Paradigm Shift

I see some innovative offensive coaches doing what they have to do to compete with the LSU, Florida and Alabama defenses. These two defenses dominated college football for more than a decade, and something had to change. But Ole Miss' offense is not among those that represents the recent change. They did not run any type of HUNH. Ole Miss beat Alabama yesterday with their defense, not their offense - Alabama's offense only scored 10 points.

Ole Miss has a very experienced team and a salty defense. Their experience kept them from getting down when they could have, and their defense kept them in the game, hoping that Alabama would make a critical mistake - and Alabama did. They played Alabama football yesterday.

B1GTide said:

I see some innovative offensive coaches doing what they have to do to compete with the LSU, Florida and Alabama defenses. These two defenses dominated college football for more than a decade, and something had to change. But Ole Miss' offense is not among those that represents the recent change. They did not run any type of HUNH. Ole Miss beat Alabama yesterday with their defense, not their offense - Alabama's offense only scored 10 points.

Ole Miss has a very experienced team and a salty defense. Their experience kept them from getting down when they could have, and their defense kept them in the game, hoping that Alabama would make a critical mistake - and Alabama did. They played Alabama football yesterday.

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yeah, we could've played better on o and ole miss played some salty d, but once our center went down, it was pretty much over. against a strong front four, that's about impossible to overcome.

Smith,
Your premise is wrong. First, you can't put Bama and LSU in the same catagory right now. LSU is not a good team right now. Second, it wasn't about offense as much as defense yesterday. OM just outplayed us by making fewer mistakes, but it was not innovative offense that beat us, it was too many mistakes.

A paradigm shift would be when somebody other than the big boys start winning more than just an upset game or two. I still think the west runs through the state of Alabama, but next week we'll be in the uncomfortable position of needing to root for an Auburn and A&M win.

BamaMoon said:

Smith,
Your premise is wrong. First, you can't put Bama and LSU in the same catagory right now. LSU is not a good team right now.

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let' see

LSU is 5-2 in last 7 games
Alabama is 4-3 in last 7 games

not in the same category, eh?

Rolltide_PA said:

let' see

LSU is 5-2 in last 7 games
Alabama is 4-3 in last 7 games

not in the same category, eh?

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Did you see LSU's last two games???

Bad offense and bad defense.

But if you think LSU is better than Bama right now I'll just kindly disagree.

LSU and Bama are somewhat victims of their own success. Great players leaving early for the pros has caught up with both teams. LSU more so. You lose ability and senior leadership.

crimsonaudio said:

Weird argument.

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yeah real weird

we beat 4 teams that had losing records last year and lost to the 3 that had winning records. glad you guys have the tremendous optimism that lsu sucks and we're still great but facts get in the way of that argument

right now we're a sloppy team that beats up on bad teams and loses to good ones.

weird argument?

BamaMoon said:

Did you see LSU's last two games???

Bad offense and bad defense.

But if you think LSU is better than Bama right now I'll just kindly disagree.

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didn't say LSU were better...just said they're in the same class

might want to hold off on the "bad offense" talk after a game where we scored 1 TD and amassed the grand total of 3 second half points.


we came out lethargic and error-prone off a bye week, lost a DD lead, and cannot beat a half decent team anymore.

smith5753 said:

Hey guys. Long time ( 7-8 years) reader of tidefans, but this is my first post.


First, I'm not a “sky is falling”type of fan. You win some and you lose some. The West is the toughest division in the nation this year and I suspect we're not out of it yet. I don't see anyone going undefeated in the west.


After the loss today and the dismantling of LSU by AU, I feel like maybe we have went through the inevitable paradigm shift that happens in college football. Alabama and LSU have been the gold standards in the SEC for a while now.Everyone has chased these two programs in recruiting and on the field. However, this loss to Ole Miss this week and the Loss for LSU to MSU last week has opened my eyes. I feel like the playing field has been leveled. Alabama and LSU can no longer simply overwhelm the competition with the best athletes on the field. Ole Miss just beat us at our game. They didn't spread the field and no huddle us to death. They simply played physical football on both sides of the ball and capitalized on mistakes we made.


