First Things First: Crimson Tide Victorious
I would love to say I told you so, but I didn’t officially put the word out on the site. All I did was just get into arguments with Texas fans and friends about what I thought. With that being said, the game itself was actually a very enjoyable game and full of controversy that’s not going to end anytime soon. Did I mention the irony?
The Longhorn defense was better than I thought it was, and I will be the first to admit I was partially wrong there. I say partially because it was way to hard to judge how good the defense was against weaker talent in the Big 12 this year. It’s also part of the reason why I thought Alabama would win the game.
I can’t fault the Alabama defense for giving up the two field goals in the first quarter because it was a short field. If anything it’s an accomplishment holding Texas to two field goals.
Both Texas and Alabama were essentially a one man offense throughout the year. Texas had no meaningful rushing attack, while Alabama didn’t have a significant passing attack. Offensively it was Colt McCoy versus Mark Ingram. Don’t tell me there is anyone else powerful on Texas’ offense.
Jordan Shipley has to get the ball from Colt McCoy or the quarterback. Shipley does have great return skills, but that’s not enough to win a game.
In many ways both teams weren’t as complete, at least offensively, as others they beat this season.
I think Mark Ingram proved why he deserved the Heisman Trophy last night. He got the big spotlight and showed his enormous talent. This guy is going to be one of the few to break the Heisman curse. He already has in the college football ranks, becoming just the sixth player since 1950 to win a National Championship and Heisman.
On that note how is Ingram the only Heisman Trophy winner from Alabama? Alabama is a powerhouse in football.
There is something to be said about playing tough teams weak after weak. It keeps you sharp and better prepared to face a big game like the BCS National Championship. I was saying that for weeks and look what happened to Texas in the first half, and arguably the whole season.
They were a very slow starting team full of mistakes. Granted, they did have the backup quarterback in, but that’s no excuse in the title game. More on him further down. I can’t help but laugh at the irony involved in last night’s game.
Colt McCoy got knocked out on Texas’ first possession of the game. Look at what Texas did to Oklahoma earlier in the season, which was arguably the biggest game of the year for the Longhorns in the regular season.
Sam Bradford got knocked out of the game on Oklahoma’s second possession. I still believe the Sooners would have won that game if Bradford was playing. Don’t confuse that with an excuse though, because it’s not. Texas won the game fair and square, and gave fans false hope.
Do I believe Texas would have won the game against Alabama with Colt McCoy?
I don’t think so, but it would be a much closer and different game.
Nick Saban just became one of my favorite coaches too and not just because he has won title’s with two different schools. He just has that presence and humility that really sets people apart. He’s got that “it” that makes people be great instead of good.
Garret Gilbert is going to be a great quarterback. I had to do research on him for my high school football broadcasts. He is full of accomplishments at the high school level and was a great quarterback in a good high school football program. Lake Travis has won the state championship three times in a row now. Just give Gilbert some time, and he will more than hold his own.
It’s just to hard to expect great things from a freshman quarterback, let alone coming off the bench in the title game. Give him time.
Don’t think I’m a Texas hater; I’m just a realist who tells it how I see it. I have my favorite teams which get in the way sometimes too.
I’m expecting big things from Texas over the next few years because I know how good some of their recruits are. Taylor Bible might just make me a fan of Texas.
Yes, I said that. And that’s the only time I’m going to say it too.
January 8th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
This article is pretty biased and not really fair. Now I’m not saying that Texas should have won nor can I deny the outcome of the game. However, there are several things in here that are obviously biased towards Bama.
First off, in the very beginning, you say you were thinking “I told you so” even though you didn’t “officially” say it. You did, however, officially unofficially say it. So, I’ll tell you the same thing I told Makenzie who things she’s a brilliant sports predictor because she “picked the win.”
