I’m glad we won and never really doubted we would. However, that win felt more like a loss than any other game I’ve ever watched in my life. The only other game I can compare this sick post-game feeling to was the Miss St game after Tua was injured. That though was a tragic temporary personnel setback, and this honestly feels like the end of an era.
As an eternal optimist, I always assumed our D would find a way to pull it together. Tonight not only did that not happen, the D got more lost as the game went on. We got gashed on the edges and no adjustments were made to seal them. We were giving up running lanes a mile wide up the middle. Our secondary was two steps behind their receivers on almost every route. We couldn’t even get them off the field on 3rd and 10+.
I’d feel better if we’d survived a game where Lane threw his entire playbook at us, but he didn’t. Outside of some misdirections, he ran a very straightforward gameplan, and we had no answers.
There’s just no way to excuse the lack of strategy, adjustment, or execution tonight. I don’t see how we can possibly move forward without some pretty drastic changes to the defensive hierarchy.
At least we live to fight another day. For now, I bid you all an exhausted Roll Tide