Now don't get me wrong. I feel like if we had played mistake free football we win that game. I guess whats lacking for me is the overwhelming confidence going into games that we can pull out a win. I'm spoiled as a BAMA fan and I'm used to having that feeling. It will be interesting too see how this team responds to the loss.

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I think maybe lsu is going back to the 90s but bama is probably on a rebuilding year. Last year was suppose to be our year but a late season collapse prevented it. I'm sticking with my 10-2 pick because I just can't see us winning 7 in a row with our kicking game,our secondary, and our inexperienced offense(outside our running backs and receivers) playing the way they have been at this moment. I think maybe in the next two years we will be back to prominence, but haven't fully given up on this year

crimsonaudio said:

2013 and 2014 Bama are very different teams.

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now THAT is a weird argument

The other "paradigm shift" is one that relates to Bama is up tempo offense. This team seems to "bog down" when it goes to a grind it out, smash mouth style we have won with for years. It seems that Blake Sims and the offense plays better in an up tempo style. I don't know if it is because of lack physical play by the o-line this year compared to previous years or that Sims just has more comfort playing at a quicker pace. Could be a combination of both. Sims gets the ball out quicker, line doesn't have to sustain blocks as long, more pressure on the edge of the defense, etc.. If Blake is the guy we're going to win lose with at QB, put him in a position offensively to be the most successful. Maybe I missed it, but did we ever go hurry up or up tempo yesterday?

And let's face the fact. Even with all the penalties, mistakes, bad calls, missed FG's, poor play calling, and lack of execution, this team still had an opportunity to win at the end of the game. The difference between this team and other teams in the past is the level of talent now across the SEC West. With the talent gap narrowing, we can't expect to play sloppy for half a game or more and consistently "out talent" the other guys at the end of the game.

nothing lasts forever and the era of alabama dominating everyone is over.

we're just another good team in a really good league.

we could win out from here or we could lose 2 or 3 more games.

back to reality.

Hard to lump us in with LSU, they look terrible on both sides of the ball, and could have 5 or 6 losses this year.

The thing is, the SEC west is tougher than in the past when MSU and Ole Miss are fielding legit teams, even with LSU down right now, the other teams have become more dangerous to play.

Rolltide_PA said:

now THAT is a weird argument

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How is that a weird argument?

The biggest difference between the last 2 year's teams and '09 - '12 (not counting sloppiness) is O line and DB talent - plain and simple. It's the reason why a true freshman is our best O-lineman this year. We addressed that with recruiting this last year with the best O-line and DB classes ever, but it is going to take a little time to get them up to speed.

We went on the road yesterday and played a very hungry team with a great defense. In fact, it is the best defense we'll see this year. MSU, nor AU's is close, especially in pass coverage, where Ole Miss is excellent. We lost 3 starters, played with a banged up QB and #2 receiver, and made way too many mistakes at crucial times, and still had a great shot to win in the end. That's the "weird comparison" between us and LSU, because LSU is getting blown out.

We are not without our issues, and if we play like we did yesterday, we'll lose to MSU and AU, too. OTOH, if we play to our potential, we can beat both of them, so I'm going into full panic mode and jumping off the bridge like many of you are. In '11 and '12, we played like a team possessed after our first loss when we still had a shot to will the Championship. Hopefully we can get as many guys as we can healthy, and go out play with the fire that we have in past.

This was supposed to be a rebuilding year anyway, but our quick start made us all forget about that, and now people are freaking out. This team is either going to be good, but not great like 2010, or they'll rally together and have a chance win it all despite having holes and vulnerabilities like '12.

81usaf92 said:

How is that a weird argument?

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Because it's hard to be objective when one is ducking chunks of the sky falling...