DiderotsGhost
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Half the neighborhood probably heard me screaming during the game yesterday, but what a spectacular win! I'm not sure what our ceiling is this year, but feeling a lot better after this one! Of course, it's wonderful to get our 2nd win over Bama in 3 years, after a 15-year losing streak, but I also felt like we turned the corner in that 2nd half. Best we've played all season!
Defense may be better than '98. It's a bold claim, but this team has now held 7 teams under 20 points, in an era of high-scoring offenses and an SEC grind that is more similar to playing an NFL schedule than it was back in the 90s (when you got a few freebies every year). The '98 D only gave up more than 20 points 3 times (and one of those was garbage time against Tim Couch's Kentucky team). What makes me think this is the best D in the country, however, is not merely the low point totals we've given up, but how they completely disrupt and change the game. How many times have we had bone-headed offensive mistakes and the D bails us out? Most aggressive defense I've seen in my lifetime.
Jermod McCoy is so good. I know the D-line gets talked about the most (and rightly so), but Jermod McCoy is working his way into our all-time great DBs conversation. And he's only a SOPHOMORE! The most worried I was during this game was when he went out; that's how critical he is! You can't stop Ryan Williams, but McCoy absolutely made things difficult for him, and his INT was a thing of beauty! We can talk about a lot of things from yesterday, but we lose yesterday without Jermod McCoy. Against most DBs, Ryan Williams was scoring a TD.
Bru, Bru, Bru. Speaking of McCoys, how about Bru? 6 receptions for 80 yards. He came up big yesterday!
Defense held Milroe in check. I knew our D played lights-out, but didn't see this statline till this morning: Milroe has 14 carries for 11 yards. Sure, some of that is sack yardage, but that's a crazy statline against a running QB. Remember, he ran for 117 yards against Georgia and 75 against Wisconsin.
Will Brooks. It's so great seeing a former walk-on thrive like this. He's had several key plays for our this season and the likely TD saving tackle and the INT to seal the game were both huge.
Sampson should be in Heisman conversation. 26 carries for 139 yards and 5.3 ypc against the #15 FPI ranked defense.
Nico started rough, but balled out in 2nd half. Felt like the light-bulb came on after Nico took that tough hit that knocked him out of the game. That pass to Thornton was one of the best passes we've seen all year. Great TD pass to Brazzell as well. I'm hoping this game gives him some more confidence. When he's playing well, he looks like one of the best QBs in the SEC.
The 53 FG attempt. I didn't like the 53 yard FG attempt on a 4th and 3. Thought that was a poor call by Heupel. The odds of converting that for a 1st are probably higher than the odds of hitting a 53-yarder. People talk about analytics a lot, but feel like most of the convo was on stupid things ("analytics says go for it on 4th and 2" -uh no it doesn't when you can take a 7 point lead at the end of the game!). I can't imagine any analytical model saying to take the 53 yard FG attempt in that situation.
The 3rd and 4 call. Also didn't like the conservative call on 3rd and 4 towards the end of the game. I think you play aggressive and try to end the game with a 1st down. Ended up working out for us anyway, but if we made a more aggressive play call, I think we had a 50%+ chance of converting that for a 1st down and winning the game. If we don't hit it, no biggie - we just take the FG for the 7 point lead. I feel like coaches significantly overvalue the 1 timeout; Bama was going to get 1:30'ish to score regardless if we don't convert. Go for the 1st to end the game, so they get 0:00.
4th and 22. Though, honestly, the call I hated the most was from DeBoer. Why would you go for it on 4th and 22 with 3 timeouts in your back pocket? I know it's a tough situation, but 4th and 22? It had been 4th and 6, I could've understood it, or if they had 1 timeout, but given how conservative we've played with the lead, I think you got to punt it there if you're Bama.
Bama homers on the broadcast. Definitely felt like we were listening to Bama radio with so many Bama homers in the broadcast booth. Why TF would you put Greg McElroy in the booth for this game? You can't put a Bama player there for Bama's biggest rivalry. He should've been on Georgia-Texas or LSU-Arkansas. Also, what was up with the whining over the 'illegal substitution' call? It was CLEARLY an illegal subsituttion. I get that the refs didn't put their hands up properly, but DeBoer had a chance to substitute and then kept changing his mind, ran a player out, had him come back, and then go back out again, and fake an injury. It wasn't even a debate - it was clearly an illegal subsitution. Honestly, feel like stuff like that should also get flagged for unsporstsman like conduct.
Bye week before Kentucky. Last week, I thought we desperately needed a bye week. After this game, I feel less that way, but maybe it's still a good thing so the offense can build upon what we've learned. We still have a Kentucky team capable of beating us, an elite Georgia team that beat the pants off of Texas on the road last night, and a Vandy team that looks pretty good on the schedule.
Feeling better after this game. Winning is great, but just felt like the offense finally clicked in the 2nd half. Hoping they build off this and we get things more figured out in the back half of the season. If we play like we did in the 2nd half, we're a playoff team - maybe not national champion, but a good top 5-8 team. If we can continue to improve, the O-line can do a better job blocking, Nico gets things figured out (as he did in the 2nd half), and we stay healthy, I think we are still a darkhorse title contender. This defense is elite. Just a question of whether the offense can improve enough to make us competitive consistently with teams like Oregon, Georgia, and Texas.
