11/4 The LSU Game
I was tempted to write this blog immediately after the game, but I decided that it was probably better to wait until the next morning so I could get my emotions in check. Of course, I’m not sure they’ll ever be completely in check after that game, so now is as good a time as any. In short, this was one of the most heartbreaking losses I can ever remember, and it was heartbreaking for several reasons. First, this was an exceedingly important game. Win this game and we’re in the SEC championship game. Lose, and we’re looking at the Independence Bowl. Second, we played our hearts out against a far superior team. Finally, it was the way we lost. Even being completely outmanned, we worked our way into a position to win, and then choked the game away. And when I say choked, I mean we choked hard!
Here is the thing that bothers me the most. When you talk about Alabama tradition, you might think of national championships, All-Americans, legendary coaches, etc. However, that’s not the Alabama tradition that we have now. Now, our tradition, the one true thing that you know you can hang your hat on, is the fact that if the other team needs a score to win at the end of the game, whether it’s a field goal or a touchdown, and no matter how far they have to drive to get it, our defense will fold like a lawn chair. Seriously, we still revel in our fantastic comeback against Auburn in 1985, but we give up these come back drives 2 or 3 times a year. Let’s just go through a short recap:
2000: Arkansas, Central Florida
2001: South Carolina, Ole Miss
2002: Oklahoma, Georgia
2003: Arkansas, Tennessee (I should count this one 3 times)
2004: This was the year Brodie got hurt, and we had no offense whatsoever, so we never had a lead that the defense needed to hold
2005: LSU (overtime TD). Also, we like to think that our defense could have held them this year, but I guarantee you if not for miraculous last minute catches by Matt Miller against Texas Tech and Ole Miss, and DJ Hall against Tennessee, I would be adding those three to the list.
2006: Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma State
2007: Georgia (not just OT, remember that they drove down but missed a field goal at the end of regulation), LSU. Ole Miss would be on this list if not for a fortunate replay reversal.
And that’s just this century! This has been going on for a long time here at the Capstone, and it HAS to stop. But sure enough, yesterday when the game was on the line, and LSU needed a TD to tie it up late in the game, our defense looked like a Special Olympics fire drill. Yet somehow, against all odds, we managed to put them in a fourth down situation (fourth and 4). Now tell the truth; did any of you actually think that we had any chance of stopping them on fourth down? Of course not, because we’re Alabama, and we choke. It didn’t matter if it was fourth and 4, fourth and 10, fourth and 40, or fourth and 99. Heck, they could have brought in two extensions to the field and made it fourth and 240, we still would have given it up, and it still would have been remarkably easy. This particular conversion was especially frustrating, because for some reason we had Javier Arenas (our emergency safety) man on man with LSU’s best receiver, Early Doucet. Surprisingly, Doucet was wide open, and not only converted the fourth down, but also walked in for an easy TD.
We got the ball back with a “chance” to win the game, but we all know that was never going to happen. We ran two no-plays, and then faced a third and long. LSU came with an all-out blitz, and instead of getting rid of the ball to one of our wide-open receivers, John Parker Wilson decided to hold the ball and do a lovely pirouette. On his last twirl, he threw the ball toward our end zone, which was recovered by LSU at our goal line. Of course, in my opinion, even if he didn’t fumble, we would have lost, because we would have punted, and then our Origami defense would have hit the field, and LSU would have kicked a game-winning field goal as time expired.
Finally, let me give a special shout-out to the five players that decided running a textbook scam was better than playing football in the most important game in recent memory. Antoine Caldwell, Chris Rogers, Marquis Johnson, Glenn Coffee, and Marlon Davis, nice work guys! Let’s see if when you’re 65 years old, the memory of counting out that sweet $150 is better than the memory you could have had, leading Alabama to their first SEC Championship game since 1999. Yeah, there’s a reason we were stuck with Javier Arenas and Ali Sharrief playing in the defensive backfield and Jonathon Lowe at running back, and that reason is because these five players, hereafter referred to as the “Textbook Posse,” are blithering idiots. Hopefully Saban can recruit some players with more character than these jokers.
So there you have it. We had a golden opportunity to make this season a magical one, but instead, we choked so hard that we would have made Heimlich himself proud. Hopefully we can regroup before next week’s MSU game, because if not, my 7-5 prediction could still happen.
One last thing, I know I promised a recruiting update, but I decided to wait until after the LSU game to post it, because I figured we’d need a pick-me-up. I’ll post it in the next few days, and it will show you that better days are ahead.
Until next time, Roll Tide!
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