At the time of this writing I am many thousands of feet above the Nevada desert headed East in an aluminum tube with 160 other people who all appear to all feel the same way I do (let’s call it “unsettled”). For the middle of the day, it is surprisingly quiet. It’s giving me a little time to reflect on last week’s game against LSU and this week’s game against Auburn.
The cynics in sports will say there are no moral victories. And I get where they’re coming from. Winning is what matters most. Whatever #2 is, it’s way the hell back there. Would you rather lose a close game to a great team or beat a so-so team by 35? I think most people, including me, would take the “W” because losses suck. But not every loss is a complete failure. I mean, sure, this one feels like failure because we were in it, had a lead and could have won. And then we blew it. Feels awful. So, maybe in this case it would feel better if it had been a back and forth game and LSU had just out-manned us.
“Well Boys, we fought the good fight. Gave ‘em a run for their money. They were just bigger, faster, and stronger. There’s no shame in losing. We did the best we could. Keep a stiff upper lip. We’ll get better over time. Blah, blah, blah… [puke]”
Yeah, maybe that would feel better.
Well, to quote one my military heroes, Colonel Sherman Potter, I say “Horse hockey!” I just don’t see it that way. If that were the case, if we were just out-manned, we’d have no reason to be optimistic about the rest of this season. What in the world would we look forward to? Not much. Well I do feel optimistic about this season. What happened to us is we made mistakes. And, yeah, it sucks to let a game like that slip away. But, we can correct mistakes (and we’re not getting any faster or taller between now and February). We can get better at decision-making, turnovers, penalties, route-running and the like. We showed we were man enough to take on the big boys and give them all they could handle for most of the game.
At the beginning of the year, 13 out of 14 SEC teams thought we were going to get beat like a kid who stole something. A lot of SEC fans penciled in a little “W” next to the Texas A&M game on the pocket schedule their realtors mailed them over the summer. We were an afterthought. Now, I promise you, we have their full attention.
If you didn’t watch the LSU game, first of all, it’s probably your fault we lost. I won’t explain the mechanics of it, but rest assured, you should feel guilty it’s probably better if you don’t tell me who you are. The game played out a lot like the Florida game. We raced out to an early lead and then struggled to move the ball for a while. Our defense held up very well for most of the game, but gave up three touchdowns, each after an untimely turnover. We missed field goals, a PAT and were unable to put points on the board after a 76 yard kick return. But, we also put up the most yards that LSU has given up in the last 18 games. We held them to 2 of 16 on third down conversions. Our book-end tackles Joeckel and Matthews more than held their own against LSU’s incredible pass-rush and may have cemented their status as the best tackles in college football. As juniors both are projected to be top 10 picks in this year’s NFL draft. Demontre Moore played big boy football and added to his already gaudy sack and TFL totals. He is also projected to go in the top 10 in this year’s draft (unless we can convince him to stay). We're a good team.
Yeah, we’ve got their attention alright. Even Nick Satan, I mean Saban, is thinking about us.
This week we go to Auburn to play a team in disarray. With Auburn at 1-6, just two years removed from a National championship, coach Gene Chizik is on the hottest of hot seats. It’s gonna get bad over there. For a touch of perspective, just think about all the hand-wringing going on in Austin right now over a 5-2 wrongwhorn team. Mack's on the hot seat. I imagine an irritated crowd of t-shirt fans sticking their carefully manicured hands out of their BMW windows to give Mack the one finger salute as they drive down I-35. Now, replace that group with an angry mob of Alabama rednecks who may not be able to count all 6 losses because their spare hand is holding a pitchfork, but they know it’s a whole lot more than their one win which ain’t good. And they know where coach Chizik lives because it’s the only house in town without wheels.
Yeah, I’ll take the Barton Creek crowd any day.
The problem with Auburn is that they actually do have talent on the roster and they’re desperate. They’re like a cornered animal. A loss to us means they’re eliminated from bowl contention before November, which ain’t good. It also means that Gene Chizik may have to find a new job, which also ain’t good (at least if you’re Gene) cause it most likely involves about a 90% pay cut. I have to believe that we’re going to get Auburn’s best shot on Saturday.
But, I also think that we can win without too much trouble if we play our game and if we’re focused. Our last couple of outings have shown that we can do amazing things one moment and then immediately turn around and wet the bed. We will need to cut out the bed wetting and play relatively mistake free football Saturday. Auburn will be loud and crazy. Hopefully we’ll punch them in the face and not let them get any big ideas. This is the first game in a three game SEC road trip that starts and ends in the state of Alabama with a side trip to currently undefeated Mississippi State sandwiched in the middle. It will be helpful if we don’t wind up in a slugging match and accidentally get someone hurt before we travel to Tuscaloosa two weeks later to take our third shot at a top 10 ranked SEC team.
I thought I should start throwing in some semi-factual tidbits about the SEC teams we play so that people who aren’t already familiar with the SEC can have just enough information to start a bar fight. Auburn’s mascot is Aubie the Tiger. It’s such an original mascot that only two other teams in the conference use the same animal. Everyone loves tigers, they’re Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat! But, to confuse matters, they also have “war eagle’. War Eagle is actually just a battle cry, although they have had live eagles for years and the eagle circles the stadium before the game getting everyone riled up. The official word from the University is that “we’re the Tigers who say ‘War Eagle’.” The official word from everyone else is that this is a retarded explanation because you actually have a damn eagle.
The best known landmark in Auburn is Toomer’s Corner, a beautiful park area with two grand old oak trees that fans will wrap in toilet paper any time something good happens to Auburn. It was in the news a while back when maybe the dumbest Alabama fan (out of a world-class collection of incredibly stupid fans) famously poisoned the ancient oak trees, AND THEN CALLED A RADIO SHOW TO BRAG ABOUT IT. They *69ed his butt and he now resides in an 8X10 hospital jail cell (an upgrade over the wheeled domicile he had been occupying prior to his epic brainfart). Roll tide indeed. Anyway, his trial is scheduled to begin soon, but is temporarily on hold while they examine his brain after stunning revelations that he may have a screw loose.
That’s the news as I choose to report it.
Gig’em and Beat the Hell Outta Auburn!
Chuck ‘96
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