Well Ladies and gents, I promised in my Week 5 review that I was going to take a harder look at this one this week. When you stand back and look at this game and it's results you would have to say it's effect on the SEC is alot less than if it would have been a Bama loss. If that would have happened you would have Auburn and a mediocre LSU team tied for first in the West and each one of them holding an upper hand on Bama when it comes to scheduling (each SEC team from now til the end of the season getting a week off prior to playing Bama). Fortunately for Bama, they dominated Florida and won't have to taste defeat just yet. Even with a Florida loss, the SEC east is still anyone's to take. Like I said earlier this season, I think it's a two-horse race, Florida and South Carolina.
Get a load of these stats though folks. If I would have told you last Friday before the game that Greg McElroy would have 84 yards passing, Mark Ingram 47 yards rushing and Trent Richardson 63 yards rushing for the game...90% of you would have been betting your money in Vegas that Bama was going to take it's first loss in their last 29 regular season games....but as Lee Corso likes to say, NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND! I think the two key stats about the game is this, Florida was 1-4 (that being a field goal) in the Red Zone with Bama being a 4-4 (3 TDs and a field goal). The other, 4 turnovers for Florida...1 fumble...3 interceptions, one being for a touchdown. Immediately after watching the game, I pointed solely to the turnovers as the difference but when I went back and watched it again and looked at the stats, it was more of a dominating win for the Tide than I gave them credit. During the game it seemed to feel like it would be a drive by Florida, mistake by Florida, short drive by Bama and score. I wasn't surprised to see that Bama was dominated in time of possession with 27:10 to Florida's 32:50. That doesn't tell the story though. Bama worked from a short field for a good bit of the game and even on the longer drives, the offense wasn't slowed until the second half. Even with Florida dominating time of possession and having several long drives, they only finished the day with 281 total yards on offense. A measly 8 yards better than Bama's 273. Florida was held to 79 yards rushing for the day with Bama tallying 170 yards rushing for the day. The one weakness that you can point to with Bama's defense is with the pass. Florida had 202 yards passing for the day averaging 6.3 yards per attempt and 12.6 yards per completion. The problem is, it took Florida 32 attempts to get 16 completions.
So, after reviewing the game, I don't think there is any doubt that Bama is for real. They have physically dominated every team that they have played to include the Florida Gators. Do they have weaknesses? Absolutely, but as each week comes and each game passes those weaknesses begin to be less and less and those holes become smaller. If we can predict the outcome of this season by Bama's play so far, I feel confident in saying this...if someone doesn't get Bama soon, it is going to be extremely hard to pull one on them at all. They are playing disciplined ball right now and when they don't Saban and Smart are dead in their tails and get it corrected on the spot. Can Bama lose? Absolutely, but they are not making those game breaking mistakes and if they do make a mistake they pick up for each other (offense for the defense and the defense for the offense). If this play continues...with disciplined play and very few turnovers...they will not lose, period. Yep, that's right...I said it. This team looks better and more well balanced than any team that I can remember even back to my childhood (that would be the 70's in case you were wondering). It's all starting to point to that matchup in the Iron Bowl at the end of the year cause I believe the two top teams in the SEC are in the west...Bama and Auburn. Auburn is down right explosive but they do make mistakes and Bama has proven that they can make the most of those mistakes. That game is going to be a slobber knocker folks so I don't care if you are an SEC fan or not, make your plans now for the 26th of November around 1:30pm central. I don't think you'll be disappointed!
No comments:
Post a Comment