No one could have predicted McCoy’s injury. No one. So all these people who are riding around on their high horses, pretending they’re football gurus are all wrong. Regardless of what ever predictions anyone had made prior to the game, everything was changed after the injury. So that needs to be acknowledged first. Maybe if you started this article with that, it wouldn’t seem so biased. And I don’t understand what about the game was ironic… could you explain that to me?
The next biased part comes when you talk about the UT defense. You say you were only “partially wrong” because you were surprised by their stoutness. First of all, you can’t be partially wrong… you’re either correct, or incorrect. I’m thinking that you believed that the UT D was not strong because they were untested. Yes, the conferences are different. Very different. But, surely you understand that the best of one conference CAN be compared to the best of another. Especially when dealing with one of the strongest conferences in the nation, which the Big 12 is, and no one will argue that.
Next paragraph, you praise the Bama defense for limiting the Texas O to 2 field goals. Yeah, they had bad field position, but the Bama D is terrible in the red zone–you should know that. Our offense suffered because that was the drive where Colt was injured. You MUST understand how that affects the football team. When the guy in the driver seat falls out, the rest of the vehicle suffers. The team was rattled and unsure about Colt’s condition (and not knowing how serious the injury is, is worse than knowing the nature of the injury), and couldn’t get the ball across the line. That’s not Bama being stout–that’s Texas being shaken up.
I think you’re the only person in the country who would make the argument that Shipley is NOT a strong player on Texas’ offense. Just like it’s ridiculous to say that Ingram is the only strong player on Bama.
Ingram did great–no argument there. He definitely carried the team, especially considering Bama’s QB had less passing yards than Garrett, the backup freshman quarterback who’s played what, 9 snaps in a game since he played in high school?
I don’t understand the next paragraph about “what happened to Texas in the first half.” What happened to Texas wasn’t Bama’s overwhelming force. It was losing the head of their team. That has nothing to do with Bama playing strong teams over and over again.
True, Texas’ offense was not clicking as well as usual, but don’t you think it may have had something to do with losing Colt? You say “granted, they did have the backup quarterback in,” but then you say that it’s not an excuse. Can you IMAGINE playing 9 snaps in a game all year then having to jump into the driver’s seat in the biggest game of most people’s lives?! It’s not an excuse. It’s a reason. He is second string for a reason (he’s not as good as 1st string, and if it weren’t for Colt, we wouldn’t have made it to the big game). Again, I don’t understand the irony…
I’m curious as to why you think OU would have beaten us if Bradford was playing, but not that we would have beaten Bama if Colt was playing. How is that not biased? I don’t think anyone would disagree that Colt is just as much a playmaker as Bradford. And what about that little quip about “false hope?” How is THAT unbiased? False hope? Texas scraped and fought and succeeded to get to the big game. Maybe Bama’s road to the big game was more glorious (unless you watched that Tennessee game, which Bama shouldn’t have won), but you know what? A national championship game would be really boring with just one team. So someone’s got to go and we were the second best team in the nation. It was real hope for the success of a real team. Then, unfortunately, our boy was injured.
We brought it within 3 points with our backup QB in late in the game. We were VERY close to pulling out that win, even without Colt. How is that false hope?
I can’t say definitively that Texas would have won with Colt–no one can really say either way–but you’re right. It would definitely be a different game. You think we would have lost, I think we would have won. Nothing we can do about that.
Saban is a great coach, no doubt. He’s super intense and runs a tight ship. I don’t think he displayed his humility last night. He ran in another touchdown with just seconds left on the clock, after he was already a TD and a field goal up. How is that humility? I know why he did it–he wanted the margin to be larger so that it didn’t look like his team barely won even with Texas’ limping offense. It makes sense, but it’s certainly not humility. Humility is taking the win, no matter how small the margin, because a win is a win.
Earlier you say having the freshman QB is not an excuse for having a struggling offense, but later, you say it’s hard to expect things from him in the big game. So which is it?
You say you “tell it how you see it.” If you “see it” through biased eyes, then your articles will be biased. You should aim to “tell it like it is” instead of “how you see it.”
