The SEC Forum at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

MDT was right about MSU's scoring, or lack thereof.  UK rolls.

I was right about a lot, unfortunately.  That stupid LSU score was almost exactly what I predicted, and played out exactly like I thought.  Everything had to go right for the offense and that's asking too much.  The defense forced ONE PUNT the entire game.  ONE.  Not that I'm surprised by it, but it's still mega-frustrating to sit through.  

What a waste from Kelly for all the fans.  I don't see any signs that Kelly is going to do anything here other than be "okay."  All of his portal pickups are busts.  The defense has gotten worse (by a lot).  The defensive coaches can't recruit and they apparently can't coach either, so his hires there are busts.  The worst waste is for Daniels himself, who still had an excellent game but got no help, and fittingly was knocked out.

Now we wait to see if he has a concussion, and if so, we get to watch us lose to a pitiful Florida team next week.  Can't wait to see the Gator offense look like the Kansas City Chiefs next weekend either way.  

Last word....if I'm not mistaken, Dallas Turner is the same kid who knocked Ewers out of the Texas game last year.  How in the world that wasn't targeting boggles my mind, but the refereeing all over the SEC is--and certainly was yesterday--beyond incompetent.  Turner launched, lowered his head, and had forcible contact to Daniels' head and neck area.  If that's not targeting I don't know what is.  The darkest part of me hopes Turner has an injury and never plays a down of football again.  Once is a bad turn of events, twice is a trend.  

I've been rooting against UGA this year because they're the current Death Star and I have no interest in seeing them win 3 NCs in a row.  However, for the SECCG, for the first time in a game not featuring us I will have a definite rooting interest, and I hope UGA drills these Gumps so hard Saban retires and every blue chip they have transfers.  

I don't think it was "dirty" or that he meant injury, but by the rules and by what's commonly called, it absolutely was targeting.  He absolutely means to get a cheap shot on the qb and he continues that kind of play because getting refs to enforce judgment call fouls on Bama requires divine intervention.  

I can recap the game for you easily.  Offense did exactly what you want them to, turned the first half deferral into first points (thanks to the ONE opening defensive stop we got) , scored in the last minute of the half and then scored again coming out of the half.  The only blemish was a missed FG and a failed 4th and 1 that I didn't love the call, but I understood it.  Daniels clearly was looking at narrower windows than he's used to and/or was having a harder time reading coverages because he reverted a bit to last year's habits of holding the ball too long.  When the camera angles allowed, I could see our guys were getting separation but not wide open....I guess that threw him.  Nevertheless, the line balled out and gave awesome protection, he used his legs when he couldn't comfortably throw it, and despite it all his passing numbers were quite good for the first half. 

Second half opened with more of the same, except by then the defense was way done stopping anything.  I can't remember which drive was which, but on the second and third drives a ball got batted at the line and it fell, of course, right into a Gump's arms.  That's a good play by the defense and not a knock on Daniels, imo.  We had a batted ball or two but they fell harmlessly where no Tigers were.  The other drive effectively ended on 2nd and 17 when Taylor dropped a ball by the sticks that hit him square in the numbers.  Bama was up by 7 at that point and I told my wife it was over, we'll punt, they'll score and be up by 14 and we can't tie them anymore as they continue to score.  That drop was absolutely brutal and I was absolutely right.  Only gained 5-6 yards on 3rd down and punted.  Kid deserved better than a tight end butterfingering his pass.  Btw, we were in 2nd and long because of stupid self-inflicted penalties.  I've rarely ever seen a center false start.  I've never seen one do it three times in a game and kill his team. 

Anyway, what I didn't count on was them knocking Daniels out of the game on the next drive to start the 4th quarter and our scoring to stop altogether.  It didn't matter except to make the final score uglier.  You have to have a stop to catch a two score lead, and that was never gonna happen.  

People can say what they want about Penix, Nix, McCarthy, etc.  Penix puts up video game numbers on a trash SC defense, Milroe put up numbers on an even worse LSU defense.  What Daniels did was against the best ranked pass defense, without much help from a traditional running game.  He's the best in the country, I said what I said.  

Somewhere in there the refs missed a horse collar tackle on Daniels, but whatever.  Game wasn't lost on bad calls, and the incompetent refs made bad calls against Bama too.  It was lost because we have--literally--no defense, and the offense couldn't be perfect against a top notch defense. 

I hate wasting an offense like this but it's probably better than having nothing to waste, which is what's coming for the foreseeable future.  Kelly/LSU isn't going to come anywhere close to Bama/UGA and until Saban/Smart are done and LSU lucks into an other-worldy coach, we're playing for "nice seasons" and not conference titles or playoff spots. 

Just wait til this weekend when Mertz gets his Heisman campaign started.  

You only need one out of launch, lower the head, forcible contact to the head or neck area.  Turner met all 3.  I'm willing to entertain an argument that he didn't lower the head enough, but the other two are indisputable. 

Doesn't matter what we think about the rule.  Under the rule it was targeting.  We've been nailed for targeting with far less egregious hits, which is one reason it sits so poorly with some fans.  You know something's up when even Danielson and Gene Steritore are calling for targeting.  Didn't think I'd ever see that.  

I failed to add Jaxon Dart earlier....Turner also knocked him out last year, along with Ewers.  He's a great player.  He's also dirty.  It is what it is.  Many great players are dirty. 

EDIT:  The videos below are supposed to be set to 4:15 for the first one and 24:00 for the second one, and even though I time-stamped them, it's not working.  Jump to those time stamps so as not to waste time watching the whole thing.  

He left his feet as he drove him to the ground.  Besides, forcible contact to the head/neck area is all that's required, particularly on a defenseless player, which a QB who has just released is considered to be. 

Not dirty?  I'll fight that all day.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YumrKCUw2Lw&t=4m15s

Sorry, when that is your history, you're dirty.  You don't repeatedly shove a QBs head in the ground like that and say it's not dirty.  Full stop.  I'm not listening to any defense of that.  And when you've taken multiple QBs out in your career, it's a a thing you do, not an "Oops, that's unfortunate, I feel bad for the guy." 

Now, if you want to take the following attitude about it, that's fair.  Nobody's calling him a bad guy, menace to society or anything like that. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCGoo9N2tUc&t=24m0s

i guess we have different definitions of dirty. i think of dirty as a play with obvious intent to injure. i don't see that in the lsu hit.

i've heard/seen the plays laid out in that video. this ewers hit wasn't dirty, but probably a penalty. bang bang split second plays happen so fast, can cause penalties but not be dirty. the face mask, again, don't see it. yes, it's gruesome, but i don't think it was done with obvious intent to injure. yes, it's clearly a penalty. yes, can cause injuries, thus the penalty. but i've done my share of facemasks when i played, and i know i wasn't intending to hurt anyone.

only video i've seen that's even vaguely dirty is the one with ole miss qb sacked and he pushes his head down into ground well after the tackle. but that's not dirty in the sense of trying to injure, more of a cheap shot of poor sportsmanship.

there are dirty players that try to injure. poking eyes in the pile, twisting knees and ankles, etc. i don't see that with turner. hard hits is not synonymous with those.

playing to the whistle and hitting as hard as you can will never be dirty to me. i won't buy it and you'll never convince me. we'll just have to agree to disagree or come up with a better word/definition that we can agree on. dirty aint it.

Okay, come up with a word you like for a player who repeatedly injures QBs and shoves their heads in the ground when no other Alabama players for years do that or injure QBs, and I'll use that word.