The Game

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Yeah, my expectations are sky high at this point. Puts more pressure on the team, but what can I say? That's just how I see it. And that's why I start with the problems when I review a road win over a legitimate Top 10 SEC team.

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Clearly some problems in the defensive backfield were highlighted. And it's a little facile to say we solved ‘em all at halftime. Fact is, if not for missed throws and drops, we lose that game. The blown assignments were way too frequent, and there guys kept getting open even when we had a man there to cover.

Of course, a key to winning football games is taking advantage of the fact that other teams do make mistakes, and the more pressure you put on them, the more mistakes they make, so it's not as if we had no responsibility at all for the drops and misfires. And one thing you can say about this defense: go up against it and you will get hit, hard and often. I feel pretty solid in saying that this group hits harder than last year's group, and last year's group was probably the hardest knockers in college football. Dont'a Hightower may have lost a step, but he leads the Hit Parade.

All that said, can we hire Bobby Petrino as Offensive Coordinator? No knock on Jim McElwain, but man were those receivers constantly getting open or what? And I don't think the answer is really that our DBs can't cover. Arkansas just ran the right routes to take advantage of us.

The man can coach up a passing attack. Hopefully we won't see another one like that this year, and hopefully our babies in the defensive backfield aren't babies any more now that they've seen this one.

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Looking at the pass rush push we get from our DL, or lack thereof, should remind you not to get too excited about what the insiders say about summer workouts. Wish I had a dollar for every insider I heard saying that the ferocious push from our front seven would bail out the young DBs. So far the DBs have mostly had to do the bailing out on their lonesome.

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While dogging the D, do bear in mind that it leads the nation in scoring defense. In fact, if you look at the score of the game in relation to expectations, it's not a stretch to say that it was Bama's offense that underperformed, not the D.

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I've said some good things about Robert Lester already, but the fact that he has racked up a few early picks doesn't make me ready to dole out the All-American honors. Sometimes picks just happen to a safety, and all you can really say is "he didn't drop it."  Time will tell.

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I continue to be very impressed with Dre Kirkpatrick's athleticism. I think he will be our best DB by the end of the year.

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Greg McElroy has had worse passing games, but I've never seen him working so hard to give the ball away as he did in the first half. It started with Bama's first set of downs, when he misthrew a bubble screen so badly that it should've been a dead-easy pick six. (Speaking of which, I like McElroy but the quick screens are not his thing. He just can't throw them accurately, and an inaccurate throw around the line of scrimmage is way too risky. If it were up to me, that play would get scratched right out of the playbook.)

Add on two fumbles and two picks in the first half - not a good day, even though the big guy also threw quite a few passes on the money and also made some good plays finding secondary receivers. He didn't appear to be under tremendous pressure; he will probably see more of that over the next couple of weeks, and he has to deal if we're going to keep the winning streak going.

I will say, though, that I don't give him full blame for the second pick. Obviously, if he throws half a second earlier, it's a big gainer, but he didn't have his feet set when Darius Hanks broke open right off the line. And you have to give some credit to Rudell Crim for a well-timed and aggressive break on the thrown pass. That was a heckuva defensive play, and it was not easy for McElroy to see he would get there.

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Remember that story floating around pre-season that Bama's coaching staff was telling writers Mark Ingram would lose some of his touches to Trent Richardson this year. Well, in the first big game, it was Ingram 24 carries, Richardson 8. That's a lot like last year.

Looks to me, at least so far, as if both backs improved about the same amount, and therefore they stand about the same in comparison to each as they did last year. Which is another way of saying that Ingram is still better, regardless of the younger guy's more impressive physicality.

Better, worse, or whatever, it's consistently fun to watch 11 guys trying to make Trent Richardson fall down after the whistle blows at the end of most of his runs. Sometimes they succeed, but as often as not Trent is still standing up when the ref pries ‘em off.

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Nico Johnson has looked like our best linebacker the last couple of weeks. But I would like to see some more C.J. Mosley.

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Haven't seen anything noteworthy on our kickoff coverage or punt coverage this year. And that's just the way I like it. Kickoff coverage was a disaster last year; so far this year, it's not. (And I don't think we ever had a four-game disaster-free stretch last year.)

Around College Football

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Florida, Texas, USC, and Oklahoma are a combined 11-1, just like you'd expect. But what you wouldn't expect is that all four of the teams have looked like dried cow flop for most of the season. The Gators' win over Florida last week, and Oklahoma's blowout of FSU, are the only impressive wins by any of those teams.

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If there's any surprise team of the young season, it's Stanford. Yeah, Auburn is a little better than expected, but Stanford appears to be a lot better than expected. I'm not sure it's all about Andrew Luck. Maybe it's about Jim Harbaugh. We'll know more after Saturday.

Another surprise team to watch is North Carolina State. If the Wolfpack is really good this year, as they might be, that will be a first in my memory.

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It's not too early to talk Heisman. It's never too early to talk. It's just too early to think the conversation has anything to do with who will ultimately win. But from this corner, I've got Cam Newton, Denard Robinson, and Mark Ingram, probably in that order, although Michigan has not played a D so don't get too carried away with Robinson's fancy stats. Terrell Pryor has played well and is on a contender, so you have to count him, too. Andrew Luck I'm not so sure about.

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A little surprising there has been so little hype of this week's game. Looking over the 2010 college football schedule, this looks like the game of the year to me. The last two years the winner took it all. You'd have trouble convincing me these aren't the top two programs in college football, especially with how poorly USC and Texas have looked so far.

Both teams are undefeated. This is a huge game. The winner will have a good claim both to the #1 ranking and to the title of Top Program In College Football.

The Alabama football team continued preparation for the Florida Gators on Tuesday. The Tide worked in full pads for the first time this week.

Here's what you need to know:

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Well, we learned some things this weekend. Alabama - reilient and talented. Oregon - still very good. Boise State - cruising. Texas - gag.

Florida even found some offense. Just in time to bring it to Alabama. Great.

The full poll is after the jump. no comments

The #1 ranked Alabama football team practiced in shells on Monday. Coming off of their 24-20 victory over Arkansas this past Saturday, the Tide is preparing for the Florida Gators this coming Saturday.

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The Alabama football team practiced in full pads Wednesday. In what has become a mid-week routine in the early season, the Tide practiced inside the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility to get a bit of a break from the heat.

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The Alabama football team practiced in full pads on Tuesday in preparation for the SEC opener against Arkansas on Saturday.

Here's what you need to know:

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The Game

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Oh man, that was fun. Yeah, I know that Duke has no defense at all, but I was seriously thinking this is the best crew of offensive weapons ever assembled in Tuscaloosa.

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The Alabama football team began preparations for Arkansas on Monday afternoon. The practice in shells is the first practice of the SEC season for the Tide.

Here's what you need to know:

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Well, there was some excitement, but not really that mattered. There is very little movement inside the top seven or eight (aside from bumping Oklahoma down one and TCU up one). Arkansas is our biggest mover; I'm now a believer in Ryan Mallett, which scares me - particularly this week. He looked good against what should be a servicable football team in Athens. But then again, maybe not. Georgia just might be that bad.

The full poll is after the jump.

The Game

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The Burton Burns effect strikes again. Trent Richardson has noticeably better vision than last year, and has added a Mark Ingram-/Emmett Smith-style hop step to his arsenal. I believe he is as good or better right now than Ingram was last year – but Burton Burns has been working on Ingram, too, and Saban has said he was playing his best football ever when he got hurt.

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