Official SEC Football Thread 2011

[OLS]

Rizzle, I doubt you will find one credible sportswriter who will say in print where his cohorts can read it that
Alabama should have won that game. They lined up in huge lines to say it on FRIDAY and SATURDAY morning,
but no one said it on Sunday. I love Alabama, except for one day a year. But I do not love LSU so much that I will just
say homer-istic things about them to make myself feel good inside. If you had beaten us, even by one, even in regulation,
I would have congratulated you, because that's the kind of game it was. Everyone had ample chances to make good on the
opportunity in front of them. If you had the team to win by 14, you should have won by 30, because we gave you all the
chances in the world. But the measure of a good team is not perfection, but the focus to remain in the game despite your
mitakes. Jarrett Lee was good enough for 8-0, but not good enough for 9-0, so he got yanked. He made his mistakes and the
rest of his teammates erased his errors for him. The Tide failed to erase the mistakes of their kicker and their coach who
put him IN position to fail. Pooch punts would have been the better choice on the last two missed field goals. Moving the ball
against the Tide was TOUGH, nearly impossible. Les Miles used his superior balance to shackle the tide with bad field
position over and over. Nothing said Saban had to keep going for the big pass or the trick play. You didn't see Les Miles
reaching into his kooky bag. --edit--- Personally, I hated the way Miles was forced to play, FAR too conservative for his tastes
or mine. But in the end, that's how he won the game. If Saban had even QB sneaked three times and kicked the 3,
he might have won the game. But it was only a game. I only wanted to explain my statements, balance in all three
phases of the game is a very desirable quality, as is having people to fill in holes. The only place we are thin in 2011
is on the offensive line.

[jsnake]

Originally Posted by OLS

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.

I can see it your way as well. All of these thoughts have crossed my mind. Anxious to see what the schedule for next year will be. Looking forward to getting into some of this SEC banter. You guys really put some thought in all of this.

[rizzle]

Originally Posted by OLS

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??

We're still friends, and you still don't have a clue what you're talking about. But I'll let you gloat, and I'll even go ahead and agree with you. You're absolutely correct. Whatever it was you said, you're absolutely correct.

This is why I don't like LSU fans.

[OLS]

Jsnake,
They might need to change the way they do things to play in the SEC, though, I will give you that.
The spread is fine for a lot of conferences, but you need meat to compete in the SEC. You will need the ability to
grind the ball late in the game like LSU and UA. You play LSU with the spread and they are going to clean your clock.
But now that you can recruit Arkansas, Missouri, TN, KY, Illinios, etc, you will FIND the bodies to play SEC football.

[OLS]

Originally Posted by rizzle

We're still friends, and you still don't have a clue what you're talking about. But I'll let you gloat, and I'll even go ahead and agree with you. You're absolutely correct. Whatever it was you said, you're absolutely correct.

This is why I don't like LSU fans.

I would like it better, Rizzle if you refuted my solid points and debated it rather than just
hitting me with your homerstick. Can you explain gross deficiencies in the kicking game? Can you deny
there is no logical way to get a sack in Overtime unless my team is well-rested or yours is exhausted?
Can you come up with a reasonable excuse for 101,000 [minus the paltry 3000 tickets you made available
to LSU] couldn't WILL a "superior team" to victory at home? I don't want to just pound away with blablabla
just because it's what I DO, lol. I want you to accept reality or tell me where I am wrong. Of course you
don't HAVE to, your previous response is good enough to prove my point, but I am just not sure how you
arrived at your generic, wild claims.

[OLS]

And remember, I value my friends more than being right, so I will eventually give you waht you want and shut up,
I just thought you had some kind of logic behind these kooky statements

[rizzle]

Originally Posted by OLS

I would like it better, Rizzle if you refuted my solid points and debated it rather than just
hitting me with your homerstick. Can you explain gross deficiencies in the kicking game? Can you deny
there is no logical way to get a sack in Overtime unless my team is well-rested or yours is exhausted?
Can you come up with a reasonable excuse for 101,000 [minus the paltry 3000 tickets you made available
to LSU] couldn't WILL a "superior team" to victory at home? I don't want to just pound away with blablabla
just because it's what I DO, lol. I want you to accept reality or tell me where I am wrong. Of course you
don't HAVE to, your previous response is good enough to prove my point, but I am just not sure how you
arrived at your generic, wild claims.

From your previous gibberish and what I take exception to:

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

No, luck had nothing to do with it. We lost the game. Period. No denying it. But for you to make the statement that we lost because of inferior depth and balance to LSU is wrong. Plain and simple wrong. So you can believe that if you want, I'll believe the truth.

Neither one of those teams has a depth advantage over the other. They are about as even as they can possibly be from top to bottom and, no, I'm not forgetting about the 2's either. What, you don't think we rotate players all night long? Whatever dude.

