| 29 October 2008
Hank is on his way - as is Halloween. Todd at Roll Bama Roll is hosting... allegedly. He e-mailed the questions, but hasn't posted them yet. I know he was under the weather for the first part of the week - we'll link to the post when he gets the questions up. The questions are up at RBR now!
Without further ado, here are this week's questions:
What are your feelings on Alabama's current position in the polls? Are
we Overrated? Underrated? Just right?
I like it. Not only are we sitting where we should, the panic about Penn State leaping us is totally unfounded. IF we win out - and I'm not saying we will - we will be in the BCS Title game. Between the Tide and Miami is an LSU team that's twice as good as anything left on the Penn State schedule, an Auburn team that is a rivalry game, and either top 10 Georgia or top 10 Florida in the SEC Championship.
During that time, Penn State plays Iowa, Indiana, and Michigan State. Michigan State is decent, but they'd get beat by LSU by 20. I like Arkansas State over Iowa or Indiana. OK, not really, but my point is there are no opportunities for impressive wins on Penn State's schedule. There are 2 for Alabama.
Win out, and it all takes care of itself. If we lose, it doesn't matter anyway.
What aspect of the game did Alabama control that shocked you the most? What aspect of the game was Alabama dominated in that shocked you the most?
I was floored at how well we contained Foster, Hardesty, and Creer. I expected that they'd cause our defense at least a little trouble. These are three talented backs who should have at least peeked at the century mark combined. Instead, they barely broke the decade mark (OK, so they had 40 yards combined, but admit it, my way is funnier).
I was equally surprised that we didn't have a single back break the 100 yard mark. Especially after the rushing yards started to flow like wine in the second half. Also surprising: Coffee didn't fumble. That last happened his sophomore year in high school.*
Name your player of the game on Offense. Also name one on Defense.
John Parker Wilson managed the game beautifully. Four passes were scored as broken up (and yes, one of those was an abomination that Eric Berry dropped). Two were thrown away. One fell harmlessly to the turf. His other 17 landed in the hands of Bama receivers for 188 yards. Despite relentless pressure, he was not sacked all night long. He did what he was asked to do, and made it look pretty easy.
Defensively, I'll give it up to a guy I've maligned more than twice on this site - Dont'a Hightower. Despite his continued struggles to figure out where to stand, he netted 7 tackles, and made it clear that he is learning his place in the defense. Before he's done, he's got the potential to be as good as the guy he stands next to (McClain), and that's heady praise.
Arkansas State got a BCS scalp at Texas A&M to open their season, while we’re still living down the humiliation of a loss to their fellow Sun Belt member La.-Monroe. We’ve worried about a letdown all season long and, considering a similarly dominating win over UT preceded the November death spiral last year, are we in danger here?
No. Well, yes and no. We're in a bit of danger, but only from ourselves - not from Arkansas State. If we take them lightly, we could cause trouble for ourselves. But this is not the team we had a year ago. I present one of the guys making sure that is the case, Rashad Johnson:
"It's been a totally different team this year, a totally different mindset. I definitely think we have enough leadership and enough guys that are mature enough (to handle it). We are going to come out and work this week like we have every other week."If we go out and work like we need to, we have nothing to fear. We have better athletes and more of 'em. Even with our youth, we should be able to handle these guys. Looking around the SEC, which team is the most undervalued in the league? Who is the most overvalued? Ole Miss is underrated. Houston Nutt can coach them up - some weekends. They are talented on both sides of the line. They're losing games by razor-thin margins doing the dumb things that are indicative of a young team. As they've matured, they've gotten better. They should beat the holy hell out of Auburn this weekend, and if they don't... it'll be proof positive they're a Houston Nutt coached team. I've said from the outset that LSU was overrated. Even now, they're only as high as they are in my BlogPoll ballot because the rest of the top 25 crapped the bed last week. They have a young QB who has looked erratic at best, and their defense looks... well, bad. I didn't anticipate that, but it's worked out that way. They barely slipped by an abysmal Auburn team and have been destroyed by the two decent teams on their schedule to date - Florida and Georgia. Don't tell the national media though... we'd like the hype! * Not based on actual facts.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
