The Back Alley Archives

I tell you the fumble-itis was giving me flashbacks to Ole Miss last year. Agree with Hater that those problems are fixable by holding on to the MF'N ball. I'm still worried though that we seem to be turning the ball over or stalling a lot in the red zone and, fixable or not, it's become a bad trend.

re: playcalling:

part of being the 'innovative' offense is that all offenses (even the pros) are modeling their offenses against ours...every team in the nation at every level of the game is running some sort of 'single wing' or 'wildcat' plays...the offense is well studied and well known...the offense will need to continue to evolve and morph to maintain being ahead of the curve...the offense will be successful against those who either don't play against it all that often or lack the talent needed to stop the offense....by in large, the SEC has that type of talent from top to the bottom so you can't get away with running the same dive play, the same hernandez forward pitch, the same fake tebow dive and pass deep.

what i DO like is the lack of holding, false starts, and discipline type penalties that olines usually make - that imho are totally unacceptable...i'll take aggressive 'make a play' type penalties all day...i'm sour on the lack of innovation and new wrinkles that addazio/meyer should be showcasing on a week to week basis tailored to take advantage of what they deem to be mismatches when they're going over their game plans early in the week....they should know that their films are the films everyone are studying and that their schemes are well versed...not as executed as well i'll concede but every offensive coordinator knows how it works.

defense i thought played as well as they could considering spikes' absence...we now know how valuable he is to our defense...we forget that just because he didn't get the tackle/sack, it doesn't mean he had nothing to do with the play...that dennis johnson kid was a hoss...would love to have a guy like that or a jacob hester or a glen coffee in our backfield...3-3-5 was a surprise but i guess we wanted to take the long pass out of play...left us susceptible to the run but without spikes, i guess we were best served to concede that and defend against the pass....dissappointing thing was that we gave up a few huge pass plays.

dissappointing thing was that we gave up a few huge pass plays.

Agreed. Scared to death of that last play, the idea that Mallett might be able to get it down to the end zone. I thought the hook-and-ladder play was a ridiculous call against our defensive backs -- veterans, good tacklers generally, smart and savvy. Arky had a far better chance throwing it all the way and going for a tall-guy catch or a tip. Terrifying.

When they threw it medium and started playing the laterals bullshit, I was incredulous. And relieved.

defense i thought played as well as they could considering spikes' absence...we now know how valuable he is to our defense...3-3-5 was a surprise but i guess we wanted to take the long pass out of play...left us susceptible to the run but without spikes, i guess we were best served to concede that and defend against the pass....dissappointing thing was that we gave up a few huge pass plays.

We were missing a lot more than just Spikes on Defense, fyi.

^^^awesome.

phillips wants sturgis to push one....heheheheee

Two questions: Do you know Phillips? Or anything about him as a person?

Your silence speaks volumes about your lack of character, richard.

Wow...one wouldn't think a football game/thread would be up there in importance with backroom conspiracies for Wall Street to pull a Pinky And The Brain and "Try to take over the world!".

LOL not trying to take anything over. I just get worked up when a self-proclaimed fan makes baseless accusatory jokes about someone who I know doesn't deserve it.