Alabama vs. Georgia: What I Learned Watching

Dave from the Alabama Football Podcast breaks down Alabama vs Georgia

With each passing week, we’ll learn more about the 2015 Crimson Tide squad. We’ll spot trends as they emerge and puzzle at both the positive and negative outliers.

In this weekly feature, I’ll highlight a handful of the lessons this team is teaching me.

Jake Coker’s Team – Let’s start with the obvious; this is now Jake Coker’s team. Leading the underdog Tide into Athens on a rain-soaked afternoon and emerging with a decisive victory qualifies as a trademark victory and it cements Coker’s position as the Tide’s signal-caller.

That’s the Henry the Tide Needs – A lot is being made over the quantity of Henry’s carries, but I’m in love with their quality. With limited exception, Henry was the aggressor when he had the ball. He initiated contact and fell forward when being brought down. I don’t root for injury but when Derrick lowered his shoulder and knocked a Bulldog defensive back out of the game with a shoulder stinger, I basked in the physicality of the play. Perhaps it was the match up with Nick Chubb or perhaps it was seeing Bo Scarborough in practice or perhaps a flip has switched and the Tide’s talented running back is poised to take his game to a new level.

Oct 3, 2015; Athens, GA, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide running back Derrick Henry (2) runs the ball past Georgia Bulldogs defensive tackle Trenton Thompson (78) during the third quarter at Sanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

My Biggest Surprise of the Game – Speaking of Bo, he was my surprise of the game. All week coach Saban talked of the difficulties that surround getting a new player ready for action mid-season, and while I see his point I also appreciate that Bo has been around for prior spring, and fall camps. He was on the team last season for that matter. Therefore, I expected the Tide to unveil a package of plays designed to exploit his talents while catching the Dogs off guard. In other words, I figured Saban was trolling us all because clearly there has been time to prep Bo for action.

However, as it played out Bo was brought in as the 4^th running back on the day. Perhaps there is no Bo package, or perhaps the coaches recognized early that it wasn’t required. I’m betting the later and I expect we’ll see his role expand as the season progresses. If the Tide goes the full distance, we may forget that Bo missed the first 4 games and barely saw action in game 5.

Sep 5, 2015; Arlington, TX, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide linebacker Reggie Ragland (19) in game action against the Wisconsin Badgers at AT&T Stadium. Alabama won 35-17. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

Suffocating Defense – The best analogy I’ve heard for a Saban defense I read about years ago and it appears to be rounding back into form. It compared Saban’s approach to stopping an opposing offense to a python who will wrap around their victim and slowly, methodically squeeze the life right out of them. It’s been a minute since we’ve observed this kind of play on the field but the hair on the back of my head stood to attention as it came back to life against UL Monroe and again Saturday against Georgia. In both instances, the opponent’s offense reached a point where there was nothing they could do. Nothing was working but the Tide’s defense. If this persists, it does not bode well for the unsuspecting opponents on the balance of the Alabama schedule.

Georgia, you can’t make this stuff up – At the intersection of ‘reality is stranger than fiction’ and having to ‘eat your words’, is where you’ll find the Georgia Bulldogs. It’s where they make their home. Georgia’s loss to Alabama in 2008 would be mostly lost to history had the Bulldogs not christened it the Blackout, which bestowed upon it a certain immortality ensuring their fans the chance to relive the embarrassing loss on the regular. The ill-advised advanced branding of a singular game has now spawned the Washout, as the ever so clever media elects to take their spin on the Georgia brand-a-game wheel. But the antics do not stop there. That would only be an avenue of game naming fails but we’re talking about a full-fledged intersection, around which the communities of mock and shame take root.

Upon arriving at the stadium, the Georgia players decided to rock and shake their buses to announce their arrival and once in the stadium they considered it sporting to race across the field to bark at the Alabama players as they entered the field rather than continue with their own pre-game regiment. Both events are so uniquely Georgia that there isn’t much left to say. This is what they do, it’s who they are and it somehow fits perfectly with the notion that in the best football conference the most consistent and competitive team over the last 15 years has almost nothing to show for it but a couple embarrassing blowouts and half-cocked antics. Yep, Georgia is who Georgia is.

Check back next week as I continue to track these and new items as they emerge from the field. Also, be sure to check out our podcasts as I explore and debate these topics and many more in a more animated format.

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