Tide Fans –
Saturday was a classic example of why I hate playing little Sun Belt teams after a huge victory the previous week. It wouldn’t matter if we had the absolute best player in the country at every position on our team – we love to play down to our opponent, and screw with our fans. Yes, we won the game, and yes deep down I knew we would win, but why do we have to start these games like this? It is so painful, stressful, gut wrenching, etc… to sit there and struggle with a much inferior opponent until the 4th quarter. Do we just like to play with our food before we eat it? I for one would rather we just devour the opponent instead of letting them stay within 6 points before crushing them in the 4th quarter. My nerves can’t take these type of starts! Another reason I really do not like these games is the crowd. Our crowd was quiet and reserved for 75% of this game. This was due more than likely to the way the team was playing, but it just makes everything that more stressful.
I despise a “quiet” Bryant-Denny Stadium – it is eerie when 92,000 fans are sitting in there and you can have a conversation with someone 2 sections over. I know it is hard to get loud when you are stressing out like I was, but we have got to do a better job in these situations – me included. I tend to block everything out and just stare in disbelief at the field thinking about what the headlines may say in the paper the next morning. We all need to let the swagger out, get loud, and cheer on our team in these type situations…not sit on our hands. I actually summoned the strength on a few occasions to cheer for the team when we were not playing well. I would do it more often, but the sad thing is people around me look like I have lost my mind. What is that??? Why do people sit there and stare at you if you get up and try to cheer on the team when we are not playing so well? A couple of times when I stood up to cheer, you would have thought I just got up and screamed “I’m not wearing any pants!!” I wish everyone would show a little more support in times of need. Is it just me or does this happen to any of you? I seriously want to know. I guess the only thing that really matters, is that The Tide finally began to turn, and we came out on top with a nicely padded victory - Roll Tide to that!! Looking back at the replay of the game, we really didn’t play that bad in the first half. The offense moved the ball with ease, except for the red zone – we stalled here a few times and this cost us points. FIU got their 14 points on a lucky return, and then a gift of field position after a botched kickoff making it easy for them to score the second time.
Some positives about Saturday - we were able to see how deep we are at several key positions. A few examples if I may. Julio goes out with a bruised knee, and Mike McCoy finally steps it up and gets 1oo yards in receptions – nice! Mark Ingram and Upchurch both hampered by injury or illness, keep them out of much of the game, and true freshman Trent “You can’t stop me” Richardson takes over! WOW – this kid is 18, and has a ridiculous amount of potential. We all heard about how good he was going to be, but Saturday we got a taste – and it tasted good! Trent is a super fast, hard running machine, who may end up breaking several of our rushing records before he leaves. The game ball this week goes to Trent! And how about the play of Terry “Remember Me” Grant!! He has really stepped it up this year, and I am so happy for him! Just 2 years ago Terry Grant was my official “Man Crush” and he is playing on his game again which I am thrilled about.
I said it in pre-season, and I said it again last week – Greg McElroy is going to be fantastic. I mean the dude was 18 of 24 in passing, and Julio just plain dropped one of those, and someone completely blew a route on another play. He is so accurate and efficient and threw for 241 yards! He was throwing lasers to our receivers – all of them. I would like to give a shout out to all the Aubs who kept saying pre-season that McElroy was not going to do well – I know he has only played in 2 games, but already you can tell this kid is special! He is not flashy, not cocky, just gets the job done!
Our special teams play must improve. Giving up another kickoff return for a touchdown is just simply unacceptable. That type of slip up could easily cost us a game later this year, and we must improve. I know Coach Saban will make changes in personnel on kickoffs if he needs to – it will get corrected.
Defense took a little time to get their rhythm – especially on pass coverage, but we finally figured out if you get to the quarterback quickly – he cannot throw it. Marcel Dareus, Rolondo McLain, and Donta Hightower played well, and made many tackles. I love sacking the QB for a loss, and we did this 6 or 7 times. I love our defense, and actually enjoy the game more when they are on the field. This reminds me of an early to mid nineties Tide!! Of course our offense is a lot less boring than our early to mid 90’s offense – a lot less! I do miss the old toss sweep left toss sweep right every once in a while, but I will take this offense over that one any day.
Not a pretty game until the end, but we got it done. Next week we face a very similar opponent, but I just have a feeling we are not going to come out as flat this time. Hopefully breakfast at Bryant-Denny will be another chance for us to see some of our depth in action, especially at quarterback. I think our backups need the work as there is a huge differential in talent after McElroy. I would love to see more of Trent Richardson as well – I know I am not the only one.
It is an early kickoff, but I hope many of you make the trip to Tuscaloosa to cheer on The Tide. There is a new sound system in the stadium and it sounds good – speakers everywhere so you don’t lose the sound when the wind changes direction like the old system. I do wish they would play more music during breaks – there seemed to be a lot of gaps which made the lack of crowd noise that more obvious. Crank up that new system and let the fans jam out – keep the energy level up! I only ask that you do not play any Green Day – the Million Dollar Band still has that covered. I hope to see you all in T-Town - I know I will be there polishing off a tasty Bloody Mary right before kickoff. Sounds good doesn’t it?
Until next week…Roll Tide Roll!
Jason
