Alabama lost its once in a generation quarterback to a season-ending freak hip injury. Auburn blew multiple opportunities late to end any long shot dream of sneaking into the College Football Playoff.
Suffice to say: It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day of football for the state of Alabama.
Alabama won Saturday, 38-7 over Mississippi State, but it all felt for naught once Tagovailoa crumpled to the ground in the first half and had to leave the game on a cart. Alabama later announced its star quarterback will miss the remainder of the season with a dislocated hip injury. It’s a brutal break for a player who had given his all trying to guide the Crimson Tide to another national championship before he left for the NFL. No one deserves to go out like that, especially not a player who has shone so brightly on the biggest stage possible. The game of college football is worse off without Tagovailoa in it.
It feels callous to immediately transition to what Tagovailoa’s injury means for the rest of the Alabama season, but it’s a question that will be asked non-stop over the next few weeks. Tagovailoa was the one who made Alabama’s offense go, the crafty conductor who perfectly orchestrated the Tide’s trove of talented weapons like Najee Harris, Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs. In the short term, it means backup quarterback Mac Jones will have to be the guy against Western Carolina, Auburn and whichever opponent the Crimson Tide faces in the postseason. Jones showed he can be competent running the offense in a win against Arkansas in Week 9, but no one can replace all Tagovailoa brought to the table.
Where Alabama travels in December is to be determined, but after a brutal Saturday, it increasingly feels like the Tide will miss the CFP for the first time and instead head to a New Year’s Six bowl like the Sugar Bowl. A lot was already going to have to break Alabama’s way for it to sneak into the playoff after the LSU loss. Instead, Alabama lost its best player and watched most of its top competition for the CFP -- Georgia, Oklahoma, Utah and Oregon -- win on Saturday. Baylor and Minnesota losing, which narrowed the list of Power 5 unbeaten teams to three, was a positive development, but the path to getting into the CFP got more complicated. Even if CBS analyst Gary Danielson already stumped for Alabama to make the playoff if it beats Auburn without Tagovailoa.
The Iron Bowl lost considerable luster Saturday night when Auburn couldn’t find a way to knock out Georgia. Gus Malzahn’s offense again started out slow and predictable, struggling to get anything going for the first three quarters against the Bulldogs. Auburn had a furious fourth-quarter rally to put Georgia on the ropes and give fans hope that a strong finish to the season was still possible. But for as many good plays freshman quarterback Bo Nix delivered late in the game, he couldn’t capitalize on a wide-open look to Harold Joiner on a 4th-and-2 on Georgia’s 34-yard line that easily would have nabbed the first down with 2:24 left in the game. Auburn’s defense quickly forced a 3-and-out to give Nix another chance to tie the game but three straight incompletions and a sack ended the Tigers’ hopes.
It was yet another blown chance at a marquee win in a season that will be best remembered for Auburn’s offense letting down its defense time after time when it mattered most. That Auburn couldn’t manage to escape with a single win in games against Florida, LSU and Georgia will leave a bad taste with Tigers fans for a long time. Alabama fans may be just as disappointed given Auburn represents the Tide’s best shot at a quality win and a victory over a four-loss team isn’t much to crow about.
The loss dropped Auburn to 7-3 with the Iron Bowl and Malzahn to Arkansas rumors looming. Malzahn has already reiterated how much he likes being at Auburn, but another loss to a top rival guarantees the Arkansas rumors aren’t going anywhere until and unless the Razorbacks announce someone else as their new coach. A loss to a Tua-less Tide in two weeks could prompt a sizable portion of the Auburn fanbase to encourage him to return to his Arkansas roots.
In a span of a few hours, Alabama and Auburn suffered devastating losses in what will go down as one of the worst Saturdays in recent memory for a state that, for the last decade, has been accustomed to almost everything going its way on the football field.
