11/10 The MSU Game
So where do I start? I imagine that everyone reading this blog watched the same game that I did, so we all know that we just lost to Mississippi State again, this time by a score of 17-12. To be fair, I want to talk about both the good and the bad, and I’ll start with the good.
Leigh Tiffin kicked well today.
Now on to the bad. The best place to begin this discussion is probably with those 5 super-fly Gs that decided “gettin’ their textbook on” was better than playing for Alabama. We were already paper thin on the OL going into this game, and when BJ Stabler wasn’t able to go, we were forced to move our starting RT to RG, and start (gasp) Chris Capps at RT. Remember, before the Tennessee game we had decided to move Caldwell to RT, and with Davis at RG, we would have had a rock solid line. Unfortunately, Caldwell and Davis decided to become the Bonnie and Clyde of the textbook world, and we were stuck with a nightmare line-up on the OL. And no matter how bad you thought this rag-tag offensive line might be, they were actually worse. Capps got dusted so badly and so often you would have thought he was shooting for an Endust endorsement.
Let’s talk about the sequence right before halftime. We were leading 9-3, and had the ball second and inches from the 4-yard line, 50 seconds to go, and all of our timeouts. Sounds good, right? We run a QB sneak to the 3-yard line, and we get a first down, which stops the clock. However, we used a timeout, leaving us with two. We then ran Terry Grant up the middle twice, gaining nothing, and using a timeout after both plays, which left us at third and goal from the 3 with no timeouts, and 21 seconds before halftime. The next play was disastrous. Since we wasted that one timeout and were left with none, we had to pass. MSU knew we had to pass, the fans knew we had to pass, even my dog Emily knew we had to pass. We ran a play action pass, but the play action fooled no one since, again, everyone knew we had to pass. The defensive end, since he like everyone else on this planet knew we were going to pass, ignored the play action fake, and had a straight uncontested shot at Wilson. Now, since we had no timeouts, Wilson knew he couldn’t take the sack, so he threw the ball into traffic, and the pass was picked off and returned for a TD. So instead of going in at halftime leading 16-3 (or 12 to 3 worst case), we were down 10-9, and never led again.
As much as Capps deserves much of the blame, this was a complete team loss. Nikita Stover dropped an easy TD pass on our first drive. Our tight ends consistently missed their kick-out blocks on our outside runs. John Parker Wilson completely lost his mind in the second half. Travis McCall called for a fair catch on a kickoff and then didn’t catch it, giving us horrible field position. Did I mention that Capps played a horrible game?
You might have noticed that I haven’t talked about the defense yet. I know I was pretty hard on them after last week, so after this week, I’ll probably give them a break, right? Wrong! At the end of the game, we were desperately trying to get the ball back, and had MSU in a third and 8. We knew with a 100% degree of certainty that MSU was going to run the ball up the middle, and we couldn’t stop it. How in the world can you let someone run up the middle for a first down in that situation? That’s completely inexcusable.
I’m not going to talk about John Parker Wilson taking a sack on the Hail Mary attempt other then to say it’s the single stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in a football game.
So that’s it. The season that had so much promise just a couple of weeks ago is going to end at 7-5, just like I predicted at the beginning of the year. DJ Hall and the rest of the seniors could have ended their careers with an SEC Championship game, but Caldwell, Davis, Rogers, Johnson, and Coffee ruined that chance, and they’ll now wind it up in a third-tier bowl. Mad props to the Textbook Posse!
I know I owe you guys a recruiting update, and I’ll post it soon. The thought of the new players coupled with the fact that Chris Capps can never legally play for us again after this year might help us all feel better. Until then, take care.
Kenny
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