News Article: Kentucky wrap-up: Alabama wins with its B-game

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Kentucky wrap-up: Alabama wins with its B-game
By Jess Nicholas
TideFans.com Editor-in-Chief
Oct. 5, 2008

If the mark of a championship team is that it can win on an off-day, Alabama might need to be fitted for rings later today, because its win over Kentucky certainly wasn’t the stuff of a team firing on all cylinders.

And while they’re at it, they can fit referee Hubert Owens and his crew for seats in the film room while someone explains how to count to seven when counting men on the line of scrimmage, how to ignore a visitor’s bench when it’s trying to talk you into throwing a flag for an offensive pass interference penalty that didn’t exist, and explain proper etiquette when administering the 40-second clock on the field after a clock malfunction (particularly the part about raising a hand or giving some other kind of signal to the offense to let the players know the clock is nearing zero).

It’s a good thing Alabama won this game for several reasons, chief among them was it allows analysts like myself to note this was one of the worst-officiated SEC games in years without sounding like sour grapes. Had Alabama lost this game, it would have been one of those times that the losing team couldn’t overcome playing against a 12th (and 13th, and 14th) man in a striped shirt.

As it is, Alabama can chalk up its sixth win of the season, possibly take some small collateral damage in the pros and use its off-week to fix its passing game, teach running back Glen Coffee how to hang onto the football in traffic and teach defensive backs not to let a receiver get behind them with 40 seconds left in the game. Also, Alabama can take the time to pat Bobby Greenwood and Eryk Anders on their backs for stepping up in a big way on defense.

Alabama fans wanted to ignore Kentucky’s tough defense this week, and fortunately, Kentucky’s defense wasn’t playing the fans because the results would have been much different and much worse. As many as six Wildcat defenders could be drafted in April into the NFL, which is something a lot of fans chose to overlook in the process of declaring the 2008 national championship over and done with. Those Wildcat defensive stars kept Alabama’s John Parker Wilson off balance and questionable calls did the rest.

And finally, Leigh Tiffin lived through Arkansas 2006 Part Deux, but fortunately made a late, clinching field goal and now has a week to work out the yips.

There’s really not much to say about such an ugly win other than (a) it’s still a win and (b) Alabama needs to avoid putting itself in these situations in the future.

As for the officiating, the SEC will have to fix that – if it can. While league officiating as a whole appears to be better than in recent years, whatever improvements in training are being used didn’t seem to take with this bunch. If scheduling of officials holds true to form, Alabama will get this same crew a second time in 2008, perhaps around the time of Arkansas State or Mississippi State.

In the coming week, Alabama will get to heal a bit – wide receiver Mike McCoy doesn’t have eye-popping stats in 2008, but his absence from the Crimson Tide’s offense was definitely felt – and prepare for an Ole Miss team that is 100-percent, typical Houston Nutt: Following up big-time wins (Florida) with big-time letdowns (South Carolina). Which Ole Miss team will show up? The kind that can easily end Alabama’s winning streak if Alabama puts forth the same effort two Saturdays from now as it did Oct. 4.

Head coach Nick Saban said, after the Georgia win, that the win was a best-case scenario for him. It allowed him to celebrate a victory, but the late defensive letdown allowed him to still chew a few rear ends in practice and keep the team motivated.

In that regard, Saban will have had two perfect weeks in a row.