Alabama’s exasperating game plans for the last two games

Not once. But twice. Two times in the two most important games of the 2013 season, the Alabama Crimson Tide decided that they could outscore teams that are quite comfortable in high scoring games that are still close late in the second half.

It is inexplicable, and it is exasperating.

Here you have a football program that has developed the best downhill running game in the history of downhill running games. A program that throws the ball when it’s convenient and will simply out-physical, out-hustle and out-muscle you. They use their superior talent and depth to wear you down and make your ass quit. You are literally beaten into submission and you are forced to like it.

Until the Iron Bowl.

Not satisfied with that dismally failed game plan, Alabama’s brain trust decided to double down and play basketball on grass with a team  that is designed to play basketball on grass, from a conference of nothing but teams that play… basketball on grass.

WTF?

You can point to several other aspects of last night’s Sugar Bowl puzzler that contributed to Alabama’s loss. The offensive line performance in pass protection was atrocious. The linebackers’ performance in short and medium range pass plays by Oklahoma was just as ugly. AJ McCarron’s sudden affinity for turning the ball over was bad too, but the point is that he never should have been put in a position where the game’s outcome relies on the quarterback’s play. That’s not Alabama football.

Maybe this goes back to Coach Nick Saban’s promise during the run-up to the 2013 season that he wanted the offense to be more explosive. Maybe it comes from a head-strong, fifth-year senior quarterback that thinks he might be the second coming of Brett Favre, or something. Maybe it stems from an offensive coordinator who, seeing all of the talent he has on the field, thinks he has the guns to beat anybody, anywhere, even at their own game.

Maybe part of the issue is the shuffling of the depth charts on both sides of the ball and what Jess Nicholas adeptly points out:

Keeping up with the weekly depth chart meant scouring for information on who was suspended, who was in the doghouse or who simply didn’t want to be there. On most good teams, depth chart maneuverings are the result of hungry players moving up and challenging veterans. For Alabama in 2013, it was about talented players underachieving, sulking or running afoul of coaches’ policies. The primary movement was not forward, up the depth chart … it was backward, with names falling off hither and yon.

Again, that’s not Alabama football.

I still think it all goes back to game planning, and doing what it is that you do best.

The best way to beat high-powered, up-tempo offenses is to keep the damned things off of the field. You run the football early and often, and you throw it to your tight ends and receivers when you’re damned good and ready, not when you need to and when the other team knows you need to. You chew up the clock and dominate time of possession as you dominate the line of scrimmage. Alabama’s offensive line did pretty well when the Tide ran the football, did they not? Play field position football. Give the other guys few opportunities to touch the ball and when you have to do so, make them drive a country mile through the teeth of a hungry, well rested defense in order to score.

That is Alabama football, and until the final regular season game of 2013, nobody did it better than Alabama.

What we saw last night was an absolute abomination. It was ugly, it was exasperating, and I pray that I never see it again.

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Sugar Bowl caught in HBO Real Sports investigation

Tonight, HBO airs a new episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, and presents its investigative report into the finances of the Allstate Sugar Bowl, where the Bowl Championship Series will crown the 2011 BCS National Champion on January 9, 2012.

Among the findings of the investigative report, the Sugar Bowl was shown to have made a total of $5,000 to the election campaign of former Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a Democrat. Two other donations totaling $89.90 were made to a Political Action Committee.

Organized as a non-profit, 501(c)(3) charitable organization, the Sugar Bowl is prohibited from making such political contributions and appears to have violated federal elections law in doing so.

Here’s a segment from the show, where correspondent Bernie Goldberg interviews Football Bowl Association Spokesman Bruce Bernstien:

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Transcript:

Goldberg: According to the IRS laws regarding charities like the Bowls, are they allowed to give money to politicians and political candidates?
Bernstien: No.
Goldberg: No--period?
Bernstien: No, period.
Goldberg: The Fiesta Bowl, as you know, was caught laundering money to political candidates. And by "laundering money," I mean the Bowl didn't give money to political candidates, employees did and then the employees were reimbursed.
Bernstien: It's not a good thing, but it's an isolated incident. I have never heard of another instance of where a Bowl Organization made a political contribution.  And I ask you, Bernie, have you heard of that? Because if someone was foolish enough to do that...
Goldberg: The answer is "yes."  Let me interrupt you--the answer is "yes." Louisiana state campaign finance records show several contributions from the Sugar Bowl to the Governor of Louisiana.... You asked me a question...
Bernstien: I'm not familiar with that. But if the organization was foolish enough to have done that, it will get reported and obviously now there are two situations that have been reported.

If there was any good news in the report, it was that the Real Sports investigative team didn’t turn up anything like evidence of a $1,200 strip joint tab, tens of thousands in bogus bonuses paid to employees who funneled the money to political campaigns, a lavish birthday party for the bowl’s CEO, gold coins, cars and other bling thrown around by the Fiesta Bowl. CEO John Junker was fired and the bowl was slapped on the wrist by the BCS.

At first blush, the Sugar Bowl transgressions don’t even carry the Fiesta’s jock strap. The last political contribution shown in the records was $50 to the PAC in 2008. Former Governor Blanco decided not to run for reelection in 2007, and current Republican Governor Bobby Jindal is not shown as a beneficiary of the bowl’s political largesse.

Given the Fiesta’s slap on the wrist last Spring, you can rest assured that the BCS will thank the Sugar Bowl for not going big time.   

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TattooGate: Given the opportunity to do it right, the NCAA screws it up AGAIN

Sports by Brooks has the whole story.

Ohio State Football players Mike Adams, Dan Herron, DeVier Posey, Solomon Thomas and Terrelle Pryor have been suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season. Jordan Whiting is suspended for the first game.

The students were accused of receiving a host of improper benefits, ranging from tattoo discounts to proceeds gained from sales of championship memorabilia. The violations of NCAA rules regarding student-athlete improper benefits began occurring well before the start of the 2010 season, so each of the athletes involved (or at least some of them) have been ineligible to play all season long in 2010.

Compare this to the AJ Green case.  The Georgia standout receiver sold a jersey on Ebay and was forced to sit 4 games in the current season.

Compare it also to the Marcel Dareus case. The Alabama standout defensive lineman accepted improper transportation benefits from an agent and was forced to sit 2 games in the current season.

But compare it as well to the Cam Newton case, in which Newton exploited a loophole in the NCAA regs to remain eligible by claiming not to know that his father shopped him around SEC schools for a cool one-eighty large.

Want to know how the Ohio State players got off with no 2010 sanctions and no vacated wins?

“We didn’t know that was against the rules.”

The NCAA eligibility staff’s pathetic willingness to accept the ignorance defense makes the organization a toothless whore. Student-athletes, their parents, extended family members and “handlers” are now free to represent those players however they want. Just make sure Junior has plausible deniability. The players are also free to use their reputations and sell all their bling and swag to the highest bidder.  Just give’em the puppy dog eyes and say, “I didn’t know that was wrong.  I’m so sowwy.”

The NCAA had a chance to get it right after the Newton fiasco.  They have screwed it up again, and have made fools of themselves all over again.