Alabama played its worst game of the year when it mattered most
Ordinarily, we do a three-star recap of the Bama games. However, after last night’s 20-17 defeat to the No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs (almost certain to be No. 1 by noon today), there were simply too many “what ifs,” too many thoughts swirling in our head, and too many factors to fully describe the game so glibly. Sometimes you really do need to sleep on it, remove yourself from the moment, and just process.
So, we did that: slept on it, woke up sober, organized our thoughts, and decided rather to analyze why the Tide lost rather than simply recap the loss. First up though, here’s the boss in his post-game presser:
Missed Opportunities
Against a team like Georgia, locked in a defensive slobberkocker, you’re only going to get so many opportunities to put points on the board, to make a play, to affect the outcome of the game. You best be prepare to meet the moment, to make them count, and be ready to make that play. Alabama did not do so last night. You can take your pick: Brutal procedural and presnap penalties, a trio of DPIs called, not turning your head around in man coverage, failing to cash in points in plus-territory, a ball just off the fingers, a wrong route ran, a throw just a little wide, falling on a shoestring tackle, and dozens more. Every little thing must be executed at the highest level to win a game like this against an opponent like this. Alabama did not; Georgia did.
Sometimes it just be like that
Last night, between muffs, unforced errors, forced fumbles, and interceptions, Georgia put the ball on the turf five times and threw three passes that were interception-worthy (we’ll touch on that later). The Bulldogs were giving Alabama plenty of chances to make a play. But the oblate spheroid takes funny bounces and rolls and spins. It is rightly called a game of inches. And out of eight opportunities for takeaways, Alabama walked away with just one turnover. You can’t predict when a football will take a 45-degree angle hop, keep rolling end over end for 30 yards, or bounce right back to the butterfingered offender. And the Bulldogs got all the bounces. Sometimes it really do just be like that.
Growing Pains
Before the season started I wrote many, many times that I would settle for a 9-3 record if Alabama looked like Alabama again, Keelon Russell took his lumps and learned from them, and this team got its growing pains out of the way for a title run in 2027. Well, Keelon looked every bit the part of a redshirt freshman starting the sixth game of his career. And Kirby had him confused and battered. Delayed pressure, exotic looks, blitzes from every angle: the ‘Dawgs were not going to just sit back and let the dynamic young star light them up. His processing was way too slow, his recognition was stunted, he was seeing ghosts, hearing footsteps even when there were none, and generally just taking too long to make a decision. It was his worst game of the year. Though much of it was his fault, that dilatory processing wasn’t solely on him; offensive line and RB blocking miscues, as well as playcalling, also shoulder some blame.
Russell will want that game back, for sure. But these were the growing pains we expected him to eventually face — we just didn’t think it would take half a season to encounter them. And, yes, there is one loss of the projected three many of us expected. But while Alabama looks like Alabama again, it remains to be seen if this offense took their lumps and can learn from them.
It’s only a growing pain if you grow.
Injuries, Depth and Toughness
For much of the night, Alabama was able to match Georgia’s toughness, at least when the O-Line could get going downhill. The run-blocking was especially impressive. While the Dawgs eventually outrushed the Tide, Alabama was nip and tuck in that category most of the night, and actually had the longest gains from scrimmage and more yards per carry. It was on the other side of the ball where ‘Bama’s issues lie, particularly down the stretch. It is no secret that UA came into the game down four defenders, including two outside linebackers. And Georgia made the Tide pay for that, frequently getting the edges and attacking the OLB. In fact, it happened so often, that I suspect that was part of Bobo’s gameplan coming into this contest, more than adjusting for it.
It is also where you saw the Tide’s lack of elite depth hurt them, and serve as one more reminder of how Saban’s ad hoc retirement, and several years of busts in the front seven, came back to bite future Tide teams in the ass: KDB just happens to be the recipient of that unwelcome largesse. The Tide could not rotate elite backups in, and play personnel as it wants to do. Georgia may have looked tougher at the end of the night, especially in the 4th when they were repeatedly blowing up the right side of the Tide’s defensive front, but you were witnessing a decade-long recruiting machine with depth simply wear down the starting six for ‘Bama. Turns out that losing 51 transfers, and half of a recruiting class hurts you, huh? For all practical purposes, in wins and losses, in dept, KDB inherited a team on probation.
More Alabama fans should be pissed at how the Saban dynasty ended; last night gave us more foul fruits of a hasty departure, years of poor evaluation and lackadaisical development, and a new staff with just two classes to play catch-up. That is a fool’s errand against a team like Georgia.