I think you should get off the Texas-hating-bandwagon and acknowledge Texas’ accomplishments and give them credit for what they have done. I mean, there 2nd string QB had nearly 3 times as many passing yards as Bama’s. I’m not saying that Bama isn’t great–they’re a hell of a team and they definitely deserve to be in the big game. I also think Texas deserves to be there and are just as deserving as anyone else in the country.
January 8th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
dave your a noob.
It was ironic for Texas because this is exactly what happened vs. OU. OU lost the Heisman winner on i think the second possession. Otherwise, it would have been a “totally different game” as Texas fans like to put it. Injuries happen.
Mac Brown is an idiot.
January 8th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Ben,
The correct form would be “you’re a noob.” It’s a contraction for “you are.” As I have already mentioned, I didn’t deny the outcome of the game. Bama won and they are a hell of a team. What I am saying is that Texas could have won with McCoy.
Mac Brown is an idiot? Care to back that statement up?
January 9th, 2010 at 10:19 am
whiny orange fans. I don’t know why I bother sometimes.
January 9th, 2010 at 10:20 am
thanks for reading ben
January 11th, 2010 at 12:20 am
Ill back up the statement that Mack Brown is an idiot …..and he is one of my favorite coaches. Against Nebraska (where i grew up) he should have called timeout at the end of the game which almost cost them the game. One of the biggest coaching mistakes ever (certainly the worst id seen until the national championship). They got every call in that game against Nebraska and he still almost cost them the game along with your “LEADER” who might want to look at the clock next time. HORRIBLE COACHING AND LEADERSHIP. The National Championship brought the worst call I have ever seen. A shovel pass with under 10 seconds on your own side of the field? What an idiot… whats the best that could have happened? Get 20 yards and the clock runs out? hahahahah no Bama intercepts it and gets a TD with 3 seconds left in the half. If the Kneel it there they would have been most likely ahead in the 4th quarter with Gilbert showing much more comfort. Mack was a complete idiot the last 2 games and was out coached in both.
January 11th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Metcalf: “whiny orange fans” is all you can come with as a retort? Don’t quit your day job bud.
AJ: Yeah, I didn’t understand that last time out in the Nebraska game either. Not a great call. However, I noticed you called McCoy our “LEADER.” Why the quotations? Are you arguing the fact that McCoy is not our leader? Or that he isn’t a good one? Because OBVIOUSLY he is the leader of the team, and OBVIOUSLY he got his team (not by himself, of course) to the big game, so maybe you should give him some credit. Yes, there was some clock mismanagement that almost costs us the trip, but compared to everything he’s done all all year long, that gives him a what, .04% percent error rate? He’s been pretty good all year (better than almost all other quarterbacks), so it’s not really fair to infer that he’s not the leader of his team.
As far as the shovel pass was concerned, a shovel pass is a low-risk play. It’s just a catch. The pass was fumbled when it should have been caught. When your safety net (McCoy) is taken out, you have to take risks. Yeah, maybe we only got 20 yards out of it. Maybe we got 30 or 40 and were put in field goal range. Maybe the receiver would fumble it and they would return it. It was a risk. A small one. But if you don’t take risks when you’re already handicapped like we were, there’s no chance you can persevere. He took the risk, and ended up on the losing end. Doesn’t make him an idiot or a bad coach. Obviously he’s doing something right to be paid as much as he is and to win as much as he does.
Want to talk about stupid play calls? How about that punt fake?
Same thing applies to that play. Saban was feeling the pressure and felt he needed to take a risk. He did, and it backfired. Doesn’t make him a terrible coach or “an idiot.” It just makes him on the losing end of a gamble (even though a punt fake is a much higher risk play than a shovel pass).
January 12th, 2010 at 11:25 am
David, I say whiny because there’s no point in arguing with him. I could really get into it, but it’s useless when fans are blinded.
January 12th, 2010 at 11:26 am
thanks for reading guys.