Official SEC Football Thread 2011

[Scothew]

Wow what a game! Both teams deserve to be where they are in the rankings and honestly shouldnt really change places even though bama lost.

[OLS]

Originally Posted by jjirons69

That wildcat pass from Maze was a catch! Williams had it in his hands and landed on his back. BS call of the year, IMO. That was the difference in the game (it's tough to rely on 40+ yard field goals with any kicker). It was a horrible job coaching by Bama in the OT possession.

At least Carolina lost!

Just saying.

Hard to know where to start or what is wrongest.

A catch has one definitive characteristic. You hit the ground and maintain possession of the football.
Basically you stand up to demonstrate possession and are then free to drop the ball. A.) who had the
ball when the players got up?, and B.) What do you think instant replay and coaches challenges are for?
It's not like a run, where you hit the ground and you are down. In THAT case, it would have been
Bama ball on the one yard line. It's not like the refs didn't look at the play over and over.

It was not the difference in the game. The difference in the game might well be three missed field goals
by Bama. That is three good drives wasted in non-scoring endings. You can't do that in what has to
be the tightest game in the SEC we'll ever see.

On the surface, the overtime MIGHT have been poor coaching, but it is more about poor execution. DUMB
penalties. However, you are driving from 25 yeards out. It doesn't have to be rocket science. Why make
your players execute complicated or slow developing plays? Just run the ball til you have to pass and kick
a field goal if you can't score a TD. But you are right in one way. After Saban decided to complicate
the most basic part of the game to that point, his attempt to outcoach Les Miles led to Les Miles only
having to do it RIGHT in order to walk out with the win. But the players incurred the penalties,
not Nick Saban.

And kickers are on the team for one reason, to kick a field goal from any reasonable point on the field.
It would seem to the uneducated of us that Nick focused too hard on finding the most rugged horses he could
get to the detriment of the kicking game. Sure he has two tough lines, amazing backs and a couple of
great receivers, but his kicking game is apalling. LSU is a complete football team, as I have argued here
many times. Opportunistic on SPECIAL TEAMS and highly capable in the kicking game. There has been
lot of justifiable homerism in this thread prior to this game. I am a little surprised that none of them have
come back in to admit they were all wrong. If LSU had lost in OT last night, I would have posted my
congratulations within minutes, because it is important when I was so adamant about us winning.

OT wins are no way to win a game, but LSU got to the NCG in 03 with TWO OT LOSSES. There is no s
hame in Bama losing this game in OT. They made a few more mistakes
than LSU and paid the price.
But let's be honest. They LOST the game not by the bad luck in the end, but because they are inferior
to the LSU Tigers in terms of DEPTH, and BALANCE. Our two interceptions and Mathieu's stupid flagrant
foul could have opened the door to Bama beating LSU but they did not get it done. The Tigers beat the
Tide with the kicking game. Before the game I warned you that Brad Wing would keep you in your own
end ALL NIGHT. There are three phases of football, and special teams is one of them. Ignore it at your peril.

-----------------
Les Miles said it best, and classy I might add. EVEN IF you guys do not get to the SECCG, you might YET
play LSU in the final game of the year. If you do , we would be HONORED to play you guys again. Just
don't expect a different result. With 101,000 tickets for sale, Bama made available an embarassingly
pitiful number of visitor tickets. That is shameful, but it happened. In the Superdome, there will be
much better balance amongst patron fans.

[hammondc]

Well crappy weekend of ball for me. SC lost and Bama lost. That was one boring Bama/LSU game.

To make things a bit worse, Connor Shaw is out with a concussion. No news yet as to how long.....

[OLS]

Originally Posted by Scothew

Wow what a game! Both teams deserve to be where they are in the rankings and honestly shouldnt really change places even though bama lost.

It was a fantastic football game, I can't believe Hammond thought it was boring, lol.
Sadly though, Bama might fall as low as 5th, (prob 4th) it's the only fair thing to do. If LSU had lost they
would have dropped even lower than that probably, because nearly no one in the football universe thought
they could or would win. Andre' Ware on the SEC game of the week was talking at 11 am about how
Oklahoma was going to leap over LSU when they lost tonight, and this team was going to be below Alabama
and this other team was going to do this and that. Hey people are wrong all the time, but that particular one
stuck in my craw all day long. The nerve of it, lol.

But as the game was basically a stalemate....I am thinking 3rd.

