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Going about how I thought through one. Our defense cannot go base against their line and have any hope to stop their rush offense...and it shows. 108 yards in 1 quarter is 2017 Navy level bad, and Bama is an even better passing team than rushing team.

Congrats to you guys for a fantastic season, for making the playoffs, and getting into the B12.

Mad drunk, just left the NYC watch party at Phebe's in Manhattan.

Denbrock and Tressel both can suck a fat one. Both called a piss poor play-not-to-lose game as they have for 75% of the season and deserve to land in the MAC after we move on from em.

My $0.02:

I thought Ridder played pretty well.

His passes were accurate. None of the inaccuracy problems he has had throughout his career. He had 4 balls knocked down and 4-5 drops by the WRs that were in their hands. He was 17 of 32 with those; if half of those had broke the other way then he woulda had a stellar stat line.

Pierce looked awful. I truly think that if we had the Pierce from the ND game instead of the Pierce we saw yesterday, this game would have been a nailbiter.

Van Fossen looked like a beast on defense. Glad to have him around next year.

Observations on the Gameday Experience:

The Cotton Bowl was incredible. Jerry World lived up to its reputation. It's the first stadium I've been at that was actually louder than Nippert. It was so loud that I couldn't even hear Alabama's band most of the time.

The team stayed at a fantastic convention hotel. The Gaylord Texan is a lot like Opryland (apparently operated by the same company?). Pulling up in my cab, I saw the Bearcat and a few cheerleaders giving an interview to a TV reporter. Wandering through their Christmas wonderland, occasionally you'd pass a random UC Cheerleader or dance team member in uniform taking it all in. Lots of student-aged UC fans wandering around there too, I'm guessing many of them were band members or support staff (because that hotel is way too expensive for any self-respecting student who is paying their own way on a budget).

We went to Texas Live for the pregame. Party atmosphere like none other. Those Texans like their huge TVs. We saw Tony Pike in there, too.

UC fans showed up, big-time. Saw very few Alabama fans at pregame activities, and our modestly-priced hotel was super-majority UC fans. The Alabama fans we met were nice.

I honestly wondered where they all were ahead of time, because there were plenty Alabama fans at the game itself. And it was a different crowd - a lot of them in the game had shirts about being jealous of Bama, or "you got bammered." 2nd-grade type of taunts. And way too many fat junior high boys overflowing with unearned confidence.

During one of the commercial breaks, they showed Patrick Mahomes on the huge TV, sitting in a luxury box. Then Travis Kelce elbowed him out of the way and claimed the camera, flashing "U" and "C" before pulling back an arrow (KC Chiefs, I assume?). He seemed to be having a blast just like the rest of us.

For those of you who watched at home, which crowd seemed larger?

It kind of looked like we had the bigger crowd. You could definitely tell the UC crowd was there because every good play you could hear them. Much loader than Alabama the whole game.

(01-01-2022 08:15 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  Observations on the Gameday Experience:

The Cotton Bowl was incredible. Jerry World lived up to its reputation. It's the first stadium I've been at that was actually louder than Nippert. It was so loud that I couldn't even hear Alabama's band most of the time.

The team stayed at a fantastic convention hotel. The Gaylord Texan is a lot like Opryland (apparently operated by the same company?). Pulling up in my cab, I saw the Bearcat and a few cheerleaders giving an interview to a TV reporter. Wandering through their Christmas wonderland, occasionally you'd pass a random UC Cheerleader or dance team member in uniform taking it all in. Lots of student-aged UC fans wandering around there too, I'm guessing many of them were band members or support staff (because that hotel is way too expensive for any self-respecting student who is paying their own way on a budget).

We went to Texas Live for the pregame. Party atmosphere like none other. Those Texans like their huge TVs. We saw Tony Pike in there, too.

UC fans showed up, big-time. Saw very few Alabama fans at pregame activities, and our modestly-priced hotel was super-majority UC fans. The Alabama fans we met were nice.

I honestly wondered where they all were ahead of time, because there were plenty Alabama fans at the game itself. And it was a different crowd - a lot of them in the game had shirts about being jealous of Bama, or "you got bammered." 2nd-grade type of taunts. And way too many fat junior high boys overflowing with unearned confidence.

During one of the commercial breaks, they showed Patrick Mahomes on the huge TV, sitting in a luxury box. Then Travis Kelce elbowed him out of the way and claimed the camera, flashing "U" and "C" before pulling back an arrow (KC Chiefs, I assume?). He seemed to be having a blast just like the rest of us.

For those of you who watched at home, which crowd seemed larger?

Thanks for the Dallas description. Us nerds love these types of details.

It was remarkable in general how healthy this team remained all year. Malik Vann's production seemed to be down this year ; probably mostly from injuries and maybe less playing time.

Don't think we had anybody out due to covid against Bama. Every team including Alabama has injuries but just my opinion in a perfect scenario with everyone healthy
I think last year's team was better than this year's team especially on defense. We played great red zone defense this year and came up with many timely turnovers. But in general we did not get off the field with three and outs as often as last year with White, Wiggins and Forrest. Offensively with Hudson I think we definitely would have matched up better.

Points of optimism for next year with be a returning more experienced offensive line. They had a rough time Friday but hopefully it drives them to be a more dominate force next year. We will get a early feel on that in our first game at Arkansas. Also hopefully we will have a dependable placekicking unit that might average at least 3 to 6 more points per game.

(01-02-2022 11:39 AM)cincybb51 Wrote:  I think last year's team was better than this year's team especially on defense.

Completely agree. I wouldn't be surprised if this years d was statistically better, but something just felt a bit off with them. Do you think it had more to do with personnel? Or because we lost Freeman?

