https://twitter.com/i/status/1046102870863618049 Jimbo Fisher grabs facemask. Still employed at Texas A & M.
I am sure this happens in practice. Regarding Tennessee, it was an over the top dressing down. I couldn't tell what play was called. The left guard pulls and smacks the defensive end as if he knew just where he was going. The right guard starts to pull left but then runs up the backside of the center. The QB tries going through the hole vacated by the left guard which is filled with Alabama players. It was a screwed up play. I have never seen line play like that with a sneak.
I watched Pruitt's postgame comments on YouTube. He said he called a sneak, and that the QB shouldn't have tried jumping over the top, should have pushed it over the middle. I don't know what that means. He has no clue what he is talking about. Maybe the right guard is supposed to push the QB forward? I don't know. He hasn't a clue what his offensive line is doing, or what his QB was left with when the left guard vacated the premises.
Fast forward to 1:20 for the doomed play:
http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=27883344
Here's the caption to that ESPN clip:
"With Tua Tagovailoa exiting the game due to injury, the No. 1 Alabama offense steps up and continues to dominate as the Tide handily beat Tennessee 35-13 at home."That seems odd. First of all, 35-13 does not scream "offensive domination." If Oklahoma beat Kansas 35-13, everyone would be asking what happened to the offense. As a matter of fact, OU beat Kansas 45-20 and it was seen as a disappointing offensive performance that put a serious dent in Jalen Hurts' Heisman chances.
Second, Bama's 4th TD came after they were held 3-and-out for their 3rd consecutive possession of the 2nd half, except that one of the Tennessee D-linemen was called for a personal foul because he pushed off the Bama QB in getting up. That was a ticky-tack call at best. That let Bama's possession continue, ending in a TD.
Third, Bama's 5th TD was a
defensive score, the 100+ yard runback of the Vol QB's fumble into the end zone.
So Bama's supposedly dominant offense scored 21 non-controversial points, plus a penalty-aided touchdown.
I'm not making the case that Tennessee woulda/coulda/shoulda won except for official malfeasance and the fumble into the end zone, and I of course know that Tua left the game injured, which affected what Bama could do on offense, but I
am taking exception to ESPN hyping Bama's offensive performance as dominant one.
For most of the better P5 teams, a 35-13 win over a bad team, with one score coming from the defense, would have been a "workmanlike" offensive performance.