Playcalling
A week after we wrote that Ryan Grubb called the first perfect game at Alabama, easily his best in Tuscaloosa, we got clownshow Ryan Grubb on Saturday. We got the Ryan Grubb who thinks that Alabama (or any team for that matter) can run east-west plays against the fastest linebackers in the country. We got the Ryan Grubb who decided to get cute inside the redzone. Rico Scott in the fullback spot, only to then get the ball on a jet sweep. (Who the actual f*** calls that garbage on the opponent’s 21?!) We got the Ryan Grubb who thinks that Alabama’s screen game, which has generally been deficient all season, somehow is going to work against the country’s best defense.
We got the Ryan Grubb who did very little to help take the pressure off his struggling young quarterback. We got the Ryan Grubb who repeatedly called straight dropbacks against ferocious pressure, and rarely rolled the pocket or let the RPO game have a go or exploited the Dawgs aggression, or called short hot routes to the deep tight end corps. We got the Ryan Grubb who gave Georgia too much respect and never took the top off the ball and gutted Alabama’s greatest advantage: Explosiveness. He neutered the Tide’s offense, in short. And, worse, he bailed on a running game having their best moment of the season behind an offensive line taking souls. That’s inexcusable.
Georgia is a hard enough team to beat as it is. You don’t need your offensive coordinator hamstringing you on top of it.
Mistakes
There were simply too many mistakes by the Crimson Tide. Whether it’s a DB getting out of phase, a player not looking for the ball, biting on headfakes, jumping offsides, not being mindful of the playclock, miscommunicating to teammates, messing up blocking assignments (and Daniel Hill had a few doozies), Alabama simply screwed up too much. They made the mistakes that Georgia did not, and in one case, it cost them at least a field goal attempt, another one killed a promising drive, and another took an interception off the board. Think those would have mattered in a three-point game?
Dijon Lee
If we’re going to talk mistakes, then we have to name names: Dijon Lee has to go. You can play zone defense and let him be an All-American, or you can be a modern defense — as the Tide are desparately trying to do — and play press-man and match zone coverages..and let him get beat like a rented mule for sixty minutes a night. He’s no longer just the guy to pick on, he’s directly giving away points: 10 of Georgia’s points were directly attributable to his errors alone.
And, when there was still a last gasp for the Tide to get the ball back, he took out his frustrations on a Georgia player, giving them a game-sealing first down. Then the little brat has the temerity, after practically losing the game by himself down the stretch, to try and walk away from a deserved DeBoer ass-chewing. Ha Ha was having none of it:
The staff is going to have to recognize, and correct, the fact that it has a Dijon Lee problem. He can’t start at corner any more this season though. He’s just not good enough in the first place, and his emotional immaturity is just the final straw.
Insulated Scheduling
Georgia has a long history of easing into their seasons with a parade of cupcakes. This year, aided by the SEC, has been particularly egregious. UGA had the 93rd SOS nationally coming into the game, and was dead last among SEC teams. The luxury of having five full weeks off to prepare for a road game against Alabama showed last night. UGA was going to be prepared in any case, but they were practically on the Tide’s sidelines for sixty minutes. It was (and will likely be) the most prepared team the Tide face all season until the playoffs.
Ref Ball
We don’t need to relitigate that final no-call. All night was a horror show of criminal negligence put in by an SEC officiating crew that screwed Alabama out of a win. I can’t even speak: I just start frothing a string of profanities. But the incompetence, perhaps even malice, went far deeper than just that one play. There was also a missed face mask, an incorrectly overturned interception. a missed targeting, a missed punch by an UGA receiver, and quite a few sheisty spots by the side judge.
I don’t need to go into this one. I’m only getting more pissed off.
The Bottom Line and A Bright Spot
There was a lot of blame to go around for last night’s loss. There far too many mistakes, too many missed opportunities, too many execution errors, too many bad coaching decisions from the offensive staff, and too much outside interference from the officiating crew. But perhaps the best takeaway is that despite all that, and an elite opponent gifted a month to prepare, even Georgia was only a field goal better than Alabama playing their worst game of the season.
There are a lot of lessons to be learned, a lot of adjustments to be made between now and December in Atlanta: We’re going to see this team again. That was the very best the Dawgs had to give. Alabama, meanwhile is both ahead of schedule in the long term and will have gotten even better by that point in the near term. That’s why we’re not upset: maybe disappointed a bit, but very little to meltdown about. This ain’t over, and we all know it.
Roll Tide.