[Powers]

Really enjoyed watching that one last night, awesome defenses on both sides. My buddy said it best: "People who think this is boring also hate a complete game shutout in baseball"

[OLS]

Being a lifetime Saints fan, and I guess lately my 35 year LSU fandom as well, I have a finely tuned twisting stomach.
I know full well how to endure a game where no amount of points is ever enough, the game can still be lost
by one dumb thing or another. EVEN with as much skill in that regard as I HAVE, that game was nearly intolerable.
I was crawling out of my skin all night long. I would not have been surprised to see it lost, and thrilled that it
came out as a win. But that kind of football is TOUGH to watch. It's like a slow motion train wreck.

But all of that aside, I am hated most in this thread for my JOY in the long faces in the stands when a game is in
the bag and LSU comes storming back on a 80-yard drive to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. I had to
wait an awfully long time last night to se the faces. There was this one girl that looked like she was asking her
boyfriend, "Don't we get another chance? This isn't OVER, is it?" Sad for them, great for me, times 2. I got the
win AND the faces.

NOW we get to see who in the hell wants the SEC east bad enough to meet us in Atlanta.

[Scothew]

Originally Posted by OLS

It was a fantastic football game, I can't believe Hammond thought it was boring, lol.

It was the exact thing I love about SEC football, tough, defensive domnination. Sadly my team I give my fan vote to lacks in it

I'll admit though last night i was pulling for Bama, but regardless it was a great game all the way around and had 4 AU fans on the edge of their seats the whole time.

[OLS]

Pulling for bama in that situation doesn't make you a bad Auburn fan, it makes you a good Alabama resident.
What makes me scratch my head is all these diehard bama fans who didn't have a thing to say last night, much
less this morning. All week I had to hear them brag about how wrong I was. I understand that I WAS
bragging, too, but for the most part, I am the only LSU fan in the thread. Not one of em has said 5hi+...lame.

[longknocker]

Originally Posted by OLS

Hard to know where to start or what is wrongest.

A catch has one definitive characteristic. You hit the ground and maintain possession of the football.
Basically you stand up to demonstrate possession and are then free to drop the ball. A.) who had the
ball when the players got up?, and B.) What do you think instant replay and coaches challenges are for?
It's not like a run, where you hit the ground and you are down. In THAT case, it would have been
Bama ball on the one yard line. It's not like the refs didn't look at the play over and over.

It was not the difference in the game. The difference in the game might well be three missed field goals
by Bama. That is three good drives wasted in non-scoring endings. You can't do that in what has to
be the tightest game in the SEC we'll ever see.

On the surface, the overtime MIGHT have been poor coaching, but it is more about poor execution. DUMB
penalties. However, you are driving from 25 yeards out. It doesn't have to be rocket science. Why make
your players execute complicated or slow developing plays? Just run the ball til you have to pass and kick
a field goal if you can't score a TD. But you are right in one way. After Saban decided to complicate
the most basic part of the game to that point, his attempt to outcoach Les Miles led to Les Miles only
having to do it RIGHT in order to walk out with the win. But the players incurred the penalties,
not Nick Saban.

And kickers are on the team for one reason, to kick a field goal from any reasonable point on the field.
It would seem to the uneducated of us that Nick focused too hard on finding the most rugged horses he could
get to the detriment of the kicking game. Sure he has two tough lines, amazing backs and a couple of
great receivers, but his kicking game is apalling. LSU is a complete football team, as I have argued here
many times. Opportunistic on SPECIAL TEAMS and highly capable in the kicking game. There has been
lot of justifiable homerism in this thread prior to this game. I am a little surprised that none of them have
come back in to admit they were all wrong. If LSU had lost in OT last night, I would have posted my
congratulations within minutes, because it is important when I was so adamant about us winning.

OT wins are no way to win a game, but LSU got to the NCG in 03 with TWO OT LOSSES. There is no s
hame in Bama losing this game in OT. They made a few more mistakes
than LSU and paid the price.
But let's be honest. They LOST the game not by the bad luck in the end, but because they are inferior
to the LSU Tigers in terms of DEPTH, and BALANCE. Our two interceptions and Mathieu's stupid flagrant
foul could have opened the door to Bama beating LSU but they did not get it done. The Tigers beat the
Tide with the kicking game. Before the game I warned you that Brad Wing would keep you in your own
end ALL NIGHT. There are three phases of football, and special teams is one of them. Ignore it at your peril.

-----------------
Les Miles said it best, and classy I might add. EVEN IF you guys do not get to the SECCG, you might YET
play LSU in the final game of the year. If you do , we would be HONORED to play you guys again. Just
don't expect a different result. With 101,000 tickets for sale, Bama made available an embarassingly
pitiful number of visitor tickets. That is shameful, but it happened. In the Superdome, there will be
much better balance amongst patron fans.

