10/10 South Carolina Game
For the first time in almost 2 years, I have to write a Bama blog following a Bama loss. As I’m sure you all saw, Bama’s 19 game winning streak came crashing to an end on Saturday in Columbia, as we fell 35-21 to the South Carolina Gamecocks. The odd thing is that I saw this game coming, but I saw it coming 2 weeks ago against Arkansas. I knew SC would be a threat. Anytime you play a top-twenty team on the road in the SEC it’s potentially trouble, but no, I absolutely did not expect what we saw on Saturday.
There was plenty of blame to go around in this one, but I absolutely have to start with the defense. Seriously, what was that?!? South Carolina started fast, but we’ve seen this before. Auburn (last year), and Arkansas both looked like they were going to score 100 on us, but our defense adjusted and ended up playing a large part in those wins. Against South Carolina, well, I’ll just say it; we were never going to stop them. They were going to score each and every time they had the ball. It didn’t matter if we blitzed, it we backed off and played coverage, if we stunted against the run, if we had pressure, or if we got held up at the line. As for South Carolina, it didn’t matter if they ran, if they passed short, if they passed deep, if it was a QB keeper, or if it was a busted play. Everything they did worked, and everything we tried didn’t. From beginning to end, our defense was completely helpless against their offense. The only bright side I saw in that respect was that I have never seen SC’s offense play better, so a large portion of our ineptitude can be credited to them. Still, the questions that I thought we answered against Florida are once again rearing their ugly head. The fact of the matter is we’re returning two starters from the last year’s team. If those guys were better than the ones we lost, they would have started last year.
That’s where our offense comes in. As blunt as I was about our defense, I’m going to be even more so right here. Greg McElroy was absolutely, positively atrocious on Saturday. I hate to say it, because I really admire the way Greg has led our team over the last season and a half, but he was not a legitimate college-caliber QB against SC. Yes, I know you can point to his statistics and argue otherwise, but if you really think that his play was any better than horrific, re-watch the game. Honestly and truthfully, I think that he had a head injury that affected his decision making, because he looked like Jamarcus Russell out there, and that’s about the worst insult I can give to a QB. Several times in crucial situations, he would look directly at a wide-open receiver and choose to hold onto the ball until the pass rush caught up to him. Unless a receiver was wide open on the first read in the route, he wouldn’t throw the ball. The constant barrage of sacks, almost all of which were McElroy’s fault, killed any offensive momentum we might have had. I’m not kidding about his head-injury. Something’s is really wrong with McElroy.
And yet, somehow, even with the defense getting put over South Carolina’s knee, and Greg McElroy doing his one man Statue of Liberty impersonation in the backfield, we still had a chance to win this game. Early in the Fourth Quarter, McElroy hit a WIDE open Darius Hanks for a 51-yard TD, cutting SC’s lead to 28-21. On the next possession, Alshon Jeffrey dropped another perfect pass from Stephen Garcia, and Will Lowery made a diving interception. We drove the ball deep into SC territory with a chance to tie the game, but once again, McElroy refused to throw the ball and took yet another sack. The result was a fake FG that never had a chance (yes, Stinson dropped the pass, but we still would have been 9 yards short of the first down). Originally, I was hard on the coaches for the fake FG, but in retrospect, I’m sure they felt they were out of options. Had they gone for it, McElroy would have taken another sack, and had we kicked and made the FG, we still would have been down by 11 the next time we got the ball. From that point, the outcome was inevitable. SC manhandled our defense on route to another TD, and a few more McElroy sacks later, the game was over.
As hard as I’m being on the players right now, the truth of the matter is simply that South Carolina was the better team on Saturday. That doesn’t mean that they are the better team; after all, they had an extra week to prepare for us (and yes, I am going to keep harping on that), and they were at home. The alarming thing was how much better they were than us. If our defense keeps tackling like sorority girls in a tickle fight, and if McElroy keeps requiring 43 seconds before he’ll throw the ball, I’m afraid we’re going to see this scenario play out several more times this year. Either way, this is the turning point of the season. Either this is the point where we take serious stock of where we are and correct our problems, or this is the point where everyone sees our weaknesses, and gains the confidence to exploit them.
But don’t jump ship yet. We’re still in the game, and if somehow we’re able to correct our issues and start playing like I think we’re capable of, we have South Carolina squarely in our sights for a rematch in the SEC Championship game, and I can’t imagine any greater motivation than that right now. Of course, that’s a long way off, and we have a lot of hurdles to clear before we can even think about that. It all starts next week as we face the newly rejuvenated Ole Miss Rebels. They have a former Heisman Trophy candidate at QB, and a solid defense, and they’ve been clicking on all cylinders for the last few weeks. Before this week, I would have thought that it wouldn’t be a problem for us, but I won’t take anything for granted for the rest of the year. I hope our players and coaches won’t either.
That’s it for now. As always, feel free to send me any questions or comments.
Roll Tide!
Kenny
|