Now on to hating Tennessee. #fUT
I’m still absolutely fucking furious
Im not as mad as I usually am. The officiating is infuriating. I’d love to see an explanation of why DPI wasn’t called even though it looked like a flag was thrown before being picked up.
Incompetence or corruption? Thing is, they aren’t THAT incompetent. What is the end game in screwing over Bama?
UGA +1.5 paying out at +$120.
that’s the only thing that makes sense
I’m mad, but not at the team. I think this was necessary for growth, but I saw an Oline that was able to run the ball, running backs who ran with anger, and a broken WR who showed more fight and heart than we have seen in a few years.
This team went toe to toe with the number one team and unlike the Tennessee Texas moral victory, I actually felt like we had the better team and win that game 2 out of 3 times.
Despite everything, and I mean everything going for Georgia, it was never out of our control to win that game until the final 3rd down conversion.
Stockton played the best game of his career, and I don’t see him doing that consistently, while Keelon played probably his worst, and hopefully we learned more about them than they did about us, because I have a feeling this is the first of multiple games against Georgia this year.
Exactly this. Every word.
Frustrating. But not seppoku-worthy.
The cactus remains holstered for now.
It doesn’t even rate one out of 10 cacti.
The officiating? That is a 10 out of 10 swinging cactus moment.
I really wish I could be this positive. I still have a bad feeling about this current part of the schedule and unfortunately, they’re right where I thought they’d be at 4-1.
5-1 my dude. 🙂
And if you were that confident we’d get through the first five without a slipup, you were more sanguine than most of us.
Get through this next stretch (@ut, aTm, @LSWho) 2-1 or better, and we’re in the playoff. Cause we ain’t losing to this version of Vandy, and we ain’t loosing to the booger eaters in T-Town.
@ LSU seems the most likely, if it happens. Lane has to get a new Super Bowl now; they have a fuck ton of talent that they paid $50 million for; and, they’re at home.
I’d agree that’s the toughest remaining challenge. Corndogs will also be facing CFP elimination (assuming they haven’t already been eliminated, which is far from certain). But I still think we pants them.
Honestly, nah. We’re better than that and this staff either takes that next step towards progress this year, or it isn’t happening. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be aiming for the SEC Championship. Then again, DeBoer was getting cold shouldered by Lee until Clinton-Dix stopped him.
Oh, I agree, especially based on where we are now. But you’re comment seemed to indicate you were confident going into the year that we’d open 5-0, and most of our fanbase was very concerned that we were going to slip up against one or more of UK/USC/MSU. I was more confident than most, but I wasn’t taking any of those games for granted and I wouldn’t have been shocked if we’d dropped one of them.
Who the fuck is running our game clock? Please tell that’s also part of the SEC officiating ineptitude and not a home-grown failure.
I don’t understand the logic of being able to overturn an interception where you do not see a definitive answer on whether someone has control of the ball, but you can’t throw a penalty for a facemask when the ball carrier’s helmet literally comes off because “nobody saw it”.
I’m fine with nobody saw it, but if we are staring at a replay and you can’t see what half the ball is doing, I don’t know how you overturn it. It’s just horseshit, and the spots were atrocious, they tried to give UGA about 8 extra yards on their first punt, fortunately we came back from break correctly spotted at the 50.
They also missed the facemask on Keelon, the obvious DPI no-call… our center held like a SOB on our first touchdown.. just shit officiating overall, and I hate to say it seems to have gotten worse as gambling keeps getting force-fed down our throats.
You’re right-on with gambling. The officiating nationally, and particularly the SEC, has gotten egregious since legalized (and recklessly promoted) gambling.
it is naïve beyond all belief to think that some of these crews are not shaving points or putting their thumb on the scale
I thought there was a facemask against Keelon late, but on one of the replays it was our own lineman whose arm was swung around into his face.
I think he was referring to EJ having his helmet torn off…maybe.
We really needed J. Hill and Zulu in the worst way last night. Hill’s run stuffing was missed especially. Also UGA didn’t really get cooking on the ground until Terrance Green went down.
Bingo. Bobo went straight after the OLB.
2010 IB ref
I was quite impressed with the rushing attack. That made me smile.
yep. The plays took way to long to develop.
😂 ——>😭
Yes, yes we will. And the outcome won’t be close. #MTAQ
Also there’s nothing more infuriating than Matt Austin check ins when an officiating crew is doing an objectively dog shit job job. It’s clear that officiating operates on some kind of costra nostra brotherhood the way he ties himself in knots to prevent any sort of criticism.
