I have to disagree with you about Houston , Outlaw. They aren't a really good offensive team. They are and outstanding offensive team. I think anyone who read much information at all about them prior to the game would agree. Heck, if you listened to what Coach Saban said in his pressers leading up to the game you could see that there was reason for concern. I know I was, and I've seen Terry P and some others make similar comments. I guess the reason I hadn't posted about it before now is because I didn't feel like beating my head against the wall, but after reading this thread, I felt bad that you were the lone voice crying in the wilderness , and thought that I would at least give you an "Amen." Here goes:
Yeah, it stinks when you're up by 23 in the first quarter and you have to depend on a last second interception win the game. What I think people are overlooking is the fact that these guys have not had to play for 60 minutes since they came to Alabama. That concept has not been drilled into their heads prior to this year, and it's not something that you can just turn on. The physical preparation started in the spring and it's working very well. If you want proof of that, think back over the six games we have played and try to remember how many times you seen our guys come out of the game due to cramps compared with how many of our opponents players you've seen come out. But, building the physical ability to play for sixty minutes is the easiest part. You just punish your body every day until you build stamina. The mental aspect of it is the hardest part. You can't force a bunch of players to focus, no matter how great of a coaching staff you have. The players have to do that for themselves and it may take them a little more time.
In the past the famous line was "we're close". Translation: just keep doing what you're doing and we'll eventually get there. The line now is "play with intensity on every play, be physical on every play, do everything the right way all of the time and the rest will take care of itself." These are two completely different ways of thinking. That is the new "system" that they are learning. It's not the plays themselves. Most of these guys have been playing ball since grade school, they can learn new plays, again that's the easy part. The hard part is going from "everything is going to be fine" to "I've got to do my job on every play, I have no excuses, I am accountable for everything that I do." You can't just say it , you have to completely buy into that philosophy to put it into action. I see tremendous advancement already, and I have confidence that they will continue to improve. They'll get the new "system". It may be the next game, it may be next season, but they will get it. And, when they do, then we can look forward to seeing posts like:"Man, I can't believe we let those guys score 7 on us." or ,"I can't believe all we scored was 28. What's wrong with these guys."