Tuesday night's game against Ole Miss is one of those games you just throw the tape away and get ready for what's next. Honestly, this was the first bad game of the season for this Alabama team with little to no effort given until almost too late in the game, and Ole Miss took advantage of the lackadaisical performance by this team.
I am not sure if they were just feeling themselves after a solid start to the SEC schedule or possibly looking ahead to the showdown on Saturday in Lexington. The Rebels rarely win in Coleman so that did add a little to the shock from a fan perspective in addition to how badly we were beaten on the boards.
This was the first time all season the energy from the start of the game was bad so from a silver lining perspective you would have to think the effort will be 100 percent better against the Wildcats.
Coach Nate Oats should have no problem having the full attention of the team going into the weekend and that should lead to a much better result in a place where the history hasn't been that good for the Crimson Tide over the years. Last night did prove you can't taken anything for granted even at home during SEC play. The Florida Gators found this out as well losing to Missouri at home a week after beating Tennessee by 40 points.
Getting the rare win in Lexington will require a sharp low turnover high energy effort from this Alabama team. It will need to start with Mark Sears and go down from there. The last couple of games it seems Lebaron Philon may have hit sort of a freshman wall, but it will be important he can get his confidence back on the road against the Wildcats.
A much better effort on the boards by Big Cliff will be needed and of course the offense will need to be what they have been most of the year in order to turn this week around and get the big win over Mark Pope's team. This is the first real adversity this team has had all year so it will be interesting to see how this proud responds.