Coming into the season I was optimistic for this year, and I thought next year was the one to get excited about. That hasn’t changed.
Also, I know indisputable evidence is the standard to overturn a call, but I’ve never thought it was actually applied that way. I think replay officials just call whatever they think they see.
I said it before the game – I’m scarred by how poorly DeBoer ran this program in years 1 & 2, so why are we surprised that Lee walked away and publicly disrespected “big game” DeBoer? The team is less-soft this year and it certainly isn’t because of that big goofy-ass teddy bear-looking MFer being paid to give Grubb a home.
I knowing I’m going to be one of the more negative people here, but after getting their balls cut off by Indiana, this fucking program NEEDS to win games like this instead of settling for moral victories. I’m still in “I’ll believe it when I see it” mode and that includes actually being able to win at Tennessee since DeBoer’s OC of choice still takes entire quarters off dreaming of Portland.
I think this is a Lee problem specifically. He threatened to hold out going into this season. And per my #sauces, demanded $700k. KDB & Morgan wanted to let him walk. It was the defensive staff that swore they had to have him. And now since they’re paying him, he’s apparently big dicking it.
i say sit him. If he wants to leave, leave. You don’t want to undermine your defensive staff, but you can’t let that guy show his ass like that
Would.
Show Lee the door myself.
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Wow. Welp, it’s up to the kindergarten teacher to hurt some feels and BENCH that soppy cunt.
It’s probably up to Wommack to decide what to do with him TBH.
At this level, HCs decide very few micro issues like sitting a game. They approve recommendations etc. But Kane had the juice to keep him on the roster over summer; presumably he has it to decide Lee’s punishment for Saturday.
I can’t see anything happening, though, most programs wouldn’t sit him for a quick moment of anger.
Leaving that aside, he needs to be benched because he sucks.
He needs to be benched because he sucks AND to make a point that this kinda behavior will not be tolerated. If you let one guy show his arse then very soon you are in “LANK” territory….
If he is benched and RCW is out, who returns punts for us Saturday?
Rico, likely.
They won this exact game last year in almost the same exact way uga just won it this year. On the road by a FG polishing it off with their offense running out the clock.
Im cautiously optimistic that based on what they’ve shown so far this year, they’ll bounce back. But like you, I want to see it and then I’ll be bought in. It’s the only thing they haven’t shown so far this season, here’s their first opportunity.
But UGA as a staff knows what Grubb is going to do and that’s abandon the run. This why since that game, they’ve beaten us 2 in a row. It’ll be 3 in a row when we see them again because Grubb is a stupid, bitch-made PAC12 air raid fetishist.
It was criminal to abandon the run with your running backs averaging 5.6 yards per carry. We should’ve had Georgia sucking wind in the second half.
They beat us in Atlanta not because of any great schematic advantage, or even Grubb’s failures, but because we were missing 13 starters, and had a quarterback playing with broken ribs and a busted back.
You’re never winning a game like that.
“what Grubb is going to do and that’s abandon the run. ” — Why the fuck does he do that!!!! Even setting apart the couple of big runs, we were regularly getting 3-4 yds a pop on the ground. You don’t just abandon that in less than ideal weather conditions with your first year starting QB and your No.1 wide receiver carrying an injury. Befuddling.
To me it seems like Grubb is gone in a couple of years if not next year (I think he waits until Keelon leaves for the draft) and when that happens….who do we hire? Any preferences? Wouldn’t mind getting Sark back (I understand this might be completely unachievable) because now that he’s hitched his wagon to Arch Mannin….I just don’t see it working out for him in Texas…
I honestly think Sark would teach DeBoer a thing or two. The man clearly trusts Grubb WAY too much as one of our RBs averaged TEN YARDS per carry. “Ride that horse? No, thank you, we play throw-ball.” – Grubb
Grubb…
Why the Crimson Tide lost? — because Erik guaranteed a win and tempted the Gods.
@@
I’m not the one that dropped five fumbles
Not a mathematician but statistically, the correlation between mighty writers tempting fait and Bama losing are 1:1. That’s a fact!!!…in my opinion.
Hell, we did our part by not dropping them — just had shitty recovery luck on the ones the Dawgs fumbled
In addition to all of the above and below, it was pretty obvious to me that we missed 99 BADLY in the second half.
We GOTTA have Green
Can’t put yourself in situations to let refs determine the game, as horrendous those calls and I repeat CALLS were.
Not getting at least a FG on the INT in UGA territory – what the heck were those plays Grubb was trying there?!?!?!
Too many negative plays on 3rd down – again why we going sideways?