(01-02-2022 12:53 PM)Lurkercat Wrote:  

(01-02-2022 11:39 AM)cincybb51 Wrote:  I think last year's team was better than this year's team especially on defense.

Completely agree. I wouldn't be surprised if this years d was statistically better, but something just felt a bit off with them. Do you think it had more to do with personnel? Or because we lost Freeman?

In my opinion it was personal; White especially was great at making plays to get the defense off the field. We were more agressive at making big plays and less bend but not break as we were this year.

(01-02-2022 01:06 PM)cincybb51 Wrote:  

(01-02-2022 12:53 PM)Lurkercat Wrote:  

(01-02-2022 11:39 AM)cincybb51 Wrote:  I think last year's team was better than this year's team especially on defense.

Completely agree. I wouldn't be surprised if this years d was statistically better, but something just felt a bit off with them. Do you think it had more to do with personnel? Or because we lost Freeman?

In my opinion it was personal; White especially was great at making plays to get the defense off the field. We were more agressive at making big plays and less bend but not break as we were this year.

The switch to only 3 DL was a terrible decision and pretty boggling when you think of how good our secondary was. It made no sense to let yourself get run over when you have two of the top DBs in the game.

(01-02-2022 01:17 PM)Sweetness Wrote:  

(01-02-2022 01:06 PM)cincybb51 Wrote:  

(01-02-2022 12:53 PM)Lurkercat Wrote:  

(01-02-2022 11:39 AM)cincybb51 Wrote:  I think last year's team was better than this year's team especially on defense.

Completely agree. I wouldn't be surprised if this years d was statistically better, but something just felt a bit off with them. Do you think it had more to do with personnel? Or because we lost Freeman?

In my opinion it was personal; White especially was great at making plays to get the defense off the field. We were more agressive at making big plays and less bend but not break as we were this year.

The switch to only 3 DL was a terrible decision and pretty boggling when you think of how good our secondary was. It made no sense to let yourself get run over when you have two of the top DBs in the game.

Our corners were excellent. But as a whole our DBs we're our best position group. Do you think it was more about putting our best players on the field? If you go to a 4 man front then one of the DBs needs to go. Idk just spitballing as to why they stick with it

(01-02-2022 01:24 PM)Lurkercat Wrote:  

(01-02-2022 01:17 PM)Sweetness Wrote:  

(01-02-2022 01:06 PM)cincybb51 Wrote:  

(01-02-2022 12:53 PM)Lurkercat Wrote:  

(01-02-2022 11:39 AM)cincybb51 Wrote:  I think last year's team was better than this year's team especially on defense.

Completely agree. I wouldn't be surprised if this years d was statistically better, but something just felt a bit off with them. Do you think it had more to do with personnel? Or because we lost Freeman?

In my opinion it was personal; White especially was great at making plays to get the defense off the field. We were more agressive at making big plays and less bend but not break as we were this year.

The switch to only 3 DL was a terrible decision and pretty boggling when you think of how good our secondary was. It made no sense to let yourself get run over when you have two of the top DBs in the game.

Our corners were excellent. But as a whole our DBs we're our best position group. Do you think it was more about putting our best players on the field? If you go to a 4 man front then one of the DBs needs to go. Idk just spitballing as to why they stick with it

This absolutely was a reason for it. They could have gone 4-2-5, but I think our staff thought we could confuse the line and pressure better from 3-3-5 than 4-2-5 (and we were really successful with our pressures against Bama). I just think it was a clear calculation...give up some yards in the run game but prevent the big play and give your team a shot for some big plays when they throw...trust your defense to get off the field eventually if you're making them work. And after the first drive until about 5 minutes into the 4th quarter it worked pretty damn well. We were only down 17-6. This game was far more on the offense than the defense or defensive strategy.

There is a lot of good analysis in this thread but at the end of the day as Rath says; "It's not the X's and the O's but the Jimmys and the Joes."

I think scheming and a few breaks would have made the overall spread closer and perhaps we could have even won, but Saban had 2 weeks to prepare and knew that the way to beat us was no huddle (zero substitutions to wear out and beat down the Bearcat DL) and not play into our strength (the secondary).

Watched the game on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.

Got stopped all week in my UC polo shirts by anyone from Ohio saying Go Cats. As the game got closer, started getting SEC fans and other stopping me to plead that we beat Alabama. We had UC outnumbering Alabama fans at the cruise ship watch [arty by 5 or 10 to 1.

Interestingly, watched the Rose Bowl later. About 1/3 Ohio State fans, 1/3 Utah fans and 1/3 quiet neutral fans. During the game the OSU fans cursed out their own players every time they gave up a big play on defense or failed to make one on offense. By the end of the game all the neutral fans had turned on OSU, and did so loudly. Those Ohio State fans just turned everyone else off.

(01-03-2022 03:14 PM)Crewdogz Wrote:  There is a lot of good analysis in this thread but at the end of the day as Rath says; "It's not the X's and the O's but the Jimmys and the Joes."

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky" - Michael Scott

(01-03-2022 03:14 PM)Crewdogz Wrote:  There is a lot of good analysis in this thread but at the end of the day as Rath says; "It's not the X's and the O's but the Jimmys and the Joes."

I think scheming and a few breaks would have made the overall spread closer and perhaps we could have even won, but Saban had 2 weeks to prepare and knew that the way to beat us was no huddle (zero substitutions to wear out and beat down the Bearcat DL) and not play into our strength (the secondary).

Whether this is coach speak or truly what he believes, I do appreciate him saying those words about this team. About the only positive remarks we got after that game.