Written by Ell
| 08 December 2008
Alabama was beat Saturday afternoon by a better team. Maybe the best team. In fact, if there's a better team in college football, I want no part of them. Florida is well coached, they're talented at the skill positions (with or without Percy Harvin) and they're fast and strong - just like they promised all week.
The conventional football wisdom is you pick the way you want the opposition to beat you. Take away what they do best, and try and force them into something they're not comfortable with. Alabama did that with aplomb on Saturday afternoon in the Georgia Dome. They took away Tim Tebow's ability to run (with the exception of the breakdown/scramble in the first quarter) and dared him to beat us with his arm.
He did just that.
It's a credit to the man that he was able to exploit our schemes in the way he did. His arm was much maligned in the media, and he's continually told he'll never be an NFL quarterback. Maybe he won't be, but I don't know that I've ever seen a better all-around player in person that Tim Tebow.
I was chatting with Crump yesterday, and he noted that he's not the best ever at anything. He's not in the same class rushing the ball as
Tommie Frazier at Nebraska. He's not the passer that either of the Manning boys was. He's probably not the best field general ever or the greatest decision maker or even the best "leader" (although he might be closest to tops in the leadership category).
What makes Tim Tebow special is that he's great in all those categories. He's not the greatest in any one spot, but he's great across the board. He's a very unique player who is fantastic in many different facets. You shut down the run - he throws. Cover the pass - he runs. You can't stop everything all the time.
So, inevitably, we had trouble limiting their success on first down. When they have second and short (as mentioned by scottnola1, who traveled with me to the game), their entire playbook is open for the next two downs. You have to decide what to stop, and they take the other. And then, they beat you.
The only way Florida loses to Oklahoma is if they make mistakes - like they did against Ole Miss, and like they didn't do against the Tide.
