Written by Ell
| 18 November 2008
Ho-hum (grin). One more methodical beatdown of an outmanned opponent. If you see me yawning, it's the satisfied yawn of the cat that just ate the canary. Truth is, we had a little more drama in this one than I would have liked against an opponent like this: a good five minute's worth, maybe more. But this drama always had a timer on it. That second half was bound to happen, even if Javy hadn't gotten loose in the second quarter. Too much Bama force was applied too repeatedly to too many State vulnerable spots. Something was gonna give, and in a big way. It did. There was plenty to be dissatisfied with, especially in terms of first-half offense, and a defensive breakdown here or there. But there was even more to be cheered by. 32-7 against State doesn't play in the papers like 56-6 against South Carolina, but I saw things in that 32-7 that play straight to my optimism about December 6th. Let's talk about it.
OFFENSE We're averaging somewhere in the general vicinity of 198.5 yards a game rushing. I have a feeling that we might've scored more points this year if we had run enough to make that 298.5 yards a game. We've faced a number of opponents - and Mississippi St. was one - that I think we could've worn down with a more physical pounding, but instead relieved the pressure a bit by going to the air perhaps more frequently than we needed to. And you know what? I'm all in favor of it. Because all those games where we had a chance to run up the score with an overwhelming ground game? Those games were the easy wins. The tough games were games where we needed a balanced offense, and our passing game has needed all the in-game practice that we've given it. This game might turn out to be the best example of that. Perhaps we could've run Mississippi St. right out of the ballpark with a 4-1 run-pass ratio - but if we had done that, then we would've missed what happened late in the game, when our downfield passing game began to click for the first time this season. We hit Florida with a deep passing attack, folks - along with our smashmouth ground game, of course, we will never give that up - and they won't be ready for it.
QUARTERBACK I have said it before and here I am saying it again: one thing you really have to hand to John Parker Wilson, and that is that he knows when to have a crappy game. He had one against the Starkvillains, and it really didn't matter. I was actually kind of worried coming into this game that last week's heroic 32-yard 4th-quarter TD run - heroic until it was called back, anyway - might go to John Parker's head. Looks like I had cause for concern. Even though he routinely had an obscene amount of time in the pocket - perhaps more than he has had all season - Bama's senior playcaller ran the football no less than 11 times Saturday night, the large majority being scrambles, mostly in the first half. Wilson's Michael Vick imitation rarely worked, and was responsible as much as anything for Alabama's anemic first-half production of only 110 yards. But Dr. Jekyll Wilson woke up in the second half, and for the first time this season #14 struck repeatedly downfield with accurate deep throws: to Mike McCoy (unfortunately dropped), Brad Smelley on a creative play off of a scramble, and Julio Jones. I've noted previously that Wilson's arm strength has improved this year, and theorized that is the reason he has consistently overthrown deep balls. If my theory is true, it only figures that Wilson would get a feel for his new arm strength over time. Maybe that's what happened Saturday night. If so, and if Wilson is going to throw an accurate deep ball the rest of the year, that bodes very well for the next three games. We have had receivers running loose downfield all year, just no QB that could get it to 'em. Greg McElroy looked good in mop-up duty, but it was decidedly mop-up duty. Don't draw too many conclusions.
RUNNING BACKS Likewise, don't draw too many conclusions from Jeramie Griffin's solid running in mop-up duty against a beaten team. Still, it was good to see that Griffin has tailback quickness to go with that big body. It has become more apparent as the season goes along that Mark Ingram is in the right place as the backup, and that his place is not starting as I thought earlier on. And it really is, I think, that he just does not have Coffee's nose for a hole. The knee bruise that has bothered him off and on appeared to have no effect on the freshman ballcarrier Saturday night, yet except for one 40-yard jaunt, his longest run of the year, Mark was just not as likely on a per-carry basis to get the rock 6 or 8 yards downfield as was Coffee. This remains true even though Coffee seems to have lost a slight edge of explosiveness since he (apparently) began concentrating on holding onto the ball a bit harder around mid-season. Even as is, he is quite effective, and by the way that is now four straight games without a fumble. All this style criticism aside, Coffee and Ingram got it done as a tailback duo Saturday night, combining for 149 yards. On the season, the two have now totaled 1,708 yards, and that is with three games left. In fact, if you throw in Upchurch, Grant, Ingram, and Goode, Bama's tailbacks have already rushed for 2,171 yards this year. 2,500 is well in sight.
