I think Coach O and the staff must read this board and saw my gameplan for a chance to win the game.
They followed it to the letter. And it could have worked, but........ The D let Darby get loose for one big run ---otherwise the Tide rushing attack was contained. And the D got good pressure on Croyle, forcing him into a lot of early and bad throws and made a couple of sacks. However, on the last drive, Croyle burned us with a nice run up the middle when the receivers were covered on a critical 3rd and long. Great play by Croyle that won the game for Tide.
I will give the Tide D much credit. Before the game, if someone had told me that Mico would get between 25-30 snaps and be held to less than 100 yards, I would have thought they were crazy. But, unlike every other defense Mico has faced so far this year, he was pretty much unable to beat the Tide defenders on the corners ---I only recall one good run by Mico to the outside. Most of Mico's yards came between the tackles. The Tide's D has the best speed of any D the Rebs have played so far this season ---it is really not even close. And the one on one open field tackling ability of the Tide dbs was outstanding ---there were numerous times during the game that only one Tide defender stood between a Reb ball carrier and the goalline, but the tackle was made preventing a big play.
The Tide narrowly avoided being Coach O's first SEC win and his "signature win" over a highly ranked opponent. There should be two other opportunities for such a win this season ----Auburn and LSU.
It was a great, hard fought game, and my Rebs showed a lot of improvement. Now, they just need to find a way to win games. IT hurt not to win that game. We have had our opportunities to win every game we have played to date. But, having opportunity and actually taking advantage of it rests mainly on the players, who have to make the plays that are there to be made. Got to make some more plays and put some more points on the board.