Seemed when running north/south we were efficient. UGA wasn’t going to give anything over the top.
Hopefully Dijon will learn but yes he cannot be on an island. Also, the UGA player hit him first – but as we have seen Bama players can be hit all season and no flags and the retaliatory strike always gets flagged.
Is it just me or does Kirby seem like the most petulant little fuck off of a coach on the sidelines. Always a foot from an official, and dancing around like a freaking 4 year old.
Close game and not feeling very gumpy right now, gotta prepare for Tennessee Hate Week. I hate Tennessee, cause first of all, it’s Tennessee.
I really like this team and think they are pretty young. Anyway Roll Tide!!
I hope DeBoer realizes how much we hate these fuckers. Took Nick a few years. He inherited hate for AU from LSU. But this is a whole different world. There’s no good natured jibing. And the hate is real.
It was a good game to watch, and at the least we didn’t get ‘indiana’d’ and run out of the stadium. But, despite all the optimistic takes here, I cant get too happy about a moral victory. yes, it was better. no, its not good enough. not even close. jawja tried hard to lose and the tide just would not let them; how many balls have to be fumbled to actually recover a couple? apparently more than the many coulda/shouldas from last night. good to see KDB act like he cares for a change though; found that surprising and off brand. anyway, on to tennessee.
I think we all wanted to see how far in terms of toughness and preparation and effort how Alabama looked against their first elite opponent since the Rose Bowl.
I would say they passed that test with flying colors. One of the reasons most Alabama fans aren’t pissed off is because Alabama looked like Alabama again, even losing.
it felt like a Saban loss: the opponent getting every single break, lots of injuries, weird little bounces, getting screwed by officiating, and the other team playing the game of their lives, and certainly the best of the season
Georgia had to take that game, aided by the officiating crew, Alabama did not give it to them
Exactly! We actually RTDB well. That alone was a sight for sore eyes.
That’s a good way of putting it: It felt like a Saban loss. Last year’s Rose Bowl did not; that was a completely different thing. This was the closest thing to a “good loss” as you could get, in many ways.
And as for the officiating: I don’t know that they were paid off or were corrupted by gambling, and maybe they weren’t. But they acted just like if they had been. Don’t quack like a duck and then be upset if somebody calls you Daffy.
Gonna have to rewatch a loss
was there, very few replays and had the absolute best upperdeck seats, my eyes are failling me though
It’s called aging, and while it sucks for some things like watching a football game, it’s a gift 😂
This game meant not much in terms of the season outside of positioning. You don’t have to win every game. You don’t have to win the league.
I wanted to see this team compete with the best team in the country. They did that even while being hobbled and still have a lot of room to grow. That should terrify the rest of CFB. If this team comes back out throwing haymakers after a disappointing week, I’ll be 100% bought in.
I have a feeling you are going to witness Tennessee receive one of the worst beatings that they have ever experienced in Neyland.
Wonder where I’ve heard that kinda rhetoric before…
This time I mean it!
I said I had a feeling. Airwreck, OTOH, said it was a sure thing.
I’ve heard quite a few Bama fans claiming we were the better team last night. That’s probably an overstatement, but what is absolutely true, what you’re encapsulating here, and what I suspect most of those fans are really trying to articulate, is – Bama clearly has a much higher ceiling than Georgia.
We saw, if not the absolute best version of Georgia, then about as close to it as you’re ever going to see in practice (no team is ever going to play 100% to it’s ceiling for 60 minutes non-stop). Meanwhile, we got the bumbling, keystone cops version of Bama for much of the game – and it STILL took EVERY 50/50 ball randomly bouncing UGA’s way, AND a generational ref-ball hosing from a crew that somehow managed to make the JASON. FREAKIN’. AUTREY crew look… competent… for Georgia to eke out a 3 point win.
So, was Bama the better team last night? Probably not, by a very narrow margin. But would Bama playing at 85% of it’s ceiling and unhindered by play-calling malpractice, blind naked mole rats in stripes, and with 50/50 balls actually breaking somewhat close to 50/50, administer a total pantsing to the barking humans? Also yes.
Speaking of officiating… When is the UA administration going actually grow a freaking pair and force the league office to address this??? The issue has been repeatedly documented by objective, outside observers. and it’s time those nitwits in B-ham were made to deal with it.
Sick and tired of us getting the “firstborn double-standard treatment”, but with none of the perks of being firstborn (you can guess where I fall in my family’s birth order…)
Never, to answer your question.
(first born here too. So I know EXACTLY what you mean).