alrighty.. my wounds have been sufficiently licked and my constitution restored enough to do what i must, which is to eat the crow i so eloquently prepared for myself.
i have to remind myself that i am a college football fan first. that without participation from others, there would be no team to follow. and, to make that work you gotta have some understanding of how the moving parts and pieces of the game move and what their intent is.
old timers here from way back on fox or scout or whatever prior iteration may or may not recall my often stated position that football, in an overarching explanation in search of it's essence is about one thing and one thing only- and that is playing a game within your comfort zone, and being practiced enough to play explicitly cohesive. The team that plays with cohesion wins every single time. the team that plays within their ability or defining skillset plays in their comfort zone. it's a rare thing when two teams play that are each within their range of comfort and play as a unit- we call those classic games.... and even then, one leverages, through discovery of the field generals, a weakness or mismatch that they believe can be exploited without revealing their own weakness or gap.
it's a thing that's hard to explain without examples, but i ain't here to offer those... i want this meal of crow over with. i'll just say "two great teams can meet and one will seemingly knock the crap out of the other to everyone's surprise, leaving an impression one was heads and shoulders above the other when the truth of the matter is there was only one true exploitation- one mismatch- one imbalance that the opposing teams general identified and exploited- it could be a receiver that racks up 250yds receiving and 4 touchdowns which makes it obvious- and less obvious when that receiver is shut down shortly after discovery, but at the cost of weakening another matchup somewhere. the delta on the scoreboard makes it seem as if it didn't come down to just a single matchup, but in truth it did.... that's why i like watching these games- it brings in talent laden with skill (development) and refined with practiced execution akin to a symphony, which is all on the underling coaches to withdraw from kids... and then the general and his majors scheme according to what their intel has discovered and what they see being presented real time.
well... ^that isn't at all what happened in this game^.
i truly believed 'at worst' that^ would be what was involved, and even so i figured my Vols had a fighters chance in such a condition. i 'thought' i'd spotted the weaknesses our coach would attempt to exploit, but they weren't there... at all... i thought tOSU was overrated and overhyped and taking station in the glow of their own legend, which makes them ripe for a fall. i was right about that part, but it wasn't tOSU that was ripe...
there isn't a single aspect of that game where UT looked like UT. it's because from the opening kickoff they were nowhere near their comfort zone. not one single play did i see them execute with confidence as if they were just 'going through the motions but knew how it would turn out'.... in short, they were beat by the coaches before the horn... they lined up against a team supposedly depleted, and allowed more 1st quarter yards than they have all year- they were manhandled by this 'depleted' yet inspired team. they were beat by the players talent and development. they were denied the simplest of plays that have worked all season when times were tough- even when they still had a chance- they lost all semblance of cohesion... and when that happens? it's all but impossible to regain.
after the half, all i needed to see was the first drive to know the end. coaches didn't respond. players didn't respond. tOSU found yet more fuel to burn from the fading soul of General Neyland, and laid that heat to 'em.
......... that isn't the tOSU team i've seen play this season, not that i've watched a bunch of them, but that was a team on a mission and my poor underprepared and ill-equipped fellas were the meal to feed them.
UT had that spark, last, when they beat Bama at Neyland under Hendon Hooker. ... that, by the way, was just a single mismatch on the field, though (after i said i wouldn't give examples) - there was no single mismatch in this game- there were mismatches all over the field and nary a one in UT's favor.
