10/5/12 Ole Miss Game
Well, we’re still undefeated and Number 1 in the nation, but I don’t feel too great about things after Saturday night’s game. As I’m sure all of you saw, Alabama defeated the Ole Miss Rebels 33-14 on Saturday night, but the game had an odd feel to it. First, the game was extremely late. It didn’t finish until close to 1:00 a.m. here in Atlanta. Second, we seemed to suffer injury after injury, including two season-enders, one to DeAndrew White and another to Dee Hart. Both of these injuries are knee related, and both will have a major impact on our team. Finally, and perhaps most troubling, we simply couldn’t shake the Rebels. Yes, we won, and the score seemed one-sided, but to be honest, I felt like they were the more physical team through the majority of the game.
We took a 6-0 lead after two our drives stalled, and then Ole Miss drove the ball the length of the field and scored to take a 7-6 lead. Can you name the last time we trailed during a game (remember we never trailed during the LSU game that we lost last year)? I’m actually not sure myself; was it Tennessee? Anyway, we didn’t trail for long, because Christion Jones returned the subsequent kickoff for a TD, giving us a 13-7 lead. After two Amari Cooper TDs (well, one TD and one gift), we took a 27-7 lead into halftime. Actually, I think my favorite moment of the game was the halftime interview when Saban told the interviewer that we didn’t have control of the game. I was just happy to see that he noticed it too.
He was right, and it didn't get any better in the second half. Ole Miss drove the ball the length of the field against us again to cut the lead to 27-14. We actually had to punt the ball back to them and I was starting to get a little nervous, but they never really threatened again, and we kicked two more field goals to put the game out of reach, making the final score 33-14.
I know that 33-14 sounds pretty good, and I’m trying not to be too harsh when talking about it, but it was really disappointing the way our OL played. Really, we never could run the ball with any consistency. Actually, I expected that kind of resistance from LSU, but I really thought we could manhandle Ole Miss. But really, it never happened. Even in the fourth quarter when the game was for all intents and purposes out of reach, we still couldn’t budge those guys. It might seem like maybe they were stacking the line to stop the run, so that would open up the pass. Maybe they were, but our passing game didn’t seem any better. AJ clearly had trouble running through his progressions; even when he had plenty of time he never seemed to find an appropriate target. The few chances that we did have, he seemed to make a bad throw, like that sideline route to Calloway. He threw two TD passes to Cooper, but one should never have been reversed to a TD like it was, but more importantly, AJ should have thrown the ball sooner so that Amari could have made the catch in bounds for real. The second TD was just a great play by Amari. Again, I’m trying not to be too harsh, but I do have concerns about our offense in general; we really need them clicking on all cylinders to get where we want to be this year.
We have an off week this week, and hopefully we’ll use that time to work out the kinks, because our schedule is about to get a lot tougher. Our next three games are at Missouri, at Tennessee (which will be very tough), and then the undefeated (for now) Mississippi State. Say what you want, but all three are better than Ole Miss, so we will be challenged. I just hope that we’re up to the task.
That’s it for now. I’ll be back to talk about the Missouri game; hopefully I’ll be in a better mood. Until then as always, feel free to send me any questions or comments.
Kenny