WIDE RECEIVERS Julio Jones is probably the only wide receiver in football that would've made a first down out of that six-yard spot pattern Wilson hit him with on Bama's first series Saturday night. It was a pleasure watching him manhandle the Mississippi State defense, shedding two DBs and a linebacker, but it worried me a bit, as well. Julio took a helluva beating against LSU, so I was kind of hoping JPW would find a way to spread the wealth Saturday night - not to mention that spreading the wealth is another thing we needed to be working on in preparation for the stern post-season tests that lie ahead. And guess what? It kinda happened. Darius Hanks stepped up with a couple of mid-range receptions, and although it's hard to follow secondary receivers on TV, at least twice when he wasn't thrown to Darius was visibly open. As is noted above, Wilson also found McCoy and Smelley open downfield. But as for McCoy - well, let's just say that I have never quite understood why he gets so much playing time. Saturday night he had an easy catch for an easy 40 yards and a chance to beat his man and make it 80. It was the fattest opportunity of McCoy's career . . . and he dropped it. I'm not into punishing a guy too hard for one mistake, but on the other hand the questions I was already asking about him sure didn't get a positive answer. I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more Hanks. I've finally gotten smart enough to keep my eye out for Nikita Stover's blocking. I'm still waiting to see his man make a play.
TIGHT ENDS How 'bout ole Travis McCall rumblin', bumblin', stumblin' for a 12-yard pickup? That gives him 3 catches for 26 yards in the last two games! Not bad for a guy who is basically an offensive lineman eligible to receive, eh? And how 'bout Brad Smelley? Five catches on the year, all five for first downs? His 16.2 yards per catch average is second on the team after Earl Alexander's 16.6. It looks like he is getting more involved all the time, and considering how slight he is (for a TE) he's a pretty good blocker. Active at least. I've got a bone to pick with Jim McElwain or Nick Saban. They should have challenged the "incomplete" pass to Walker on a third-down play late in the third quarter, with the Tide leading 19-7 (and still without a real offensive TD drive against State since '04). Yes, Walker's left foot came down out-of-bounds, which is what the side judge called - but his right foot was already down when he got possession, WAY in bounds! That's a call that refs blow sometimes - they're concentrating so heavily on when the next foot comes down that they forget to notice that one foot was already down when the dude caught the ball. No excuse for us not to challenge that one - the call was blatantly wrong, and it cost us a third-down conversion.
OFFENSIVE LINE Great pass-blocking job, but not so great at paving the road in the first half against the SEC's 10th-ranked rushing defense. This was the second straight game that I have noticed Drew Davis keeping two guys off of JP on a pass-rush play. And I'm starting to think it's not a coincidence based on our opponents' talents that Davis is not giving up those speed-rush sacks on a clockwork basis like he was early in the year. He has been a good run-blocker all year, but the guy appears to have matured into an all-around tackle. Nice to see somebody who is coming back next year improving like that. Marlon Davis is not coming back next year, but I have to call his name for downfield blocking on linebackers. He was visible at least twice clearing out a linebacker 6-8 yards downfield who could've gotten in on the play otherwise. Pretty good chance that we saw a pre-snapshot of the first-string OL at the start of spring practice during the last 7:10: Drew Davis at LT, Motley at LG, Vlachos at C, Ross at RG, and Boswell at RT. We shouldn't forget that they were going against a beaten team, but still they held onto the ball for 7:10 when everybody and his sister's chihuahua knew we were going to run. If anybody looked maybe not quite up to the task, it was Motley.
DEFENSE We had a couple of breakdowns in the first half, but the second half was the kind of defensive dominance a #1 team should be ringing up against a team like Mississippi St (although it was much added by the ball-control offense we finally unleashed in the fourth quarter). Overall, the Dogs only ran 50 plays, and only for 3.3 a pop on the plays they had. Those are numbers I'll take.
DEFENSIVE LINE Cody was still not himself, but played noticeably better. He was basically ineffective against LSU, and I would say he played about as well as Chapman - but drew more blocking attention - against Mississippi St. This was another one of those games - and there have been a few of them - where our DL was quite effective despite not showing up much on the stats. Our guys held their spots and kept the gaps manageable and fillable. Greenwood led the line in tackles with four, along with a quarterback hurry. He was noticeably busy on the pass rush, and generally our guys had another game where the opposing QB never really could get set.
