Thoughts on the game (Somewhat long.)

Last night was a heartbreaker as we find ourselves here again on an early November morning recovering from another Crimson Tide beatdown. I didn't play football. I'm just a layman offering his thoughts on the game last night.

I said we would lose by at least 21, mainly because of the offense. I didn't see how our offense could compete with their defense.

Your eyes weren't fooling you when y'all were griping about our offense in the SLU, LaTech, and Florida games. Burrow repeatedly got killed by the Gators. The line could not block, especially from the blind side. While your eyes saw this take place during the season, guess who else saw it? Saban.

The truth is, the OL probably has decent ratings when looking at their recruiting stars, but come on, pumpers, they are not Whitworth and Wilkerson or even Niswager. They are who they are. They simply can't block elite SEC defensive lines and aren't the caliber of LSU linemen we have enjoyed in better years. Unfortunately, everything in football starts at the line. Its kind of hard to do when we are rather thin on legitimate tackles. That will take anther year or two to correct.

What was really embarrassing last night was watching Bama's linemen repeatedly throw off double teams. It was like watching the old 2 on 1 matches in professional wrestling where some giant would throw off two scrubs and beat their asses. We can only scheme so much when the defensive line is living in the backfield. We can do certain things to offset that problem but the inability to block makes the job that much harder. Chip Kelly had a real nice spread offense when he faced Auburn. Moved up and down the field pretty good. Then he would get in the red zone and have to block or run to kill time. Suddenly that cute spread hurt.

We also don't have any real playmakers on offense. Think about it. Forget Fournette, he was a freak. Do we have any rb's in the caliber of Addai, Guice, Hill, or even Toefield and Davis? Brousette is a decent back but he is not a gamebreaker. There are no Doucets or Bowes among our receivers. Hell, there is not even a Chark among them. Jefferson is coming along rather nicely but our receivers for the most part are not getting separation and all too often have dropped balls placed in their hands. They will get better but they are not there yet. As I said, there are no big time guys such as Doucet in our current crop. Truth is, we really don't have great skill players this year. Whether it is because of talent or coaching remains to be seen and of course, they can improve and will probably do so.

Then there is recruiting. Here is what we are facing. Saban had to perform a turnaround at LSU. His first real top class was the one that had Clayton, Spears, and others. Then the Jamarcaus's and others started to roll in in future classes. Saban recruited so well his last two years that the 05 and 06 teams were loaded at all positions - just like you saw on the Bama team last night. Does any sober person this morning think even with Aranda here, this current team could beat those two LSU teams? Well, that is what we were facing last night. A team stuffed with four and five stars.

We can develop two stars and three stars. We can coach them up. However, if the other coach is developing his five stars properly as well, the gap still remains.

The fact is, Miles got some great "ratings" for his recruiting classes during his last few years but few of those were linemen. We all griped last year about how weak the lines were. You don't get those players overnight. You can recruit them but it still takes another year or to to put size on them, much less develop their technique and get them experience. The Advocate even ran a big story last year on how bad your lines were and why. You guys praised the story.

Well, give O some time. He knows how to recruit. His recruiting resume doesn't lie. He knows what he is looking at and knows what he needs to go get. If he stays true to his history, he will get the linemen we need, it will just take time.

Oh well, it's another day and we can still have a great year. Going 10-2 and getting a great bowl will help us when it comes to winning the big battle in February.