One thing today's game put to rest

[HSVDawg]

Is the myth that we would have beaten South Alabama with Fitz / Aeris playing over Damien / Holloway.

[THE Bruce Dickinson]

I don't agree with you, and I do not know how you came up with that. We didn't play well, but we likely win that game with Fitz in, and there is a possibility that Fitz would hold the all time rushing record for a QB in the SEC. He would have needed to rush for 106 yards to break the record.

[Goldendawg]

Yeah, let's start Dam Williams at QB and get Holloway a 6th year and see how that goes next year (not). The USA loss was and will always be an unacceptable showing by a SEC team in my opinion. Oh, well, as a Republican tells the Dem's, time to move on. 2016 in in the books. Here's hoping for a very satisfying, winning season in 17. Hail State!

[starkvegasdawg]

You honestly believe that? We win that game going away with them in there. Today our players were more focused on the beach and missing Christmas at home than they were playing Miami of 17ing Ohio. They had about as much passion as a bored housewife out there today, and the early game plan was pure garbage. You think we beat the bears 55-20 or upset A&M with Williams and Holloway?

[Goldendawg]

I quit going to the bowl games because it usually looks like we put having a good time during the week ahead of winning the game.

[BeastMan]

Do not agree. To Miami's credit, they had a great game plan where they burned a ton of clock to limit our possessions. Never could get any rythym going. The frustration and lack of rythym manifested itself in the worst preformance from our WRs this year. Trying to take anything from this bowl and apying it to the 1st game of the year is a false equivalency imo.

[HSVDawg]

I don't agree with you, and I do not know how you came up with that. We didn't play well, but we likely win that game with Fitz in, and there is a possibility that Fitz would hold the all time rushing record for a QB in the SEC. He would have needed to rush for 106 yards to break the record.

You obviously missed the point. When players and coaches alike show up not physically or mentally prepared to play, actual personnel decisions mean very little. That was the case against USA and that was the case today. We scored 3 fewer points today than USA as well and the talent level of those teams is pretty similar.

Obviously Fitz is our best option and is better than Williams and same with Aeris vs. Holloway. But they have to be used correctly and they have to have support from the WR's and coaches with good playcalling. There is no guarantee any of that would have happened against USA.

[was21]

Obviously you're attempting sarcasm....need to place the asterisks at the top of the end of the post

[oldjoedawg]

Do not agree. To Miami's credit, they had a great game plan where they burned a ton of clock to limit our possessions. Never could get any rythym going. The frustration and lack of rythym manifested itself in the worst preformance from our WRs this year. Trying to take anything from this bowl and apying it to the 1st game of the year is a false equivalency imo.

THIS IS TRUE....be classy enough to give the opponent some credit.....some of us sound just like tsun fans......lol

[HSVDawg]

You honestly believe that? We win that game going away with them in there. Today our players were more focused on the beach and missing Christmas at home than they were playing Miami of 17ing Ohio. They had about as much passion as a bored housewife out there today, and the early game plan was pure garbage. You think we beat the bears 55-20 or upset A&M with Williams and Holloway?

Yeah, I do believe that. See my post below responding to Bruce Dickinson. I totally agree they weren't focused today and they weren't focused against USA. The whole point was shuffling personnel isn't a solution to lack of focus.

[THE Bruce Dickinson]

You obviously missed the point. When players and coaches alike show up not physically or mentally prepared to play, actual personnel decisions mean very little. That was the case against USA and that was the case today. We scored 3 fewer points today than USA as well and the talent level of those teams is pretty similar.

Obviously Fitz is our best option and is better than Williams and same with Aeris vs. Holloway. But they have to be used correctly and they have to have support from the WR's and coaches with good playcalling. There is no guarantee any of that would have happened against USA.

So you are basically saying that games are mostly decided by who is ready to play ? By that logic Alabama has been ready for every single game since the Ole Miss loss last season. I find that pretty hard to believe. Is it more likely that they have been more up for each and every game or that their personnel is simply better than their opponent? When you truthfully answer that question you will know why playing Fitz and Aeris against USA would have made a difference.

[dawgday166]

So you are basically saying that games are mostly decided by who is ready to play ? By that logic Alabama has been ready for every single game since the Ole Miss loss last season. I find that pretty hard to believe. Is it more likely that they have been more up for each and every game or that their personnel is simply better than their opponent? When you truthfully answer that question you will know why playing Fitz and Aeris against USA would have made a difference.

