Fantastic, as usual, Lance.
I've watched the game twice now, in addition to live, and I simply become more amazed by Bryce Young each and every time. You hit the nail on the head, he might be the best QB in the country already. By the way, he is the odds on favorite right now to win the Heisman. 4/1, nobody else is below 8/1. Incredible. I, like you, preached for months that Alabama simply MUST have a small drop off, at least early on, on offense. My god was I wrong. Young honestly might be better now than Jones was last year as a Senior. He was simply breathtaking.
I think we will be fine on offense. I was actually encouraged somewhat by the play of the line, I thought that of course they are nowhere near as physical as Bama's front, they held up pretty decently. There were absolutely plays to be made. I was very encouraged by King's arm, he looks much improved from last year, and he was a polished passer then as well. He looks to have taken the next step in the passing game, and with the upgrades at WR, I think we're going to be very explosive throwing the ball.
The tackling and the inability to read plays from the backers and safeties was nauseating. Simply terrible. We can't tackle ANYBODY. And our kids run themselves out of plays far too often. I noticed the same thing you did, that not only does Bama have the best front 7 in the country, their DBs fill run lanes properly and VIOLENTLY. Our kids play patty-cake and then miss a tackle. Farrrrr too passive on defense for my liking.
And the officiating, my god. I really hate saying this type of stuff, because every single team thinks the refs are out to get them. I'm sure there were Bama fans complaining about the refs. It's hard to see every call. But this stuff is really getting out of control. If they don't hold a single time, don't interfere with a single receiver, and don't pull a single facemask, they probably win by multiple scores. But you literally cannot beat Bama's roster with Miami's if they're allowed to do what they did all night. Was there a single hold called in the game either way? You're telling me two FBS teams played 60 minutes, 150+ plays and not a single kid held anyone?! Watching some of these plays back really makes me sick.
Bottom line, outplayed, outexecuted, and outcoached by a MUCH better team. Which was probably the inevitable outcome all along, even though we're always going to be optimistic. I said 10-2 before the season, I saw absolutely nothing Saturday or back on TV that gets me off that number. Anything less than 9-3, and Manny should be fired (I know he won't be, just saying it's hopeless for him here because this roster, while miles away from Bama, should easily be able to win 9-10 of the next 11 with competent coaching).
I just need to see better tackling. If you're bigger at the point of attack, OK. If your QB is the 2nd coming of Christ, OK. But our kids work-out, too. Come up and make a ******* tackle. I'll bet they were credited with at least 10+ broken tackles, that's insane. We have to be MUCH better tackling, and much more physical overall.