The area that could doom LSU
LSU beat a conference rival by 21 points, and yet, the Tigers looked vulnerable in a critical area. LSU tallied a whopping 58 points against Ole Miss, but the number that will keep Ed Orgeron up at night is 614.
That’s how many offensive yards a 4-7 Rebels team racked up against the unbeaten Tigers. True freshman quarterback John Rhys Plumlee went off for 212 rushing yards and four touchdowns in a game that showcased the biggest deficiency LSU will need to figure out if it wants to win it all. LSU gave up four second-half touchdowns to a Rich Rodriguez offense that wasn’t trying to fool anyone with what it wanted to do.
“Our object was to win the game, and we won it by 21 points,” Orgeron told reporters after the game. “But obviously when you don’t play well on defense at LSU, nobody is feeling good.”
It was the second consecutive bad second-half defensive performance after LSU gave up 28 points to Alabama as the Tide came roaring back from a 33-13 halftime deficit. It was understandable that Alabama with all its offensive firepower could give LSU a game in the second half. It’s more concerning that Ole Miss could basically do whatever it wanted late in the game.
Offensive struggles plagued LSU over the last decade and frequently limited what the Tigers could accomplish at the highest levels. In 2019, LSU finally has the offense to win it all but could be undone by a defense that pales in comparison to the ones that roamed Tiger Stadium for the majority of the Les Miles era. There is still time for Orgeron and Dave Aranda, the nation’s best paid defensive coordinator, to figure it out but changes will have to be made if LSU is going fair favorably against teams like Ohio State and Clemson.
Most pumped fanbase: Oklahoma
This slot was initially reserved for Baylor. Up 31-10 in the second half, Baylor was well on its way to its best win of the season and a guaranteed big bump in the next CFP rankings. Instead, Oklahoma scored 24 unanswered second-half points to preserve its CFP hopes and put it in the driver’s seat to emerge as the Big 12’s best playoff option. Oklahoma didn’t look great and still has work to do, including likely having to beat Baylor again, but the Sooners won and that’s all that mattered Saturday night.
Most panicked fanbase: Stanford
Stanford started the season ranked in the Top 25 but that clearly was based off the past and not the current reality in Palo Alto. Stanford’s 49-22 blowout loss to Washington State dropped the Cardinal to 4-6 on the season with a bowl game looking unlikely with upcoming games against Cal and Notre Dame. It’s quite the fall from the early years of the David Shaw era where at its peak Stanford finished as the No. 3 team in the country. Now, Stanford is a bad Pac-12 team that has talent issues and can no longer be reliably expected to be a conference contender.
Hot Seat Watch:
1) Mark Dantonio, Michigan State
The long-time Michigan State coach has made multiple appearances on the Hot Seat Watch, and Saturday solidified that will be the case for the remainder of the season. Dantonio’s Spartans turned in a listless 44-10 blowout loss to rival Michigan in a game that should force university leaders to take decisive action at the end of the season.
2) Derek Mason, Vanderbilt
The Derek Mason era in Vanderbilt feels like it is on its last legs after Kentucky blew out the Commodores, 38-14. Vanderbilt dropped to 2-8 on the season and its big win over a then-top 25 Missouri doesn’t look as impressive now that the Tigers are 5-5. As this column has noted in the past, the timing to make a move makes sense with a first-year athletic director at the helm.
3) Charlie Strong, South Florida
A loss to Cincinnati Saturday all but guarantees South Florida won’t be bowling this year. The Bulls have now lost three of their last four games to drop to 4-6 and it doesn’t seem likely USF will beat Memphis or UCF to close the season. Strong inherited a great situation and started strong with a 10-2 record in Year 1 but has regressed each year since. Strong could survive for another season but the program is trending in the wrong direction.
John Talty is the SEC Insider for Alabama Media Group. You can follow him on Twitter @JTalty.
https://www.al.com/alabamafootball/2019/11/disastrous-football-saturday-rocks-state-of-alabama.html
2019-11-17 12:45:00Z
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