Brad: Even Lou Holtz Said On Sports Center This Morning That The Call Was Wrong; Alabama Had Possession Of The Catch & Was Down. Anyway, LSU Did Win The Game & Congrats To You & All LSU Fans.

[OLS]

Originally Posted by longknocker

Brad: Even Lou Holtz Said On Sports Center This Morning That The Call Was Wrong; Alabama Had Possession Of The Catch & Was Down. Anyway, LSU Did Win The Game & Congrats To You & All LSU Fans.

Haha, Lou Holtz is the arbitrator?? That kook? You and Lou are confusing running plays with pass
receptions. You have to get up in possession of the ball, the ground cannot cause a fumble. That's the rule.
If it was as you say the replay official would have overturned the call. The very fact that the LSU
player was actively in the process of gaining possession of the ball as they hit the turf together means
that the the ball was NOT under the control of the receiver. IN BOUNDS and IN CONTROL.

Look at Tyrann Mathieu in that clip, the receiver is inches from hitting the ground and he is already
throwing his arms up in celebration of the interception. In a no replay world, I would think you had a
right to call it a ripoff. But it was clear enough, that claim has no merit by the rules of the game.

[OLS]

Looks like I am wrong, Mathieu doesn't celebrate until the interceptor rolls over, but you are also wrong, longknocker,
the ball is out of Williams' hands a full foot off the ground. That's not posession. They are a foot from the ground, and
the LSU defender's hands are on the ball and the tight end's hands are on the LSU player's gloves. Just watch a few
more times until you see it as a football play, not LSU stealing a game from Bama.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vid...tsIllustrated/

[longknocker]

Originally Posted by OLS

Looks like I am wrong, Mathieu doesn't celebrate until the interceptor rolls over, but you are also wrong, longknocker,
the ball is out of Williams' hands a full foot off the ground. That's not posession. They are a foot from the ground, and
the LSU defender's hands are on the ball and the tight end's hands are on the LSU player's gloves. Just watch a few
more times until you see it as a football play, not LSU stealing a game from Bama.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vid...tsIllustrated/

Your Opinion Vs. Mine. At Least You Agreed That Play By Mathieu Was Chicken S**T!

[OLS]

Greg, follow that link, there are three different video reports on that website, all of which show the play you question.
All you have to do is watch it enough times to get oriented to what you are seeing, and you will see that you are
seeing it with Crimson-colored glasses. I am not making this up, it's all right there in front of you. Watch it 20-30
times until you get used to the timing of it. It's there right in front of you. Watch the leg/back hit the ground,
get familiar with what's happening there so you can shift focus to the hands. Reid had the game of his life, single-
handedly stopping Richardson in the early stages when no one else could tackle him. He quite simply rose above the
game, and the interception is no different. Don't stop watching the clip until you see it the way the officials did.
Til then you are just kidding yourself.

And in the end, this quote from the AP said it best.For all of Alabama's heralded recruiting
classes under Saban, it was clear the Crimson Tide didn't devote a lot of time to finding a kicker. Make no mistake,
from our own stupid penalties from over-physicality and idiocy and picks from our QBs, YOUR guys lost the game because
they have no kicker. And who needs a kicker when you roll over all your opponents, right??

Wrong. Les Miles didn't forget sometimes kicking is the ONLY way to win.

[OLS]

That Maze play is another reason I am glad that we beat the Tide in your own stadium.
Had this happened in Baton Rouge the drone would be never-ending. As it is,
the refs didn't beat the Tide, they just failed to capitalize on our mistakes.
Everybody knew there would precious few moments to make a difference in the
game. Maze throws a pass too late, the man was wide open initially and then our speed
backfield closed the distance and took the ball away. He takes excellent field position
and throws it away by failing to field the ball on a punt. He later blamed it on the overhead
camera wire...that's pausible. But man, those 4 missed field goals are unforgivable.
To focus on a play one way or the other is the true sign of a homer. Everyone knows
you have to play to a level that allows you to overcome the twists of fate and human
error.

[OLS]

The best thing about the game for me was how both teams just played their GUTS out.
Noo one in this country can argue that this was a clear case of the top two teams in the
country just absolutely rolling around in the dirt for one bone and in the end, the bone
broke nearly in half. One team just got the good end of the bone. Well played by the
offenses and defenses of both teams. No one need hang their heads at all.

And no one has to look any further than our traditional Thanksgiving trouble with the Hogs
to see that the SEC is still wide open. We just happen to have the lead now.
And Lord, lord, I would hate to be Mississippi State next week....

