9/11/12 Western Kentucky Game
How can a 35-0 win feel unsatisfying? If you’re a Bama fan and watched Saturday’s game against Western Kentucky, I have a feeling that you understand. Even though the game never really was in doubt, we just never seemed to have any rhythm on our offense, and our defense was relying on turnovers rather than getting the three and outs we’re used to. Of course, I’m sure we’d all feel tons better if not for the tragic injury to Jalston Fowler late in the fourth quarter.
We came out of the gates quickly, meeting almost no resistance on the way to end zone in only 4 plays. After that, it almost seemed like we relaxed and expected the rest of the game to be that easy. To be honest, I guess I kind of fell into the same trap, thinking that we’d cakewalk through until next week’s Arkansas game. But WKU didn’t feel that way, and they made us work for everything we got from that point on. Even so, we took a 14-0 lead into the second quarter, and a 21-0 lead into halftime. We scored early in the second half thanks to a Deion Belue interception, and that was it as far as scoring goes from our starters.
Saban clearly wasn’t happy with the play of our team, so he kept our starters in long after the game had been decided, obviously hoping to see some spark. Late in the fourth quarter, he put in Jalston Fowler at the RB position, and after he rushed for 18 yards on three carries, we called a pass play. Jalston stayed in the backfield as AJ’s protector, but DJ Fluker got worked by the WKU defensive end, and in the resulting scrum Jalston suffered a horrific knee injury. Let me say that at this point, there is no official word on his injury, but I’m smart enough to know a serious injury when I see one, and this one was bad. Best case is that he is out for the season and will be able to return next season. And for those that only think of him as our 3rd string RB, and that he won’t be missed, well, then you just don’t get it. True, he was our third string RB, but he was also our starting FB, both in the I-formation (new to us this year) and on the goal line. So he played FB, HB, and RB, and was extremely effective at all three. And to be honest, our starting RB is missing something this year, and Fowler along with the inexperienced TJ Yeldon are our only effective RBs at this point. If we are going to accomplish our goals this year, Eddie is going to have to pick it up, and we’re going to have to get better production from Dee Hart and probably Kenyan Drake. We still have the numbers, but no one besides Yeldon has shown that they could be the RB that we need. Regardless, we’re really, really going to miss Jalston, and I wouldn’t be surprised if losing him costs us a game down the road.
I’m not going to spend any more time talking about the WKU game; it was ugly (or at least as ugly as a 35-0 win can be) and we have bigger fish to fry. Next week we play Arkansas in what was supposed to be one of the biggest college football matchups of the year. However, Arkansas played the worst half I’ve ever seen any team play last week, lost to Louisiana Monroe, and fell completely out of the polls. So instead of a matchup of Top 10 heavyweights, it’s Number One versus unranked, and that kind of scares me. Their starting QB will be back, and he is the best passing QB we’ve played in a while. Arkansas will be a hungry, desperate team, so we have to play better than we did this week. I do think we’ll win, but I am justifiably worried about this one. Hopefully my worries will be unfounded when all is said and done.
So that’s it for now. I’ll post again after the Arkansas game; hopefully I’ll be in a better mood. As always, feel free to send me any questions or comments.
Kenny