So Nick the _ick (fill in your own letters, but I suggest either "d" or "pr") Sabin and the Alabama Crimson Tide are national champs again. A half-hearted congrats to them. But they only won the game for two reasons, neither or which were in their control. In other words, it was far more a case of Clemson LOSING it than anything Bama did.
Though the ever politically correct talking heads would never dare say such a thing -- they're too busy lauding false praise on anything and everything rather than being objective -- yours truly is under no such restrictions.
The two reasons Clemson bit the big one are as follows:
1) Clueless special teams play. They gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown. OK, that happens once in a while. But when you've got the other team on the ropes, and they're kicking the ball back off to you, you can't, repeat CANNOT, ignore the possibility of an onside kick. Clemson did just that. Chalk up 14 eventual points for Bama that shouldn't have happened. But the main reason was --
2) #25 for Clemson. A defensive back. In all my days of watching college and pro football, I've never seen a single player botch so many plays in one game as this clown.
On one, his defensive assignment was to cover the opposing tight end. Instead, the tight end ran a "wheel" route up the sideline totally uncovered while #25 was in la-la land somewhere. Touchdown.
On another, with Bama facing third and short, their running back broke through the line and found -- 50 yards of open space. Another touchdown. Where the hell was #25?
The coup de grace was when Alabama lined up with two wide receivers split to the right. But only one Clemson defensive back was out there. The receivers did exactly the right thing. One ran a short route while the other went deep. The lone Clemson cornerback also did the right thing. He took the receiver on the underneath route, likely thinking #25 had the deep coverage. Problem was, #25 had gone brain dead again. He stood like a statue in the middle of the field while the Bama receiver ran totally uncovered down the sideline. If Alabama's quarterback saw it -- it was another no-brainer touchdown. He did, and it was.
The official stats will show that Clemson outplayed Alabama in most facets of the game. It could certainly be argued the Tigers were a better team than the Tide. But that doesn't matter. Only the final score counts.
Alabama is national champions and Clemson is not. They'll have a parade in Tuscaloosa and Nick the whatever (see above) Sabin will spout a few more moronic platitudes about how his team never said die and found a way to win in the end.
All of which will be total BS, of course. Clemson was the better team and should have won. In the meantime, Dabo Swinney's Tigers, for all they accomplished this year, will be quickly forgotten. Nobody cares about who came in second. No parade and no platitudes. Losers just slink away into oblivion.
This is what happens when an otherwise superior team exhibits two fatal flaws on the biggest stage of all.
Clueless special teams play and an equally clueless defensive back missing one assignment after another can have a way of turning a victory into a loss every time.
Especially if the other team recognizes these flaws and continues to exploit them. To Alabama's credit, they did just that.
So let the media/talking heads yammer away with their politically correct do-gooder stuff when it comes to Alabama. These people could find a way to heap compliments on the benefits of nuclear war.
But make no mistake. Clemson's special team coach should be fired immediately for incompetence, and #25 had no business on the field in the first place. He might be wonderfully physically talented, but he's dumber than a brick.
He cost his team the game with his brainlocks.
Hmm. I wonder if he's even bright enough to realize that?
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