[OLS]

Greg, I wanted to make another point about Mathieu giving that guy the forearm shiver. I watched a replay this morning,
and the defensive series before the incident, the guy that got the forearm to the chops had tackled Mathieu by the face-
mask right in front of an official. I do not respect dirty play in any form and did not excuse his forearm from the outset.
But watching the series unfold again this morning, I know now where it came from. But make no mistake, the Honey
Badger has a big fat mouth and sometimes it takes over for his brain and it did there.

[rizzle]

Originally Posted by OLS

ramble, ramble,ramble...But let's be honest. They LOST the game not by the bad luck in the end, but because they are inferior
to the LSU Tigers in terms of DEPTH, and BALANCE....ramble, ramble, ramble

Congratulations on winning the game. But two things here: 1) You have no idea what you're talking about. Inferior in depth and balance? Really, Brad. That's just an ill-informed and asinine statement. 2) Alabama is no doubt the better of those two teams and should have won that game by at least 14 points. But hey, that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes.

Now you may continue your incessant, incoherent, ill-informed rambling.

[jsnake]

Well it is official. Missouri is in the SEC so all your teams have at least 1 easy win next year. MIZZOU couldn't even compete and win in the BIG 12 so what the hell are they thinking by moving to the SEC? I love Missouri but I think this move was a bad one for them.

I am excited to see them play some new teams though.

[OLS]

Originally Posted by rizzle

Congratulations on winning the game. But two things here: 1) You have no idea what you're talking about. Inferior in depth and balance? Really, Brad. That's just an ill-informed and asinine statement. 2) Alabama is no doubt the better of those two teams and should have won that game by at least 14 points. But hey, that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes.

Now you may continue your incessant, incoherent, ill-informed rambling.

This is what I expected, down to the last letter. How did I know the phrase "Should have won" was
going to come into play? It's easy. Your team lost. Missing 4 field goals is not "Should have won", it's we
think we thought of everything, but we forgot to get a kicker. You know how many high school kickers
would kill to come and kick for Alabama? I bet a ton. But Nick Saban in his divine wisdom didn't save any
scholarships for THAT I guess. I reiterate, who needs a kicking game when you have Trent Richardson?

Should have won is a bull5hi+ response. Your team got beat, in your own stadium in front of your own
crowd. Nick Saban was out-coached. Your team was out-played, and by a kicker besides. You can't say,
"We shoulda won", because you didn't have the PLAYERS to WIN, that's why I told you for three weeks that
you were not GOING to win. You can't say 'we have the best team except for a kicker'. Our kicker MAKES
us the better team. How do I know? Because the score was 9-6, all field goals. Duh. Our punter did
exactly what I thought he would, handicap you deep in your own end. THAT'S BALANCE, man.

Inferior depth and balance wasn't a good enough description for you??
We rotated defensive linemen all night long and got a sack in OVERTIME because of it. We have more
tailbacks ready to play than Alabama, we have more quarterbacks ready to play than Alabama. That's depth.
I love Barrett Jones, he is from Memphis and a great kid, I've met him. But if you had better balance,
he wouldn't have had to play hurt. He gutted it out, and I am not sure he hurt the team, but again,
we just have more players ready to play than UA.

We have better balance than Alabama. You doubt that? You ever hear of something called the kicking
game? You should have, since it's how we BEAT YOU GUYS. If you had better balance, you would have
won the freaking GAME. Oh, we have Trent Richardson, yay. You think teams are going to just roll
over and concede because of Richardson and Lacey? You have a great offensive line and linebackers.
Should we just wave the cape and let you charge on through? No, we found your weakness and used it to beat
you in front of the largest TV audience ever to watch a regular season game. OF COURSE LSU has
better balance than Alabama. That's how we WON THE GAME.

By the way, we're still friends, right??

[OLS]

Originally Posted by jsnake

Well it is official. Missouri is in the SEC so all your teams have at least 1 easy win next year. MIZZOU couldn't even compete and win in the BIG 12 so what the hell are they thinking by moving to the SEC? I love Missouri but I think this move was a bad one for them.

I am excited to see them play some new teams though.

Nonsense, in the SEC, we make room for all levels of competitiveness. You will be made better simply
because of the competition you will face. You will get better recruits simply by virtue of being an SEC school.
You will stop losing blue chippers from Missouri to other schools. You will have Vanderbilt to practice on.
This is the best day yet for being a Missouri fan. Embrace it. Sure you will have trouble in the beginning,
but I bet you win 3 conference games your first year.