That's all I've got for now. I'm going to enjoy this one for the next 2 weeks!
GBO!!!!!!
Defense may be better than '98. It's a bold claim, but this team has now held 7 teams under 20 points, in an era of high-scoring offenses and an SEC grind that is more similar to playing an NFL schedule than it was back in the 90s (when you got a few freebies every year). The '98 D only gave up more than 20 points 3 times (and one of those was garbage time against Tim Couch's Kentucky team). What makes me think this is the best D in the country, however, is not merely the low point totals we've given up, but how they completely disrupt and change the game. How many times have we had bone-headed offensive mistakes and the D bails us out? Most aggressive defense I've seen in my lifetime.
Jermod McCoy is so good. I know the D-line gets talked about the most (and rightly so), but Jermod McCoy is working his way into our all-time great DBs conversation. And he's only a SOPHOMORE! The most worried I was during this game was when he went out; that's how critical he is! You can't stop Ryan Williams, but McCoy absolutely made things difficult for him, and his INT was a thing of beauty! We can talk about a lot of things from yesterday, but we lose yesterday without Jermod McCoy. Against most DBs, Ryan Williams was scoring a TD.
Bru, Bru, Bru. Speaking of McCoys, how about Bru? 6 receptions for 80 yards. He came up big yesterday!
Defense held Milroe in check. I knew our D played lights-out, but didn't see this statline till this morning: Milroe has 14 carries for 11 yards. Sure, some of that is sack yardage, but that's a crazy statline against a running QB. Remember, he ran for 117 yards against Georgia and 75 against Wisconsin.
Will Brooks. It's so great seeing a former walk-on thrive like this. He's had several key plays for our this season and the likely TD saving tackle and the INT to seal the game were both huge.
Sampson should be in Heisman conversation. 26 carries for 139 yards and 5.3 ypc against the #15 FPI ranked defense.
Nico started rough, but balled out in 2nd half. Felt like the light-bulb came on after Nico took that tough hit that knocked him out of the game. That pass to Thornton was one of the best passes we've seen all year. Great TD pass to Brazzell as well. I'm hoping this game gives him some more confidence. When he's playing well, he looks like one of the best QBs in the SEC.
The 53 FG attempt. I didn't like the 53 yard FG attempt on a 4th and 3. Thought that was a poor call by Heupel. The odds of converting that for a 1st are probably higher than the odds of hitting a 53-yarder. People talk about analytics a lot, but feel like most of the convo was on stupid things ("analytics says go for it on 4th and 2" -uh no it doesn't when you can take a 7 point lead at the end of the game!). I can't imagine any analytical model saying to take the 53 yard FG attempt in that situation.
The 3rd and 4 call. Also didn't like the conservative call on 3rd and 4 towards the end of the game. I think you play aggressive and try to end the game with a 1st down. Ended up working out for us anyway, but if we made a more aggressive play call, I think we had a 50%+ chance of converting that for a 1st down and winning the game. If we don't hit it, no biggie - we just take the FG for the 7 point lead. I feel like coaches significantly overvalue the 1 timeout; Bama was going to get 1:30'ish to score regardless if we don't convert. Go for the 1st to end the game, so they get 0:00.
4th and 22. Though, honestly, the call I hated the most was from DeBoer. Why would you go for it on 4th and 22 with 3 timeouts in your back pocket? I know it's a tough situation, but 4th and 22? It had been 4th and 6, I could've understood it, or if they had 1 timeout, but given how conservative we've played with the lead, I think you got to punt it there if you're Bama.
Bama homers on the broadcast. Definitely felt like we were listening to Bama radio with so many Bama homers in the broadcast booth. Why TF would you put Greg McElroy in the booth for this game? You can't put a Bama player there for Bama's biggest rivalry. He should've been on Georgia-Texas or LSU-Arkansas. Also, what was up with the whining over the 'illegal substitution' call? It was CLEARLY an illegal subsituttion. I get that the refs didn't put their hands up properly, but DeBoer had a chance to substitute and then kept changing his mind, ran a player out, had him come back, and then go back out again, and fake an injury. It wasn't even a debate - it was clearly an illegal subsitution. Honestly, feel like stuff like that should also get flagged for unsporstsman like conduct.
Bye week before Kentucky. Last week, I thought we desperately needed a bye week. After this game, I feel less that way, but maybe it's still a good thing so the offense can build upon what we've learned. We still have a Kentucky team capable of beating us, an elite Georgia team that beat the pants off of Texas on the road last night, and a Vandy team that looks pretty good on the schedule.
Feeling better after this game. Winning is great, but just felt like the offense finally clicked in the 2nd half. Hoping they build off this and we get things more figured out in the back half of the season. If we play like we did in the 2nd half, we're a playoff team - maybe not national champion, but a good top 5-8 team. If we can continue to improve, the O-line can do a better job blocking, Nico gets things figured out (as he did in the 2nd half), and we stay healthy, I think we are still a darkhorse title contender. This defense is elite. Just a question of whether the offense can improve enough to make us competitive consistently with teams like Oregon, Georgia, and Texas.
That's all I've got for now. I'm going to enjoy this one for the next 2 weeks!
GBO!!!!!!
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We completely dominated them in the second half, much like they did us last year. 
