| FTBL Back from the game....

[bamafan4ever]

I picked one heck of a game to go see this year, huh? Everything about the game was flat. The atmosphere of the stadium, the pre-game and the game play itself.

I don't have many positives to share so I will share one. About 200 or more students were above the tunnel where the ULM players were filing into their locker room and they were all standing and applauding the ULM players as they went by. Since our students got lambasted after the UGA game, this stood as one of the classiest acts by a group of kids that I have seen in quite some time. Of course, no exposure given for something positive so I thought I would mention it.

 

[crimsonpride61]

I'm just getting back home from the game also,(Our only game to) And wish some of the adults around us would have shown more class! I cannot stand the booing of our own players no matter what happens!

 

[moreno_iv]

That's good to hear. That's a tough pill to swallow for the students. Were the boos during the game as bad as they sounded on the radio?

 

[moreno_iv]

I'm just getting back home from the game also,(Our only game to) And wish some of the adults around us would have shown more class! I cannot stand the booing of our own players no matter what happens!

And there's my answer.

 

[bamafan4ever]

No one around me was booing but you could certainly hear it. The worse chorus of boos came when JPW missed a WIDE OPEN Keith Brown on the final drive. The student section did seem to ride JPW hard after his first interception and the play I mentioned above.

I know no one wants to hear it but this loss went a lot further than JPW. The second interception was not his fault and mistakes made on special teams and other players cost us just as much as any one person,,,,,,,,,including JPW. It was a team loss all the way!

 

[cj6891]

When did the class leave the stadium?

I haven't been to a Bama game in about 11 years, for reasons not worth mentioning, but today I took my six year old to his first Bama game. The effort on the field was terrible but the conduct of the fans near me and my son was unexcusable. Three fans (two men and one female) located in various positions behind me were dropping F-Bombs in every other statement. I asked one of the "gentlemen" to please tone down his language and his answer was more profanity and a request that we go sit somewhere else. Then to top it off I have to explain to my son why people are booing Alabama. Maybe I just long for days gone of old when players had heart, fans had class, and the Tide had talent. This program is in trouble. I think we certainly have the right man for the job, I just don't think I was aware of how big the job is.

 

[rooster03]

I will say this as a Alabama fan i think are team played like bad and it was a team lose but us as fans in the stand also took ULM lite we never got into the game untill late I mean this is the first game this year that I have sit down for 3 and half quarters and was just waiting for them to do something so as a fan at the game i can't blame the players for a half hearted effort when i did'nt give them all my sopport so i think we should boo and cuss are selfs as fans at the game as much as the players and coaches And I also went to the game to say i was sorry to the people that sit in front of me for the Lsu game about the way me and some lsu fans was talking back and forth because they have 3 kids with them and i think we should all show the kids class so as a Fan I have work to do as does the team sorry my post was so long and didn't really say nothing but ROLL TIDE we will be back soon

 

[bamafan4ever]

I will say this as a Alabama fan i think are team played like bad and it was a team lose but us as fans in the stand also took ULM lite we never got into the game untill late I mean this is the first game this year that I have sit down for 3 and half quarters and was just waiting for them to do something so as a fan at the game i can't blame the players for a half hearted effort when i did'nt give them all my sopport so i think we should boo and cuss are selfs as fans at the game as much as the players and coaches And I also went to the game to say i was sorry to the people that sit in front of me for the Lsu game about the way me and some lsu fans was talking back and forth because they have 3 kids with them and i think we should all show the kids class so as a Fan I have work to do as does the team sorry my post was so long and didn't really say nothing but ROLL TIDE we will be back soon

 

[rammajamma]

I have not been able to attend any games up until this one and I want to say that other than the game itself I thad a really nice time. RollTideRandy and I got to see Bobby Humphrey and Porthro. He signed my hat! We could have bad seasons for the next hundred years and I tell you I still get a wonderful feeling being back at Alabama! Thanks to Randy for getting the tickets!

There were several empty seats and I can only assume that the fans who decided not to attend were thinking that this was going to be a blow out and decided not to come. This is the kind of game that the fans expect to win and win big and it does kind of make for a catch 22 situation. Either we win big and everyone is headed for the exits half way through the 3rd quarter or we play a close game and everyone is mad because we didn't blow them out. There was a mass exodus of fans late in the third quarter and another one midway through the fourth. I can not for the life of me understand why this happens. What do you have to go do that is so important? I know that they aren't playing very well but I would think that you would want to stay and at least see if we can pull it out or not.

Now, when it comes to how they players played today, all I can do is tell you what I saw that was wrong. I am sure that coach Saban and his assistants will watch that film from this game closely and maybe they can fix some of these problems. I can say that if we had to have a total meltdown, I am glad it happened this weekend and not next weekend. If we play like this against Auburn next weekend it will not be pretty.

Here is what I saw that was wrong today:

Blocking there are some members of our offensive line that had the tendancy to get beaten by their man a lot today. We have to get better up front. Right now our running game gets shut down a lot and it makes our offense one dimensional if we don't win it in the trenches.

JPW Just did not seem to be in sync today. Being at the stadium, it becomes painfully obvious that he has one receiver and one receiver alone that he is going to throw to. It is either that or throw it out of bounds. I believe that something has happened to him after the fumble vs LSU that has greatly hurt his confidence.

DJ Hall, Textbook realated suspensions, and over all team disicipline. Coach Saban seems to be doing what is necessary to get their attention, but, for whatever reason, the team still seems to have discipline issues. I have read several posts on here that have suggested that today's performance can be blamed in some part on Coach Shula. I too have heard that he lacked greatly in the area of discipline. It may be that we have a bunch of guys that are just going to keep pushing him and making him show them what happens if they don't get it together. I don't know what DJ did to get suspended for half the game, but I can tell you that it really hurt not having him out there and I hope that next season we can get some players to step up and fill in the hugh gap that his being gone will leave. But when are the guys going to wake up? When are they going to realize that its time to grow up and act like responsilbe adults and stop violating team rules, getting in trouble with Tusc PD, abusing their textbook priviledge that winds up not only getting them suspended but could have winded up putting us back on probation again?

Defense3rd and long. We have to stop teams on 3rd and long. We HAVE to! We should be using third and long as a chance to get a big play, sack, int, etc. but this game it was usually ending up as a first down. This may very well be the biggest and most important issue that has to get fixed. Remember 15 years ago the shirts that said "Offense sells tickets, Defense wins Championships" Is that any less true today? Why can't we get pressure on the QB?

Play calling and player substitions.I have not been a advocate to replace JPW, but when do you give McElroy a look? How long do you wait before benching a QB that has also won a lot of games for you? Right there in the end, we don't get it on 3rd or 4th and one. Can we not make one yard?