Kind of funny that 7-0 Mississippi State is a 24 point underdog this week. Talk about not being respected.
A little homework for you since you say that your team won't be affected. How many current players at Alabama have played in a game at Tiger stadium and won??? How many players have played on an Alabama team that beat LSU in the regular season? New Orleans was for all practical purposes a neutral site. I don't see how you comfortably assume Tiger Stadium will have no effect on a bunch of guys that HAVE NOT been in that environment against this good of a defense.
As ridiculous as it may sound, bama doesn't really know what to expect from us, offensively. Our passing game & play-calling have been so atrocious that we'll be forced to alter our approach to some degree, which could work to our advantage if we execute (BIG "if).
Offensive execution is the key--as it has been all year. If we execute competantly, we will win. Our worst example of poor execution was the Florida game, and we lost. In our close wins, our offensive execution does just enough. We executed efficiently in the Washington game. I'd like to get that level of execution against Alabama. It would be enough.
We've done it. We need to get our heads out of our asses on offense and execute. My hope is that we have some head-from-ass-extraction time over the next two weeks. The difference between the Florida game and South Carolina game was dramatic with just a week to make improvements. At Texas A & M, when given the ball after two Aggie turnovers near the end of the half, our anemic offense got the job done and went away with touchdowns. They couldn't do that against Florida two weeks before. I know I've been preaching the same freakin' thing since the AU game, but I truly mean it.
Agreed. We were big & bad enough to let ATM stuff the box and still ran it down their throats. That won't be the case with bama, so we have to make them respect the pass. However, it seems that we've gotten so consumed with trying to force the opposition to respect the pass that we have gotten away from our running game at times (and with an unsuccessful passing game, to boot). I'm thinking that we need to run quick passes from run formations early on, just to get them on their heels.
Excellent point. The offense has shown it can click, and I rewatched the A&M game, and there times when Mett looked good. There was one drive in particular that I think eventually stalled, where Mett completed a nice third down conversion pass, and actually showed some poise in the pocket (i.e., awareness, stepping up when he needed to). I guess that's what makes it so frustrating that it's not happening consistently.
