Link: Interesting CFBCG take from Josh Jacobs

Mental fatigue doesn't have to just come from previous games, either. When you're trying to prepare for a national semifinal and a national championship game . . . and you're also dealing with coaches leaving, players trying to decide if they're staying or going, press telling you that you may have the best team of all time (talk about great expectations!), your coach telling you to not listen to that 'rat poison' etc, etc, I imagine there can be some mental fatigue.

We can act like you can block stuff like that out; but it plays a part as well. I have no idea what Jacobs meant by mental fatigue but it doesn't have to only be caused by the schedule you played.

trenda said:

Mental fatigue doesn't have to just come from previous games, either. When you're trying to prepare for a national semifinal and a national championship game . . . and you're also dealing with coaches leaving, players trying to decide if they're staying or going, press telling you that you may have the best team of all time (talk about great expectations!), your coach telling you to not listen to that 'rat poison' etc, etc, I imagine there can be some mental fatigue.

We can act like you can block stuff like that out; but it plays a part as well. I have no idea what Jacobs meant by mental fatigue but it doesn't have to only be caused by the schedule you played.

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Most of that also applied to Clemson.

CoachJeff said:

Most of that also applied to Clemson.

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I don't remember anyone suggesting Clemson was the greatest team of all time before the game. They had several juniors that had decided to come back for their senior season, thus they were locked in and weren't considering an NFL future. And we know they had no issues with any coaches leaving or considering leaving.

Clemson was obviously in a much better place mentally going into that game. And kudos to them for it.

CoachJeff said:

Most of that also applied to Clemson.

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Not all though, coaching disruption is a huge factor.

Look no further than Kirby Smart's defense against Clemson. We know he's more competent than that, but his defense got lit up by Clemson. The only thing that saved him was a brilliant gameplan by Kiffin. 550 yards, 40 points, probably the worst defensive showing of any of Smart's defenses. Coincidentally, it happened when he already had a foot out the door.

Then you have Kiffin against Washington. 326 yards, mentally addled play-calling saved only by Bo's 180 yards and 2 TDs (on almost 10 yards per rush).

That's just a couple examples, but clearly putting together a good gameplan and getting the players ready to play and so on is the responsibility of the coaches. If they are not up for that task is can be disastrous and like Hurts in the Washington game, it can also put far too much on the shoulders of players, and... yes make it more mentally fatiguing as well. That's not their job to be the coach, but if the coach isn't doing it, who has to?

Weaker leadership than normal cost us this year, mostly on the defensive side.

Bamabuzzard said:

We got beat. Check that. We got the hell beat out of us. Regardless of the "real" reasons. The honorable thing to do is simply tip the cap, give Clemson all the credit in the world and move on. The public excuses, no matter how legit they are, do nothing more than come across as whining. It's not very becoming.

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It's ok to do both. To acknowledge we got beat (we did -- I don't think anyone is arguing that) but to wonder aloud *why* it happened is certainly good too.

It's true. Clemson beat the hell out of Alabama. No doubt. The argument that teams from other conferences who do make it to the NCG have an advantage because their 12 + 1 opponents are not the same quality of opponents an SEC team faces during the course of a season does have some merit. It can be discussed on a team's fan board. I don't think that's a bad thing.

Yeah I did miss it. Sorry about that, Buzz.

In 2017 Alabama lost 6 coaches but the playoffs were two of our finest games. The reason we lost was because of a weaker crop of coaches who didn't have the players well prepped plus one of our weakest defensive units in the Saban era due to roster turnover, injury attrition, lackluster performance from supposed reliable players, and mediocre to poor coaching. I think the mental and physical attrition was a factor in all that but if this was a team playing up to the standard on defense they would've done enough to give us a chance despite fatigue.

We were thin on D, had no kicking game, couldn’t score from the 5 yard line (literally ever), got very few calls, faced a much tougher round one opponent than Clemson, Clemson had some very capable playmakers, and we were totally outcoached. That’s why we lost and the score was lopsided.

