Bama @ South Carolina

McElroy is a good QB.  He is smart, a good decision-maker, an accurate short passer, and he protects the ball.  And with all of Bama's other talent around him, that's all they really need in a QB to win games.  In other words, they just need a QB to not screw it up, and McElroy does a good ob of that.  But you have to think his inability to stretch defenses will come back and bite them at some point.

Bama's backup QB AJ McCarron and his backup Phillip Simms (both Saban recruits) are much more of the gunslinger genre.  McCarron loves to sling it downfield, and is very proficient at doing so.

That certainly is debatable, but I would disagree. Every position they had to replace were replaced with guys of equal or better talent particularly LBers Eryk Anders (a 0* recruit) and Cory Reamer (a 1* star recriut).  Both were smart and assignment sound, but neither were considered to be legit SEC talent.

An upgrade in talent is the basis for me believing that once this defense becaomes comfortable in Saban's scheme that they will be better than last year's defense.  We are starting to see that now.  This defense is growing up before our very eyes.

I have a ton of respect for McElroy.  He is certainly is a winner.  I'm merely pointing out his inability to stretch the field in spite of having wide open receivers.  Just imagine how good Ingram and Richardson could be if McElroy could keep the back end of defenses honest?  Julio Jones would have much more goudy numbers too.

If McElroy can stretch the field this week, there is no doubt in my mind that Bama wins by DD.  But he if can't and USC is successful in taking away the run and the underneath routes, Bama could be in trouble.

Should I not be?

I was right about this being the perfect Bama fade opportunity, right about McElroy costing Bama a game, wrong about Bama's defense.  I thought this would be a much lower scoring game.  I had Bama's score about right, but missed USC's score total by 3 TDs.  Bama's defense got raped. 

I am now officially on the AJ MCCarron bandwagon!!!

If they can't stop the zone read, then they don't want to see the Huskers do they?

I don't think the fake FG was a bad call at all.  What was bad was taking a sack on 3rd and 4 which forced Bama in the situation to begin with.

McCarron had a short and deep receiving option on the play. Because they needed like 11 yards for the 1st down, McCarron should have thrown the ball to the deep option (who was open and who is a tight end) instead of the short option (who is a LBer), and who would not have picked up the first down had he caught the ball.

Fake FGs are always a great call when they work (see Les Miles), and a "terrible" call when they don't (see Nick Saban).  The fact of the matter is, with Bama trailing by 7, a FG did absolutely nothing to help Bama whatsoever.  Playing for the tie, whether by keeping the offense on the field, or attempting some sort of fake, was the right call.  It just didn't work.