Week 9 - LSU

Tide Fans –

Sweet victory!! Hallelujah and Praise the Lord…Alabama is still undefeated and heading to the SEC Championship for the 2nd year in a row! What an incredible day in Tuscaloosa – great weather, great fans, and a great performance from our men in Crimson! The atmosphere was outstanding – you could just feel the energy building before kickoff for a big Tide victory. This was such a huge game for both schools, and it lived up to the hype! Bama gets the win and clinches the West for a much anticipated re-match with the Florida Gaytors. (yes I meant to put the y in there). We are heading to Atlanta my friends, and I cannot wait to play Tebow and company. We are coming for you Florida…and we are bringing the pain!

How fun is it to have an awesome team? I just love the fact that we are consistently powerful again. It is so nice to have swagger and confidence back. Football is fun again, and it just makes me smile when I hear people stressing over how they are going to get SEC tickets. No, the process of finding SEC tickets is not fun, but it just gets me fired up that we have to stress over that! And yes, I do need tickets!!!

Well, we finally found ourselves a little offensive production on Saturday! We actually had a good mix of running and passing the ball. It is amazing how different you see and feel things when you are at the game versus watching it on TV. For some reason I felt as if McElroy was having a terrible game watching it in the stands, but after watching the replay it actually was not that bad. Yes, he did miss two wide open touchdown throws, and made a few other bad judgment throws, but overall he got the job done. Is there room for improvement – absolutely! I think the good things he did Saturday outweighed the bad, and again he did what needed to be done, and we got the W.

One thing I did notice watching the replay was that CBS’s Vern Lundquist and Gary Daniels still suck. They make me want to vomit. Seriously CBS…that is all you have??? If I have to hear Vern say “Wow” one more time of Gary say “Oh my” again…just ridiculous. At one point Gary actually made a comment about how we were tackling too hard. What??? It’s football Gary – you are supposed to hit your opponent as hard as you can. Thank God I had the game on TiVo, so I just fast forwarded most of their terrible banter. A network that big, carrying SEC football should be able to come up with some better commentators – just my opinion.

I know Julio had the incredible catch and run for the big score in the 4th quarter, but I have to give the game ball to Mr. Mark Ingram. Ingram’s play in the second half is what won us the football game. He single handily took the team on his shoulders again and powered his way to crucial yardage. The man continues to blow my mind. He runs and runs, and then runs some more. He never quits, and plays with so much heart. Thank you Mark Ingram…thank you!

I have to give props to Marquis Maze also – big game for him. Maze had a ton of catches, and I love the quick slant play, and the yardage he gets after the catch…he had a great game! Julio obviously had a great game – not just the big play, but he made several other clutch catches – it is good to see him get the ball! Shout out to Hanks also – big catch for a TD! Almost all our receivers contributed, and it was good to see the ball thrown around.

Our defense delivered once again as they have all season. We did not get as many sacks as I thought we would, but still – they were solid! We held a very good opponent to only 15 points (really 13 since they got 2 from a safety). I love our defense…I love being able to rely on them when we need to, and know they are going to get the job done. They have stepped it up all season, and deserve even more credit than they get. Defense truly does win championships…and ours is playing at a championship level!

LSU is a good football team…in fact I will say they are very good. This win is not only huge because we stay undefeated and lock up the West, but because we beat a very good team. They are an extremely fast team and have loads of talented players…probably more than we do. Talented players help make a good team, and LSU probably had more talent than us…but on Saturday we had more heart.

Speaking of heart, I must give a huge shout out to my beautiful wife!! There was a point in this game that I actually began to doubt our ability to win, and she kept me thinking positively. Whenever I started to doubt what we were doing she kept me on track. Why do I ever doubt The Tide?? Why???? I should punch myself in the face for ever letting a little doubt enter my mind during the game. She told me to keep the faith, and it worked, so thank you Jenn!! Thank you for putting up with all my rants, and keeping me focused on The Tide and our ability to win these type games!

We have won the West, but we still have a lot of football to play my friends. The next game on our schedule makes me a little nervous. It is a trap game after a big win - the type that can sometimes be overlooked. Yes, we are a better team than Miss. State, but they are getting better under their new coach. This team played Florida very close and almost beat LSU as well. We cannot go over there with a hangover from this big victory. I believe we will win, I just don’t want to have to squeak one out in Starkville. I know our coaches will preach focus this week and they will have us prepared. Having our offense perform better against LSU does make me feel a little better for next weekend. I know the defense will be fierce as always, we just need to play our game and not make stupid mistakes. McElroy will be key in this game – he must manage the ball well. My game plan for next week would be run run run! You know what...nevermind - I am not nervous about this game anymore. I have full confidence in our team and we are going to go over there and play solid football. Roll Tide!!!!

Big win for us on Saturday Tide fans – we are still undefeated and once again have a shot at the SEC title! Let’s stay behind this team and continue to cheer them on to victory. If you can find tickets – please go to Starkville next weekend – we need a good presence to help drown out the cow bells! The Tide is 9-0, let’s stay fired up and keep this train rolling! This is a special season, and I think there are great things ahead, so until next week…Roll Tide my friends...Roll Tide!!!!

Jason