Against teams in Miami OH or USA category ... they may not be all the way up for those and it doesn't matter cause they'll win anyway. Against any SEC foe ... yes. THAT is what makes Saban the most consistent coach other than maybe Urban in CFB. The rare times they aren't up for a game or are too uptight about it, they can be and sometimes are beat.

[lamont]

Miami-OH is 26th in the country in Total D- South Alabama is 51st

[dawgday166]

Miami-OH is 26th in the country in Total D- South Alabama is 51st

I believe we most likely win with Fitz/Aeris in first game. But who really knows. My post was about how we don't show up to play quite often. Regardless of who is starting where. And that is on the head coach IMO. Half of Saban's rants at media, stuff he does in practice, etc. is psychological tweaking of his team. They show up to play most every week. Especially against the upper-tier teams. They did probably take most of the game against us off this year tho ****

[THE Bruce Dickinson]

Against teams in Miami OH or USA category ... they may not be all the way up for those and it doesn't matter cause they'll win anyway. Against any SEC foe ... yes. THAT is what makes Saban the most consistent coach other than maybe Urban in CFB. The rare times they aren't up for a game or are too uptight about it, they can be and sometimes are beat.

So when Meyer beat Saban 2 years ago in the NC game it was because Meyer had his team more prepared or because the future NFL MVP Ezekiel Elliot was making Bama defenders look slow?

[dawgday166]

So when Meyer beat Saban 2 years ago in the NC game it was because Meyer had his team more prepared or because the future NFL MVP Ezekiel Elliot was making Bama defenders look slow?

Yep

[HSVDawg]

I believe we most likely win with Fitz/Aeris in first game. But who really knows. My post was about how we don't show up to play quite often. Regardless of who is starting where. And that is on the head coach IMO. Half of Saban's rants at media, stuff he does in practice, etc. is psychological tweaking of his team. They show up to play most every week. Especially against the upper-tier teams. They did probably take most of the game against us off this year tho ****

^^^Exactly.

Should Fitz and Aeris have been playing over Damien and Holloway in Game 1? Probably. But would it have guaranteed a win if they were? Debatable at best. The real problem in both games was lack of mental preparation. Not that we had the wrong guys in the game, because we should have been able to blow both teams away on talent alone even with our 2nd string if we had our damn heads in the game. Either way, it falls on Mullen to fix it. Today we had our most talented guys out there taking snaps on offense and still only put 17 points on the board against a 6-6 MAC team. Draw your own conclusions.

[dawgday166]

I'm gonna add something else to the equation and I've been thinking on this some. Richie is the leader on D. Has been since last year when he was the Mike LB. His effort this year has been beyond sucking bad. I wonder if that is some of the reason for the uninspired play at time on the D side of the ball. Not trying to take up for Sirmon, but Richie shouldn't have played another snap after about the 3rd or 4th game.

[preachermatt83]

El oh el at this thread! If you think we still lose South Al game with Fitz as QB you are not keeping up.

[HSVDawg]

El oh el at this thread! If you think we still lose South Al game with Fitz as QB you are not keeping up.

There is no guarantee Mullen would have made the correct play calls to suit Fitz's stengths. He didn't in the only two series he was in against USA, and he didn't today.

There is no guarantee our WR's wouldn't drop passes. They did in the only two series Fitz played against USA, and they did all day today.

There is no guarantee Fitz would make the correct reads and throws even when the correct plays were called. He made wrong and late throws and misread the DE on a zone read in his 2 series against USA. He made a couple of throws that should have been picked off today, although he was obviously leaps and bounds better today as an overall passer than he was during the first month of the season. Still didn't matter though.

The bottom line is that the Miami Ohio team we played was likely only marginally better than USA if at all. We all know what our offense is capable of when Fitz and company are clicking. We all know how good it can be because we saw it against A&M, OM, Ark, and to a certain extent USC, Samford, and UK. So why was it worse today than it was in Game 1 against a very similar opponent? Why was it worse than Game 1 when our QB had the entire season plus 15 bowl practices to get his feet under him? Again, draw your own conclusions. Mine is that we weren't mentally prepared either time and expected to beat both teams just by getting off the bus. There certainly is blame to go around to players and coaches alike for allowlng that mentality to develop.

[Dawgsfanalongtime77]

There is really no myth to the south Alabama loss. Missed a chip shot fg at the end. Who or who wasn't in at qb doesn't matter

[Bully13]

There is really no myth to the south Alabama loss. Missed a chip shot fg at the end. Who or who wasn't in at qb doesn't matter

Had no bidness coming down to a fg.

[HSVDawg]

Had no bidness coming down to a fg.

Neither did today's game.