LINEBACKERS Fightin' Rolando McClain played Saturday night as if the distractions of the previous 48 hours simply had not occurred. In fact, McClain added another story to the legend, playing the second half with a heavily-wrapped hand after taking a gash so severe it would require minor surgery (a wound-cleaning surgery called debridement). The sophomore star finished with 11 tackles, 2 sacks, and a nifty pass break-up that McClain intentionally batted up into the air so as to make it interceptable. On the break-up, Rolando stepped forward and skied to make the pick himself, but instead of notching a leaping pick for the second straight week, all McClain come down with was a headache from a vicious shot by Bobby Greenwood, who was also going for the ball (although with perhaps a bit less agility). On the season, McClain leads the Tide with 77 tackles and 10 TFLs, is third with 3.0 sacks (1/2 sack behind Bobby Greenwood and Brandon Deaderick) and fifth in pass break-ups and pass deflections. Corey Reamer added three tackles, one TFL, and a hurry, and Don'ta Hightower had a pair of hurries to give the Tide a season-high 12 hurries for the night - not too shabby since State only passed 28 times.
DEFENSIVE BACKS Marquis and Rashad Johnson combined for 11 tackles, and M. Johnson and Kareem Jackson each had a pass break-up, but Alabama's defensive backfield has had better days. The worst moment came when Ali Sharrief was beaten badly on a 31-yard second-quarter TD strike from Tyson Lee to Jemayel Smith that briefly gave Mississippi State a 7-5 lead. Sharrief played bump-and-run but never slowed Smith down and only got close enough to interfere because the ball was thrown late. For the second straight game, Rashad Johnson discovered on multiple occasions that SEC running backs do not necessarily tumble down when you dive at their feet the way that Arkansas State's backs did. A particularly egregious failure occurred on Lee's 32-yard second-quarter completion to Arnil Stallworth that set the Bulldogs up for the Lee-Smith scoring pass. To start with, the Bulldogs got lucky on the play call, as the primary receiver was Stallworth in the right flat, which had just been vacated by the blitzing Arenas and Reamer. Stallworth ran open down the right sideline until Johnson pinned him about 25 yards downfield, only to launch himself uselessly at Stallworth's feet, missing him entirely. Fortunately, Rashad got some help from Marquis Johnson, and from Rolando McClain who had been chasing the play, and Stallworth only made it a few more yards. But entirely whiffing on a pinned-up guy when you're the safety containment is a pretty bad mistake for a senior star.
SPECIAL TEAMS Ahhh. . . . Special teams. After three or four bad special teams games in a row, Alabama's special teams totally dominated the first half of this game. And they weren't so shabby in the second half. The only fly in the ointment came with a couple of second-half MSU kickoff returns. On one, Bama's coverage looked to be in great shape but for some reason multiple guys badly outran the play, and it was up to Leigh Tiffin to save a TD return for about the fifth time this year. Tiffin didn't bring Pegues down, but he slowed him up enough for somebody else to make the play. On Bama's next kickoff, Prince Hall streaked down and put out a big hit - but did not wrap up, and had no help. Pegues bounced off the hit and took it out to about the 40. Otherwise, it was sheer beauty on special teams, starting with a rather ho-hum block for a safety by Kareem Jackson. Jackson came untouched, the snap was so high the punter could barely haul it in, and basically it proved to be a very easy block for the sophomore cornerback. But Jackson's first half had to give way to a monster first half of punt return coverage from Rashad Johnson. Johnson downed TWO balls inside the two-yard-line, one on an absolutely brilliant play, nailed the return man for a one-yard loss on a play when Rashad was several yards ahead of the next Bama coverage guy, and then forced a fair catch by again streaking downfield well ahead of the rest of the coverage. Punt-return coverage just doesn't get any better than what Rashad Johnson - who first earned his scholarship with dynamic special-teams play - showed in the first half. But if you think Johnson was Bama's special teams star of the game - well, scratch that thought because I know you AREN'T thinking it. It was all Javier Arenas, and I'm sure you all saw what Javy did and I don't really need to describe it. But riddle me this - how many of you were calling for the Tide to go to another return man after the fumbles of the recent weeks? How many of you are still thinking that? Not me, not on either count. I may be going against the evidence, but I still think Arenas has fine hands, and I think his fumbles came from mistakes that he has corrected. And I think he is the best punt returner in modern Tide history, yes, even better than the fabulous David Palmer. Javy doesn't have Palmer's moves, but he is just so cerebral with his returns. He rarely makes the wrong move, and wrong moves are part and parcel of even the best returners' repertoires. And yeah, in addition to being cerebral, he's quick and fast and strong and all that. And his moves ain't too shabby, even if they're not Palmeresque. Let's don't forget P.J. Fitzgerald, either. Can you say 43.0 yards a punt with one, count 'em ONE yard returning for the Bulldogs on the evening? Or how about Leigh Tiffin, booting three straight field goals all right down the middle? D minuses for the last three games, averaged with an A+ for this game, still leaves us at C minus. That ain't nothin' to write home about. But if the boys can tag on a nice little A+ streak here to end things on, I'll be willing to round up for the overall grade.
