🏈 Clarion-Ledger: "Turns out, funeral black was most appropriate."

[TerryP]

A good recap from Rick Cleveland of the Miss. Clarion-Ledger.


Mississippi State's Bulldogs took the field in black jerseys for the first time in anyone's memory Saturday night, much to the delight of the mostly maroon-clad partisans.
Turns out, funereal black was most appropriate. Third-ranked Alabama's so-fast, so-quick, so-strong defense turned the lights out on the Bulldogs in a convincing 31-3 Crimson Tide victory.

Which brings to mind this question: Two teams in this country better than Bama?
Really?
Not this side of the NFL.
I've seen Florida in person and on TV. I've seen Texas on TV.
Bama's better than both.
No, Alabama's not flashy. The Tide offense doesn't make you consistently go, "Wow!"
But with its defense, which has NFL size and speed, all Bama needs to win is an offense that doesn't beat itself. For the record, Alabama did not turn the ball over against the Dogs.

 

[LBS]

He brings out an interesting point. Between the single longest plays from Ingram, Jones, Hanks, and Maze Bama had 214 yards. There are two angles to stress here. First, minus these four plays State did a good job, seemingly stressing that the game was a close one. The second angle is that preventing this difference of 4 play/214 yards difference would require all-game shutting down of different four guys, stressing that the game was indeed not that close after all.

Numbers are great, but Ingram and Jones scoring UNTOUCHED on :18 and :17 drives respectively in the fourth quarter speaks to the unmeasurables. Go back and look at the Ingram run again. After Ingram runs through the center of the entire team, note Julio trailing the two DBs chasing Mark. Julio is busting his butt - top speed - in an effort to lay a meaningless shoulder on the second (and meaningless) would-be Tackler. THAT illustrates the seperation between BAMA and MSU.

This BAMA team is still digging, still getting after it...and "it" did not have anything to do with the team from Starkville.

See 3:48 mark
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAYMM_JSqWs[/ame]

 

[TerryP]

You know me LBS...I pay attention to a lot of very small details.

You've hit on one, and it was the first thing I looked at as soon as the clock hit 0:00.

<table class="tablehead" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tbody><tr class="stathead" style="background: rgb(168, 5, 50) none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"><td colspan="6">Alabama Receiving</td></tr><tr class="colhead" align="right"><td align="left" width="125px">
</td><td>REC</td><td>YDS</td><td>AVG</td><td>TD</td><td>LG</td></tr><tr class="oddrow" align="right"><td align="left" nowrap="nowrap">J. Jones</td><td>4</td><td>66</td><td>16.5</td><td>1</td><td>48</td></tr><tr class="evenrow" align="right"><td align="left" nowrap="nowrap">D. Hanks</td><td>3</td><td>59</td><td>19.7</td><td>1</td><td>45</td></tr><tr class="oddrow" align="right"><td align="left" nowrap="nowrap">M. Maze</td><td>4</td><td>55</td><td>13.8</td><td>0</td><td>42</td></tr><tr class="evenrow" align="right"><td align="left" nowrap="nowrap">M. Ingram</td><td>1</td><td>9</td><td>9.0</td><td>0</td><td>9</td></tr><tr class="oddrow" align="right"><td align="left" nowrap="nowrap">R. Upchurch</td><td>1</td><td>3</td><td>3.0</td><td>0</td><td>3</td></tr><tr class="bi evenrow" align="right"><td align="left">Team</td><td>13</td><td>192</td><td>14.8</td><td>2</td><td>48</td></tr></tbody></table>

 

[Chukker V]

That's a fun read...but I think he's shorting GMac a little here:

"Normally, I would contend a potential national champion would need a more athletic playmaker than Alabama's Greg McElroy at quarterback. Not so, with Bama. As long as McElroy can hand the ball to tailback Mark Ingram and toss it occasionally to Julio Jones, Marquis Maze and Darius Hanks, the Tide will do just fine, thank you."

I thought GMac was threading the needle with some of those "tosses".

 

[TerryP]

That's a fun read...but I think he's shorting GMac a little here:

"Normally, I would contend a potential national champion would need a more athletic playmaker than Alabama's Greg McElroy at quarterback. Not so, with Bama. As long as McElroy can hand the ball to tailback Mark Ingram and toss it occasionally to Julio Jones, Marquis Maze and Darius Hanks, the Tide will do just fine, thank you."

I thought GMac was threading the needle with some of those "tosses".

There were a handful of passes that were very good last night—specifically those when he was hitting crossing routes in the middle.

 

[LBS]

"Alabama allowed only 213 yards on 57 plays....But Bama kind of lulls your defense to sleep and then hits big plays. Ingram ripped off one 70-yard touchdown run. Jones, Hanks and Maze had pass receptions of 48, 54 and 42 yards respectively. That's 214 yards on four plays."

 

[Victory]

News from enemy terriotry

Be sure to read this article; it is VERY complimentary towards Bama.

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20091115/COL0504/911150359/1177/SPORTS


This link has post game interviews and player interviews FREE VIDEO

http://www.mstateathletics.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=16800&ATCLID=204832124

 

['65 Cobra]

Thanks for the links. I like the this sequence in the first piece:

"...Two teams in this country better than Bama?

Really?

Not this side of the NFL.

I've seen Florida in person and on TV. I've seen Texas on TV.

Bama's better than both."

 

[bear facts]

I always enjoy reading Rick Cleveland's sports columns in the Clarion-Ledger.

Off the topic of college football now but if you loving reading baseball books, I recommend the one Rick Cleveland wrote about ex-BoSox pitcher & former Delta State head baseball coach, Boo Ferriss, which was published in 2008.

http://booferrissbook.com/

Here's a little background on Ferriss:

http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/78/david-boo-ferriss-a-baseball-great

 

[Argo]

Clarion Ledger

http://www.clarionledger.com/articl...0359/1177/SPORTS/Crimson-Tide-D-ominates-Dogs

Bama getting some love from Mississippi.

 

[bear facts]

http://www.clarionledger.com/articl...0359/1177/SPORTS/Crimson-Tide-D-ominates-Dogs

Bama getting some love from Mississippi.

http://www.rolltidebama.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65340

 

[ColoradoTide]

Very nice article; more so considering it didn't come from an Alabama writer.