Tuesday, January 10, 2012

1/10: Tide Dominance

Greetings everyone... let's get to the lead story....
  • Alabama 21, LSU 0 - 92 total yards. 53 passing. 39 rushing. 5 first downs. Crossed midfield once in the game. Those are the totals for Alabama's defense (and LSU's offense) last night. This is the new standard for title game defense, and one of the most dominant performances in the BCS title game era (along with '01 Miami and '04 USC). At no point did it seem like LSU would scratch out points, and if Alabama's red zone offense was any better, this could've been much, much uglier on the scoreboard. Alabama's defense somehow was UNDERRATED coming into the game despite leading the country in points against, yards against, and about 10 other categories because they don't have the flashy, big-play guy like Mathieu or the signature moments, but Mark Barron, Dont'a Hightower, and company completely bottled up Jordan Jefferson and the LSU offense, while AJ McCarron played the efficient "game of his life" going 23 of 34 for 234 yards and no mistakes against that ridiculous LSU secondary. Oh, and I haven't even MENTIONED Trent Richardson in this recap, who went for 96 yards including the game-clinching TD run, but with the game plan that Bama took (which I loved), they used him as a decoy early, and he was fresh to pound on them late. Big-time props to Nick Saban and company (Kirby Smart and Jim McElwain chiefly) on their game plan here, and I thought Les Miles was dear-in-the-headlights from about the middle of the 1st quarter on. I frankly enjoyed it. Definitely an interesting way to put a bow on the college football season...

Elsewhere...

  • The Kansas City Chiefs officially name Romeo Crennel their permanent head coach. I'm generally against the "interim" guy getting the permanent job because of a late push, but Crennel has always been sort of a "hot" name, and while he got run out of Cleveland, I think it had a lot to do with their putrid talent more so than his coaching. I don't love it still, but they could've done worse (check out the Bucs coaching "hot list").
  • Brian Van Gorder is out as DC of the Falcons. In a curiously quick move, BVG is headed to Auburn to replace Ted Roof just a day or so after the Falcons were unceremoniously bounced from the playoffs by the Giants. I never had strong feelings about Van Gorder either way with the Falcons, as he was saddled with below-average talent for much of the regime, and I thought they made some small strides this year once they had some healthy youth on that side of the ball (Weatherspoon and Moore chiefly). Extremely curious to see which direction Mike Smith goes in here between a possible switch to the 3-4 or something of the sort.
  • Barry Larkin is headed to the Hall of Fame with 86.4% of the writer's vote. I'm definitely on board with this one, as Larkin has the combination of exceptional career numbers, AND the high peak years including the 1995 NL MVP award. Kind of a no-brainer. The issue I have is what happened after him in the balloting. Jack Morris had the 2nd most votes while having absolutely no business (yes, I know he threw a gem in the '91 world series, I get it) near the hall of game, and the Jeff Bagwell/Tim Raines combo was left off yet again despite being slam-dunk choices for me. Alas.
  • NBA Box Score Round-Up - Josh Smith had 26 points to lead the way for the Hawks in their 106-101 road win over New Jersey. The good? 10-14 from the field. The bad? Attempting 8 jump shots and even making 5 of them to further tell himself that he can, and somehow should, shoot those shots. Also, shout-out to Marshon Brooks who had 19 and 10 last night, and could be the rookie of the year at the moment (averaging 15 a game). And yes, you don't know who that is. Philly gets a 10-point win over Indiana last night led by 20 from Iguodala and a surprise 11/8 from Nikola Vucevic in just 17 minutes. They actually need Vucevic now that they let Speights go, and he performed for them here. Indy shot just 36% from the field including a combined 6 of 27 from Collison and George. Yikes. Since I've been hyping him daily, I'm required by law to mention that Kevin Love was pretty bad last night. 3 of 16 shooting and just 5 of 10 from the line with a -20 in their 10 point loss to Toronto. It was bound to happen once. The Knicks actually won last night against Charlotte at home (91-87) but I have grave concerns about that team. Their offense is incredibly stagnant thanks to having no guards that can get them into an offense and 2 ball-dominant forwards who don't do anything else but score, and their defense is, well, their defense. On the bright side, Tyson Chandler had his best game of the year last night with 20 and 13, and even Iman Shumpert is showing flashes. I've said it before and I'll say it again, though, they need Baron Davis to be good, or they have no shot to go anywhere in the East. Detroit scored 68 points last night including just 9 in the 4th quarter. This just in, Detroit stinks. And finally, the surprise of the night goes to New Orleans who knocks off Denver in Denver by 13. Chris Kaman and Carl Landry led the scoring with 20 and 21 respectively, and that's an impressive road win without the services of Eric Gordon. There you have it.

What to watch for on Tuesday...

  • NBA - Bulls @ T-Wolves - NBA-TV 8:00 - Really interested by this game for a number of reasons, but the Rubio/Rose matchup is at the top.
  • NBA - Suns @ Lakers - NBA-TV 10:30 - Do the Lakers ever play non-national TV games?
  • NCAAB - Louisville @ Providence - ESPN2 7:00 - The better of the 7:00 college hoops games (Georgia/Florida on ESPN, eesh), and a chance to see if Louisville can bounce back.
  • NCAAB - Ohio State @ Illinois - ESPN 9:00 - A nice road test for the gauntlet that is Ohio State. Illinois is a tourney team, and nothing comes easy on the road in the Big 10.

Enjoy it...

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