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College Football 2018 Season

rolltide_130

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The OU game leaves me nervous for Clemson though. I think this is going to be an absolute dogfight like our first two meetings were. Both teams are built very similarly: Gunslinging QB who also has mobility to get out of the pocket in an emergency, elite defensive front 7, very good, reliable receivers (granted ours are more explosive), stud RBs, and a bit of a suspect secondary. This will go down to the wire and I think that this could really be the best rendition of this new rivalry yet. This has Texas-USC vibes to me with how dominant both sides have been all year.
 

ghost

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I see some things that lead to this. The first of which was they seemed to get worn out. We had them absolutely shut down getting out to a 28-0 lead before they stopped playing with as much intensity and OU capitalized.

The second was this and its irking me: We got emotional and undisciplined for some baffling reason. The OU offensive line allegedly likes to play dirty, and we played right into their hands with our undisciplined play. That was really kind of embarrassing and I don't know why that happened. Clemson may have seen that and be like "Well if we fluster them mentally we can completely throw them off their game", so I'm nervous they'll come out talking heavy trash too in the title game since it seems like that somehow affects us. Just in general the social media antics of this year's defensive players has been kind of riduclious, Mack Wilson in particular.

Another thing is our offensive strategy seemed to be "Shut them down while our defense is fresh and build as big a lead of possible before switching to ball control after halftime". I'm willing to guess constantly scoring so quickly wore them out because they would only get a couple minutes of rest before going back out there. Granted it worked to perfection by running an air-raid attack at the beginning and switching back to our ground-and-pound offense from years past after halftime, but I think that played a role as well.

Good points... but I'm not sure if that really helps me rationalize why we couldn't at least get 1 stop in the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th quarters. Just 1 stop... seems like Murray and their O converted every friggin 3rd down they needed. An another data point... Army shut down Oklahoma's offense in the 2nd half of their game. Army, with a roster of 1 star and an occasional 2 star football players, shut out the Sooners and held them under 150 yds in their last 4 possessions in regulation time. How does Army do this and we can't get just one stop? Frustrating
 

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Army also played them in September where teams are still trying to figure things out. Sooners, much like us, had time to prepare playing for so much more in the Orange Bowl. There are intangibles that lead to better performances, which is why transitive properties don’t work in sports. The level of opponent is one. As someone who has played football, it’s hard to get psyched up for opponents you’re “supposed to blow out” leading to sluggish games (Army vs Oklahoma or Bama vs Citadel).

Also, we lost one of our best pass rushers in the second half in Christian Miller. This led to us struggling with getting pressure on Murray, which he clearly looked off when we brought the heat in the first quarter. Luckily, Miller’s MRI is not bad news (pulled hamstring vs a tear) but I’m unsure he’ll be 100% for the natty.

We’ll find out who Clemson is next Monday. They could be a paper tiger coasting off easy opponents. It could be a 2015 type shoot out. I really don’t know what to expect. All I can speculate...would they have survived a gauntlet like Bama had in November ending with a match up with Georgia? I can’t say yes confidently.
 

Jacob

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Good points... but I'm not sure if that really helps me rationalize why we couldn't at least get 1 stop in the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th quarters. Just 1 stop... seems like Murray and their O converted every friggin 3rd down they needed. An another data point... Army shut down Oklahoma's offense in the 2nd half of their game. Army, with a roster of 1 star and an occasional 2 star football players, shut out the Sooners and held them under 150 yds in their last 4 possessions in regulation time. How does Army do this and we can't get just one stop? Frustrating

None of that really tells the whole story, IMO. Army may have shutout Oklahoma in the second half, but look at the drive charts and it isn't because Army dominated the OU offense.

After an Oklahoma INT (Bama dropped I believe 2 in the second half), Army went on a 19 play, 85 yard drive that took 10:47 off the clock. OU moved it right back down the field, only to get stuffed at the goal line on 4th and goal. Then Army goes a 17 play, 65 yard drive in 10:05. Oklahoma gets the ball back, moves back down the field easily, sets up a game winning FG as time expires and misses a 33 yard FG. Army had the ball for almost 23 minutes in the second half, and limited OU to three total possessions.

Bama also got multiple stops in which in a normal game would result in a punt, but Oklahoma knew they had no choice but to try to score on every possession. I think they converted a 4th and 5 from their own 25 early in the 4th quarter. Also as has been pointed out, Bama made some mental mistakes and extended drives with dumb penalties.

I also think the flow of the game contributed to the defensive game plan in the second half. Murray is basically a faster Johnny Manziel, and can put up a TD on almost any play. Once Bama got up big, the only way OU could get back in the game was to score quickly multiple times. It looked to me like the gameplan was to try to limit the big plays, and OU had to take a lot of time off the clock (by their standards) with their second half drives.

It's worth noting that Murray had his lowest completion %, yards per attempt, and passer rating of the season.
 

ghost

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This performance by the Longhorns tonight was totally unexpected by me
 

rolltide_130

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After the little twitter sideshow by the Georgia players and, as @Kory likes to call him, Coach Bowl Cut's antics after the SEC Championship, I'm not exactly feeling any sort of pity for Georgia. They were outclassed and outplayed on both sides of the ball tonight.
 

KoD

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Hook'em horns!

saHClxc.gif
 

Kory

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After the little twitter sideshow by the Georgia players and, as @Kory likes to call him, Coach Bowl Cut's antics after the SEC Championship, I'm not exactly feeling any sort of pity for Georgia. They were outclassed and outplayed on both sides of the ball tonight.
I'm starting to think the Sugar Bowl struggles were all Kirby. 0-3 with him on the staff...1-0 without him. And I think he's been exposed as an in-game coach. Only a matter of time until Mullen and Pruitt go toe to toe with him.
 

Kory

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Also, the fact that #3 ND, #5 Georgia, #7 Michigan, #8 UCF, and #9 Washington all lost convincingly, should quell expansion talks. 4 is the max...and some years may be too many.
 

KoD

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Who thought bringing a 1700 pound animal into a crowd was a good idea?
Iirc they've been doing it for decades. Usually the steer is very well behaved.
 

akt1985

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I hear that there are still plenty of tickets available for Monday’s National Championship Game. There are many seats going for under $150. Obviously holding the title game in the San Francisco Bay Area at the 49ers new stadium was not a good idea. At least the Rose Bowl sold out when Alabama and Auburn played for a national title.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.da...national-championship-alabama-clemson-tickets
 

Kory

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Last year was just a perfect storm for ticket prices for the natty. I opted in (unfortunately didn’t get the 500 free Taco Bell student section tickets) and paid $525. I know when we picked up the student tickets at the Georgia World Congress Center, they had dozens of people waiting by the exit offering $1500-2000 dollars and several students took those offers.

Right at about halftime, I was staring at the ground in a state of depression as Kendrick Lamar performed the show thinking to myself “Kory, you’re an idiot for paying this price to watch Bama lose.” Little did I know...
 

Kory

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It's gameday! In what may be a historic national championship Monday night, with the first 15-0 team in the modern era, Nick Saban going for most championships won by a college head coach, and Alabama potentially becoming #3 in the number of titles by a franchise.

I'll be watching nervously in Tuscaloosa. Roll tide y'all.
 

Jacob

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It's impressive how UCF has managed to make themselves one of the few hated underdogs. Fans all across football have grown tired of them.

 

rolltide_130

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It's impressive how UCF has managed to make themselves one of the few hated underdogs. Fans all across football have grown tired of them.



I'd love for Alabama to volunteer to travel down to Orlando for the season opener next year and stomp their teeth in..
 
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