt many players read this forum (sorry SC), as a fan I'm not going to do anything that might cause the team to lose the one-game-at-a-time mentality needed to get them where they want to go. 

What did you guys think about the DB's play?  Was hard to tell how good they were in coverage on TV but it seemed like they did a pretty good job.  But still problems of not turning their head around and locating the ball which will frequently get a penalty.

My biggest concerns about playing Misses State are:

1) they will be well-rested after 9 days of rest
2) the Tide may be feeling the effects of a bruising game against LSU
3) Henry carried the ball 38 times, will he be 100% or somewhat worn down
4) will we come out flat after such a huge win



 :dunno:

TCB.  I have confidence in the coaching staff and team to to Take Care of Business.  But I agree, this next game won't be a cakewalk.   

No one has mentioned them and I'm not worried about beating Charleston Southern.  What I DO worry about with that game is injuries.  We are deep at most positions but the possibility of an injury to a key player scares the bejeezus out of me.

We learned only that we are as good as we thought we were in defending the run. We learned little about our pass defense, but we we did learn wasn't so favorable. We gave up a couple big passing plays  (catches and PIs) because our corners have still not developed enough confidence to turn to the ball and make a play on the ball. If you go up against one of these high octane offensive clubs we will have to rest our hope on quickly overwhelming the QB so they do not have time to deliver the ball.

Well, Bama beat the Aggies by 18 and API beat them by 16.  Getting pretty close.

Harris only completed 6 passes.  ???

Not sure what the relevance of that is, given my concern about facing a good passing team. The issue is not that there were 13 incomplete passes. The issue is how many catchable balls were incomplete because they were well defended. I have not watched the re-run the count, but lots of those were crappy passes or ditching the ball under pressure. Those can be credited to poor passing or pressures, but not to our secondary. The good balls I can remember are the deep ball to their sideline that got them out of third and a mile up against their own goal line, the touchdown pass, and the PI in the second half that saved a sure touch down. You may say that Harris is a good passer because of his error free play. However, if you are not Bama you have had to sell out to try to stop Fournette. I think that made him look more like a more formidable passer than he really is.

I was sitting a long way from that play, but it appeared to be a perfect pass to the receiver who was covered pretty well. The TD pass was to a receiver who beat Smith badly. Matias-Smith scares me when he has to cover folks.

I'm not sure you can draw any conclusions from the LSU game about Bama's pass defense.  Bama concentrated on stopping the run in that game, and used an entirely different defensive package than would be used against passing teams, like Texas A&M.

Whatever the details about all this might be, I suspect that we all agree that the LSU game returned the Bama D to "scary" status.

Reminds me of a quote:

"HE'D COMPLAIN IF WE HUNG HIM WITH A NEW ROPE."