And as far as balance, coming into that game Bama had 1834 rushing yards and 1827 passing. LSU had 1512 rushing and 1465 passing. In the game, Bama rushed 31 times for and threw it 29. LSU rushed it 41 times and threw it 17.

The numbers now stand with Alabama having 1930 rushing yards, 2026 passing. LSU has 1660 rushing yards, 1556 passing.

If those numbers are inferior and cost us the game, so be it. I guess my definiton of inferior differs from yours.

Primarily...primarily...the kicking game cost us. There are some other factors as well, but obviously one field goal would have made the difference. Please show me anywhere that I mentioned bad luck as the reason we lost. And if you don't know how ticketing works for home and away games, I can't help you there, bro.

Inferior talent and balance. Please.

[Sauer Grapes]

Originally Posted by OLS

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.

I actually agree with this to an extent... Plus, by placing us in the Eastern Division, they've made it easier for us to almost be competitive.

[OLS]

My comment regarding luck was not pointed at you but at jjirons, who didn't mention luck either. But since you
brought it up, sure, a lot of fans of the Tide might think, it was just the breaks, dumb luck, we shoulda beat LSU.
So just because YOU didn't say it, and it was never meant for you to begin with, there are certainly those who WILL.

But on to your points, your use of stats was impressive, but they leave out the main stat that was my point.
Not that you didn't know what I meant, either, you just ignore it because it throws out 1/3 of your argument.
If I meant balance between run and pass, my statement has no merit whatsoever. I am saying that in the three
phases of the game, offense, defense and special teams, LSU has better balance, and it is what we used to beat you.
Your argument is like the bodybuilder with huge muscles and a tiny dic&. Sure you can attract women, but you can't
do anything to please them once you get em home. In terms of run and pass, Alabama beat the hell out of LSU.
You had far more big gains through the run, and maybe as many or better yards through the air. But when the game
was on the line, OUR balance was better, we had not just capable people to punt and place kick, we had EXCEPTIONAL
people. Alabama's kicking game was insufficient to score from the places our defense forced you to attempt from.
Again, you did not have to miss my meaning, I laid it out for you, never once even hinting that I meant run/pass.
You killed us running and killed us passing. We stiffened in our end, but you made it look easy up until you were
turned away. And at that point, Nicky, you had better have recruited a kicker. He didn't.

The two teams were extremely even, I happen to think we are deeper, and I'd bet we are. But I also think we are
faster and better coached. But that is opinion, well the coaching part was kind of shown in the game, too, but
Nick is no slouch. But if you aren't comparing what I am comparing, of course you are going to think I am wrong.
Still there is no doubt that LSU has a more balanced team across all three phases of the game. If it were not so
there is no way we win.

[OLS]

I DON'T know how ticketing works for home and away, not at all. I have only been to one SEC game.
But people who DO KNOW about it stated that it was a surprisingly small amount of tickets. Doesn't matter.
100,000 plus didn't help you guys enough to make the difference.
And when you say a field goal would have made the difference, I say NO, 4 missed field goals would have made
the difference. You can't prove a negative. If you want to be the superior team your fans made you out to be for two
weeks at every place anyone would listen, then you have to BEAT LSU. You can't say we were the better team
because only one more kick would have given us a tie and two would have meant the win.
The game is timed. You have 60 minutes to get it done. What you might have done if you had had an 18 minute
4th quarter or another down in OT is irrelevant. Your coach made his choices, his players made their plays
and you need to live with the result. And don't be too mad at me, this is fun for me. I had to listen to the pundits
and the botls for weeks go on and on, "fixing that for me" in replies, all the people said LSU was going down.
But they didn't, and the WAY they made sure they won exposed what I term a weakness in your team.
You and I can have fun, and I hope this IS fun for you, but I am not making this up. We have superior balance
through superior special teams. BAMA is awesome, we just did what was necessary to beat em.

[rizzle]

Talking to you is like talking to my 2 year olds. LSU has better special teams than us. Unfortunately for us, it came down to that. Shouldn't have, but did. That's the way it goes sometimes.

But having better special teams, doesn't make you more "balanced", it just gives you an advantage in one of the three phases of the game.

Tickets... LSU's allotment was 7000, That's about the average number that SEC teams give/get. I don't know where you're getting your numbers from, other than heresay and I don't operate on heresay. West Virginia gave you 5000. Our stadium is for Bama fans and I'd imagine LSU's stadium is for LSU fans. I'll see if I can dig up what y'all gave us last year, as if it matters, but I'd hate to be all "homeristic" and not debate you with facts, which you seem to not understand anyway.

[OLS]

Originally Posted by rizzle

Talking to you is like talking to my 2 year olds. LSU has better special teams than us. Unfortunately for us, it came down to that. Shouldn't have, but did. That's the way it goes sometimes.

