Monday, November 18, 2019

The Week In Football: Tua Dislocates His Hip, LSU Can't Stop Anyone, And Baylor Collapses


It was a great weekend of college football for everyone…. except Tua Tagovailoa and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Let’s just start there…
Tua Has Played His Last Snap In An Alabama Uniform
Tua was going to be a top 5 pick in the 2020 NFL draft if he chose to leave school. Now, he has no reason to stay. Two ankle surgeries, and now, this hip injury? In general, I think it’s good for a quarterback to get as many college starts as possible, but in Tua’s situation, he’s a smaller guy that seems to take a lot of hard hits, and one more of those unfortunate breaks could end up costing him millions. So it’s a no brainer that he should enter the draft, and then pray to God that he doesn’t get popped like that again in the NFL.
Of course, why has Tua taken so many hits, whereas guys like Russell Wilson and Lamar Jackson haven’t? Those guys run even more than Tua does, and yet, they’ve been able to avoid getting their heads taken off. I think Tua’s problem is not knowing when to give up on a play. 
If you go back and look at his injury from Saturday, he’s out of the tackle box with two defenders hot on his heels. Of course, he’s still holding onto the football, even though the play is going no where and he has no receiver even close to being open. He should’ve chucked the ball out of bounds and lived to fight another down two seconds earlier. Instead he holds it, allows himself to be caught, and then flings it away as he’s getting slammed into the ground from two different angles.
As a quarterback with the skill level that he has, he needs to learn that the most important asset he can bring to his team week to week is being available. I’m not saying fluke injuries won’t happen, but Tua is on his third surgery in less than a year. At a certain point it’s not a fluke anymore.
Nick Saban Is Getting Killed For Leaving Tua In
Honestly, I’m not sure why. What seems to be lost on everyone is that Tua’s hip is not his ankle. This is an entirely different injury, one that easily could’ve happened if Tua had a healthy ankle. If your argument is that Tua was banged up and shouldn’t have been in there because it was 35-7, then why even let him play at all? College teams don’t pull their quarterbacks in that situation normally. Hell, Oklahoma came back from a 25 point deficit on Saturday. You’re saying Alabama should’ve relaxed with a 28 point lead? Plus, how good is Alabama without Tua really? Mac Jones played in the second half and they scored 3 points. I’m not 100% sure they win on Saturday if Jones starts. Yeah, they probably do, but if your Alabama, you can’t afford another loss, and if Tua wants to play and has been cleared by the doctors, are you really in the position to not play him?
Tua’s Injury Knocks The Tide Out Of The Playoff Conversation
Alabama has an average defense and can’t run the ball with any consistency. Everything revolved around Tua bombing the ball down the field to their overwhelming amount of NFL receivers. Mac Jones is the more traditional Saban quarterback, in the ilk of Jake Coker, Greg McElroy, and A.J. McCarron, where he can succeed if he has a strong running game backed by a stout defense. He would’ve worked on most Saban teams, but not this one. So even if they do run the table the next two weeks (and I think they’ll struggle to score against Auburn’s defense on the road), I don’t think they’ll do it impressively, which means they’ll be passed up by a team like Oregon or Utah, assuming one of those teams finishes 12-1. They might’ve been passed up even if they had Tua; now, without him, there’s not an argument for them as a Top 4 team.
LSU’s Defense Sucks
Never has a football team’s strength flipped so sharply in one year. LSU’s brand for years was defense and physicality, but that’s completely gone in 2019, a season that has seen the Tigers give up 28 points or more five times. Ole Miss gained 614 yards on offense and 402 yards on the ground on their way to 37 points. Granted, LSU scored 58 points and put up 714 yards themselves, but are they going to be able to win the national title playing Big 12-level defense? Hell, are they going to be able to beat Georgia in the SEC Title Game playing defense like that? If the ‘Dawgs can slow LSU’s offense down even a little bit (and with their defense, they’re capable), it could be trouble for the Tigers. The problem with winning shootouts every week is that eventually your offense has a bad game and the other team torches your crappy defense. Oklahoma has had more offensive explosiveness than anyone in the country since Lincoln Riley joined their coaching staff, and yet, they’re 0-3 in the playoffs. Why? Because they’ve ran into more complete teams who could make them work to score points offensively. No one is going to shut down this LSU offense, but some school (Ohio State, Georgia) with a great defense is going to be able to put up a hell of a resistance.
What The Hell Is Matt Rhule Wearing?
