Week 7 - South Carolina

Tide Fans –

It was a cold night in Bryant-Denny, but we all left with a warm feeling in our heart. Alabama didn’t play anywhere near their best game, but we made it happen and The Tide is still undefeated! Many people are concerned about our offense…but I am not. When one part of our team doesn’t play well, someone else steps up and takes the load – that is what great teams do, and this is truly a great team. We may be ranked 2nd in the BCS, but everyone knows who has the best team in the country right now, and it ain’t Florida.

Sitting in the stadium on chilly night, I never really got nervous during this game. Even when the score was close for some reason I was never really concerned. In the back of my mind I knew we would pull it out. I will admit I got a little nervous (and angry) when we had about 6 flags thrown on us in about a 3 minute time period, but I still felt ok. My wife would probably tell you differently as she watched me explode in boos directed to the refs, but I really was ok. This team knows how to win, and I knew we would figure something out. I know I say this all the time, but our defense is just insane. We were playing without our best cornerback (Javier) and we still punished the Gamecocks! I knew if the defense kept them at bay, then our offense would find a way to put points on the board, and they did it in record breaking style. I am referring to the play of Mark Ingram – absolutely incredible display of running. He single handily took over this game and just ran like a man possessed. 246 yards in one game for one player…breaking a Bryant-Denny record, Mark Ingram just took the ball and ran wherever he wanted to with it. A good majority of these great runs came from the Wildcat formation which I thought was a brilliant way to go after we realized McElroy just wasn’t getting it done. This is no ding on McElroy, but we had to get something going and this worked like a charm. Again, great teams figure out how to win, and our fantastic coaching staff realized we needed to get the ball into the hands of our stud running back. I am officially changing my “Man Crush” to Mark Ingram.

I would be remiss to not mention our first score coming from the defense. What a return off an interception! I said earlier this year that Mark Barron was going to be a force on defense, but he is developing much quicker than I thought. He is becoming one of my favorite defensive players, and I even mentioned his name in the same sentence as Rashad Johnson – and you all know how much I loved Rashad Johnson!!! We have so much talent on the defense…I just smile when I think about them. Anytime I get a little nervous about our next opponent and start to have doubts, I just start thinking about the defense and all my worries go away. Just saying the names, McClain, Dareus, Washington, Barron, Anders, Reamer, Javier, Cody, etc…puts me at ease. I have so much swagger now, and I have our defense to thank for that. Thank you suffocating, bone-crunching, in-your-face defense…thank you!

I have had a request to put back in a few things I used to write in the analysis, so I will now go over my Players of the Game:

Mark Ingram – 246 yards…enough said!
Mark Barron – 77 yard “Pick 6”…nice!
Marquis Johnson – Surprised on this pick? He stepped up and played for an injured Javier and did a very nice job! 3 TD pass break up on one drive alone…nice job Marquis!

As I mentioned earlier – many people were concerned about our lack of offense in this game. Every great team has a few “not so great” games. This was one of those games against a good opponent where you just have to gut it out and get the win however you can. I know our offense will get things worked out, and I still have full confidence in Greg McElroy. He did not have a good game, and he knows it – he is dedicated to this team and he will work even harder to correct the issues we are having. Have faith Tide fans – this is a very good, very talented team that I (and many others) believe really is the best team in the country. One game at a time…and don’t forget – defense wins championships!

It’s Tennessee week folks!! This is always a great game, and we will need to bring it next week. Not only the team, but the crowd also – we got to get LOUD! People are worried about what UT did to Georgia last week – I am not. I think Georgia is terrible and has zero defense. If you let Jonathan “I eat Possum” Crompton put up NFL numbers on you – you have a terrible defense. He will not know what to do when 3 or 4 Crimson jersey’s come barreling down on him play after play after play, and we should get at least one interception from him. Most of you know I can’t stand Tennessee and love nothing more than crushing them. I believe we put a full game together this week and take UT behind the wood shed. Look for G Mac to improve, and our defense to once again rise up and smother the opponent.

It’s great to be an Alabama Crimson Tide fan! Until next week my friends…Roll Tide!

P.S - Huge shout out I missed last week to my friend Bill who somehow found me in “the grove” and delivered to me our traditional road game Jaeger Bomb. This was important, because we are undefeated with these!

Jason