Actually, we should be thanking Auburn for exposing Georgia, and giving coach Saban a clear blueprint to beat Georgia. Auburn left it all out on the field last Saturday, and we will have two weeks to work on our linebackers. I feel good about this season. BAMA is number one, and undefeated right now. Roll Tide
Just jumping in here, but replying to several: Yes, we really SHOULD "THANK" aub for blowing out UGa, for the reasons stated above, AND because it GUARANTEES complete focus from our players, Fights any chance of "Complacency" and virtually insures good practices - all of which are vital.
AND, at least raises the POTENTIAL for some "Rat Poison" effect to hit the boog team, as they have to be Sky High right now and REALLY liking their chances of repeating the fluke of 2013.
Likewise, we should "THANK" MSU for playing their best game (by far) of the season - which also should prevent any hint of complacency, esp. by the Defense.
Reasons to be concerned - aub DOES have a good enough team to beat us IF they outperform us.
Reasons NOT to be concerned - (believe it or not) Half of the SEC teams we've played this year ALSO have a "good enough" team to beat us, IF they had outperformed us. So far?. . . .
A couple other random thoughts (and forgive me as some of these have been touched on) -
BUT -
We seem to forget that Alabama had developed a pattern of
SLUMPING the week after the LSux game, at least in the past decade when UA and LSux have (usually) been the best two teams in the West.
It was JUST this sort of slump that cost us the 2012 aTm game - when our guys came out flat and lethargic, thinking they were facing a "typical" mediocre aggy squad. And as we all know, the first quarter of that game is what won the Hypeman Trophy for Johnny Sleazeball.
I think it was Selma that mentioned tabulating averages to predict scores? I've been doing this for years, using "uncorrected" numbers for Scoring O and Scoring D as reported by the NZAA official stats, and taking simple averages - UA's Scoring O vs. the Opponent's Scoring D to get our score, and vice versa to get the opponent's score.
For LSux, I got 31.5 - 18.6 (-12.9) - overshot by just over One TD for each team, but the margin was pretty close - actual score - 24-10 (-14)
For MSU, I got 29.5 - 21.9 (-7.6) - obviously, this crude metric doesn't account for injuries; Still, not so far off when the actual score was 31 -24. (-7)
Just "FWIW", as the numbers stack up today - the same very crude, very "Rough" average yields the following:
UA - aub: UA 28.4 - aub 24.2 (~UA -4)
UA - UGa: UA 27.2 - UGa 22.9 (~UA -4)
UA -Clem: UA 27.5 - Clm 22.0 (~UA -5)
UA - Mia: UA 28.3 - MIA 21.9 (~UA -6)
UA - OU: UA 33.7 - OU 27.8 (~UA -6)
Again, just a crude calculation for "fun" only: No Waging, Please!