Seriously? What is that? Who does that? He looks like he’s wearing his adult league basketball jersey over a jacket. Is he trying to stand out on the sideline so the quarterback can find him? If that’s the case, then why isn’t he literally wearing anything else? He could start dressing like Chief Screaming Chicken and not look as ridiculous as he did on Saturday.
Of course, the only thing worse than his outfit on Saturday was when his Baylor team blew up their playoff chances in a two hour period. Up 28-3 in the second quarter, thanks in large part to Jalen Hurts’s Clint Stoerner impression, the Bears proceeded to get outscored 31-3 the rest of the way.
I can’t decide what part of their team was worse during the Sooner comeback, the offense, which only ran 16 plays in the entirety of the second half, or the defense, which had OU behind the chains on second and third down all night and could never get off the field.
I’d be sick if I was a Baylor fan, but probably not as sick as Matt Rhule should be when he looks in the mirror and realizes that dresses like one of Baylor’s team managers.
Georgia Shuts My Angry Old Man Up
My old man was adamant last week that Georgia was going to go to Auburn a lose by a hundred. In between his mouthfuls of Cheetos, I’ve never heard him say anything nice about Kirby Smart. I guess that’s just the Tennessee fan in him talking. “Kirby won with Mark Richt’s players!” “Kibry needs to keep his overly energetic ass on the sidelines!” “Kirby helped coordinate the JFK assassination!” “Kirby Smart is the Zodiac Killer!” I know, I know, the incoherent babblings of a senile, old man.
I don’t know if Kirby is going to ever win the national title at Georgia, or even end up being better than Mark Richt was long term, but I think he’s proven himself to be a pretty good hire at this point. He’s won the SEC East each of the last three years and is 6-0 over that span against Tennessee and Florida, his principle rivals in division. Plus, his SEC record is 20-3 since 2017. Don’t get me wrong, I hope Kirby never wins another game; he’s the Georgia coach and he comes off like a used car salesman the same way Dabo Swinney does, but the guy has been a great coach so far and has managed to build a great program in Athens.
Teams Still Alive For The Playoff
As always, teams are still alive for the playoff as long as they are in a Power 5 conference and have one loss or fewer, with the exception of the ACC, which is such an atrociously bad league that a single loss would eliminate you. (* by the undefeated teams)
ACC: *Clemson
The Tigers have won their last five games by five touchdowns or more, and are an ass kicking against South Carolina and whatever crappy team they play in the ACC Title Game away from making the playoff for the fifth straight year. I don’t know if the Tigers are actually one of the four best teams because they haven’t been challenged by any quality opponents (and looked shaky in the beginning of the year against subpar competition), but this the exact same thing that happened last year and they ended up winning the championship anyway. So I don’t know what to think.
Big Ten: *Ohio State, Penn State, Minnesota
The Gophers lost at Iowa on Saturday, thanks in large part to their week long hangover from their Penn State victory. Minny didn’t get going offensively until it was too late.
Ohio State and Penn State play in Columbus on Saturday in a game that is for the Big Ten East. The Nittany Lions are eliminated from playoff consideration with a loss, and while the Buckeyes wouldn’t be, their road would become much more difficult. Could the Big Ten get two teams in the playoff? I guess it would just depend on what happens everywhere else. We’ve still got a ton of football left to play.
Big 12: Oklahoma, Baylor
Baylor’s collapse on Saturday night slammed the casket shut on their playoff chances. They were already getting barely any respect from the committee, and with them definitely dropping when the rankings come out tomorrow, I don’t see anyway they jump the amount of teams they’ll need to get into the top 4. Oklahoma has a better chance, but they’ll have to have a ton of carnage in front of them.
SEC: *LSU, Georgia, Alabama
Georgia and LSU both make it if they win out, and the Tigers could still potentially make it as a 12-1 non SEC Champ due to their resume. I think Alabama is done, unless they get a miracle from the lips of God himself.
Pac 12: Oregon, Utah
I think the Pac 12 Champ will end up making the playoff as long as they are 12-1. If Oregon wins out, they’ll be the first team in the history of college football to win nine conference games and a conference championship game in the same year.
My Top 4
1.      Ohio State
The Buckeyes are the most complete team, and they, along with Clemson, are the only teams in college football that are in the Top 5 nationally in total offense and total defense. Ohio State actually ranks 1st in yards allowed per game and points allowed per game.
2.      LSU
I’m dropping the Tigers this week because of concerns about their defense. They aren’t going to win a national title mimicking a matador on that side of the ball.
3.      Georgia
The ‘Dawgs rank second in the country in points allowed per game.
4.      Clemson
What the hell. Why not.

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