But having better special teams, doesn't make you more "balanced", it just gives you an advantage in one of the three phases of the game.

Tickets... LSU's allotment was 7000, That's about the average number that SEC teams give/get. I'll see if I can dig up what y'all gave us last year, as if it matters.

I am guessing the 2 year old wins a lot.

It doesn't matter about the tickets, I said I didn't know and I don't. My point was I thought that your fans
would make some kind of difference with the huge differential. Like I said, I saw LSU-Vandy in 1983 and that
is my experience in SEC stadiums.

My argument, from the two-year old perspective, is that I felt like the two teams were basically
even in offense and defense and LSU had a significant edge on special teams....If the teams are even
and one has an edge in one phase of the game, that team is more balanced because the other two phases
basically cancel each other out. The only way I allow myself to say "significant edge" is because we made all
our field goals and Bama missed 4. We consistently punted you guys into your own 10-20 yard line
over and over. I hate it for you, too, that the kicking game decided the outcome. But again, from
what I hear from Bama fans, you were the better team, so it needn't ever have come down to that.
But I will stop badgering you, you can't be swayed by facts or stats and I am not an a$$hole, just a
fan of the winner.

[rizzle]

Best I can find, the SEC mandates at least 5000 tickets be given to the visiting team. I know we have "agreements" with UT and Auburn to provide a bigger number each year, along the lines of 9000.

[rizzle]

Originally Posted by OLS

I am guessing the 2 year old wins a lot.

It doesn't matter about the tickets, I said I didn't know and I don't. My point was I thought that your fans
would make some kind of difference with the huge differential.

My argument, from the two-year old perspective, is that I felt like the two teams were basically dead
even in offense and defense and LSU had a significant edge on special teams....If the teams are even
and one has an edge in one phase of the game, that team is more balanced because the other two phases
basically cancel each other out. The only way I allow myself to say "significant edge" is because we made all
our field goals and Bama missed 4. We consistently punted you guys into your own 10-20 yard line
over and over. I hate it for you, too, that the kicking game decided the outcome. But again, from
what I hear from Bama fans, you were the better team, so it needn't ever have come down to that.
But I will stop badgering you, you can't be swayed by facts or stats and I am not an a$$hole, just a
fan of the winner.

I knew going into the game that your special teams were better. Significantly. I don't believe it should have come to that, but it did. That's my opinion, nothing factual about it. I seem to be the only one providing any stats and facts, by the way.

You sure about that bolded part?

[OLS]

Originally Posted by rizzle

But having better special teams, doesn't make you more "balanced", it just gives you an advantage in one of the three phases of the game.

Wait, that's exactly what it means. Bama is "lopsided" in it's glaring inability to affect the outcome of
a game through kicking. You are a super-power, but less balanced than LSU which can score in three ways
without much effort. You can score TWO ways without much effort. I am not saying you can't score
in the kicking game, I am saying it has to be a chip shot.

Nah, I am not an a$$hole, just mis-understood. WHo am I kidding, I am a huge a$$hole, ask anyone who knows
me. But I guess I am not TRYING to be one here.

[rizzle]

I'll say this. You'd make an absolutley perfect Auburn fan.

[rizzle]

And I didn't mention it before, because I was refuting your outrageous claim that LSU was way more balanced, but Matthieu is a punk. Pure punk. So there's that, too.

[OLS]

Don't mis-understand me, I think Bama and LSU are the two best football teams in the country. I have nothing
but respect for the team that held us SO stymied through 60 minutes that we were lucky to escape with the
win. What I mean when I say all this is

1.) I knew we would win and told all of you that weeks ago.

2.) I think that being equally capable in all three phases of the game makes LSU by far the more balanced football team.

3.) Winning the game by 100 or 1 means, by the only yardstick that ever counts in the record books or in the BCS
selections for the NCG, that LSU is the top team in the country. Love you guys, but you just didn't do what it took
to walk away with the nomenclature No.1 team in the country. WHAT IS SEC football but a bunch of homers
bragging about their own team? This time it just happened to be for big, big stakes.

Tyrann Mathieu is a superbly skilled football player that PLAYS like a short, unwanted recruit. He runs his mouth
far too much to suit me while he is on the field, and he does some really dumb things once every coupla games.
But he is just one more reason you guys were beaten. He was there when he needed to be there, knocking down
passes, tackling players much bigger than he was in the open field, and making our defense stout enough to throw
back the second most talented team in the USA. And he is a punk. But he's OUR punk.

[OLS]

Originally Posted by rizzle

I'll say this. You'd make an absolutley perfect Auburn fan.

But I wouldn't kill a centuries old oak tree with poison.

[OLS]

OK, that was below the belt...