First and goal with one minute left, who made the call to spike the ball ? Was it Saban, Fisher, or did Russel make the call on his own ? We should have run off 20 seconds before snapping the ball. If it was Russell - then it was a rookie mistake. He'll learn from it. If it was Saban or Fisher - then it will go down as one of, if not the most boneheaded moves of their career ! Iowa should have had only 30-35 seconds instead of 55 - BIG difference !
If we would have ran out of downs then that play would have made a difference. What is the difference between stopping the clock that way or punching it quickly. Blown coverage or missed tackle and wasn't the first time this year. And I also don't think we lost it on the last play of the game. We were probably lucky to get in the position we were in for the last minute.
My take is this. In Little Rock in 2002, this defensive secondary got beat on a last second, touchdown pass from 34 yards out. Two years later in Orlando, this defensive secondary allows a 57 yard touchdown pass to start the game, and a 56 yard touchdown pass to end the game. Some folks (Saban included) seem to want to blame the players for yesterday. I blame the coach, because the problem surfaced two years ago and was not corrected. That's not all. Iowa's QB is a true sophmore . . . a TRUE sophmore. We give him the ball on his own 30 yard line with only 46 seconds left in the game. How does our vaunted defensive secondary respond? They make the kid QB look like Joe Montana by giving up a touchdown drive. Again, some folks want to blame the players. I blame the head coach. The kids play for free and are 18 to 20 years old, whereas the coach is paid about 2 million dollars a year, currently coaches the Miami Dolphins, and is the greatest defensive mind since Tom Landry (or so we have been told.) Maybe I'm wrong . . . maybe I'm just being bitter . . . maybe it's sour grapes . . . but that's my take on it. I'm grateful for everything Coach Saban did for LSU. He's the best coach we ever had, but that doesn't make him immune from criticism.
The coaching staff is responsible for having players on the field that had no clue what was going on and not just on the last play. How about linning up at the line of scrimmage and one of the OL is standing next to Saban when he is supposed to be in the game, time out. How about the tight end not knowing that LSU is running a fake field goal to his side of the field so he just stands up at the snap instead of blocking and gets in the way of the play. How about not making adjustments on the punt blocking after having one blocked. This was the worst job of preparing a team that I saw during the Saban era and there is no excuse.
Oh, believe me. Folks will make excuses for the coaches. There will be folks who will attack you and I and rush to the defense of Saban and his staff, making all sorts of excuses, and blaming the players.
I'm not attacking Saban in fact I thank him for what he did for LSU, I'm just posting what I saw on the field and that was a team not prepared to play and with no clue of what a last second prevent defense is.
I really believe that Saban's departure and the undecided future of the assistant coaches had an impact on the game preparedness. It was disturbing to me in one of the last press conferences before the game that Saban was critizing the search committe in not looking into their own backyard. That tells me that he and /or his assistant coaches have got to be thinking about that. Correct me if that is not a distraction. ________ PORN STAR