The more I think about it the more annoyed I am that someone didn’t warn Tua that Clemson might try to jump the coverage on the sideline ball (we run it a lot, scout yourself a little) and to try for the look-off corner throw. Hindsight is 50/50, obviously.

SkullDuckery said:

Weaker leadership than normal cost us this year, mostly on the defensive side.

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This times 100. Our D escaped serious scrutiny through October,but they were exposed in November. We had the worst MLB in the Saban era and it showed against elite competition late in the season and quite frankly before that. Heck he got planted in the orange bowl against an Oklahoma WR of all people. I was embarrassed FOR HIM when that happened.....

If you’re talking about Jesus: number one, he wasn’t our MLB; number two, you only capitalize “”HIM” and not the “for,” preceeding the “for HIM;” and number three, if Jesus played football, it would obviously be for Dabo Swinney.

Jack Bourbon said:

If you’re talking about Jesus: number one, he wasn’t our MLB; number two, you only capitalize “”HIM” and not the “for,” preceeding the “for HIM;” and number three, if Jesus played football, it would obviously be for Dabo Swinney.

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I’m not talking about Jesus..

Awww I put a lot of work into that reply.

TigerTown said:

Not "looking for anything", lol. Well, convo...which some are doing, some think they're more of an authority and know best, all good.

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Yes,...you do. Thanks for participating. Have a great weekend. Hopefully, Bama can do the same to you next year. If not, ...well...life goes on.

Roll Tide!

Jack Bourbon said:

If you’re talking about Jesus: number one, he wasn’t our MLB; number two, you only capitalize “”HIM” and not the “for,” preceeding the “for HIM;” and number three, if Jesus played football, it would obviously be for Dabo Swinney.

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It's VERY cold in Chicago right now guys.

37 now. Beach time!

Clemson has been congratulated ad nauseam for taking advantage of their opportunity. They were the better team that night.

This discussion does nothing to change that fact.

It is not only perfectly natural, but essential that a team:

1. processes what happened with them during and leading up to that loss to understand why it occurred and

2. learn from that process how to avoid repeating the same mistakes

Unless you have trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time.

Alabama cannot control what Clemson does.

Alabama can control what Alabama does.

Growth cannot happen by a simple tip of the hat. (not talking about losing with grace - that is part of learning but is not pertinent to this discussion)

Growth occurs when you dig deep down to discover where and why you fell short.

Sometimes you are just exhausted. It happens. If something contributed to that it's important to alter what you can to prevent it next time. If leadership or will power played a role it's important to address that also.

Dealing with your own problems does nothing to take away anything from the other team.

If you can't understand that then I can't help you.

NationalTitles17 said:

Clemson has been congratulated ad nauseam for taking advantage of their opportunity. They were the better team that night.

This discussion does nothing to change that fact.

It is not only perfectly natural, but essential that a team:

1. processes what happened with them during and leading up to that loss to understand why it occurred and

2. learn from that process how to avoid repeating the same mistakes

Unless you have trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time.

Alabama cannot control what Clemson does.

Alabama can control what Alabama does.

Growth cannot happen by a simple tip of the hat. (not talking about losing with grace - that is part of learning but is not pertinent to this discussion)

Growth occurs when you dig deep down to discover where and why you fell short.

Sometimes you are just exhausted. It happens. If something contributed to that it's important to alter what you can to prevent it next time. If leadership or will power played a role it's important to address that also.

Dealing with your own problems does nothing to take away anything from the other team.

If you can't understand that then I can't help you.

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I agree as long as it's being done by the coaching staff or among fans on a message board. But not when it's done by our fans to other fanbases or publicly by players or relatives of players. That statement by Jacobs made me cringe.

im4uainva said:

[/I][/U]Yes,...you do. Thanks for participating. Have a great weekend. Hopefully, Bama can do the same to you next year. If not, ...well...life goes on.

Roll Tide!

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And I'll be here in that case too, was last year as well!