Alabama

Welcome to the season huh?

Before I dive into the overhyped battle that almost delivered, let's start on the house that the Falcons built. Talk about overhyped. Many of you look forward to new restaurants, touring battle sites or dressing up in tights, painting yourself green with scales and garnished with an orange sword (it was Dragon-Con in the ATL this weekend and zowie the freaks are real); but I look forward to Stadiums. This one had me on the edge of giddy. They are destroying a perfectly functional 25 year old building in favor of this monster. Yes, it is gorgeous from the outside and the camera closing roof seems amazing. So entering when the doors opened was a must Saturday night for this sports geek.

Ten minutes into the first event ever with about 5% of the audience in the building, the concourses were impassable. It was salmon chaos. Escaping to the little boys room, the floor looked like my fraternity house hopper at 3 am. Did they forget to clean before getting the certificate of occupancy? They may have incredibly cheap concessions, but only if you risk going back to the war zone to get to them. Our seats were in the end zone, which was a blessing because like their rivals domicile in New Orleans, a sideline seat only insures that the ants marching below you are only to be seen on the massive screens above you. Speaking of these halo screens, the folks at Chick Fil-A decided that it was imminently more important that their logo be on the screen at all times rather than..say...down & distance, scores or statistics. And this is coming a dude that deals in sports logo prostitution for a living...The first time we were blessed with team statistics was at the end of the 3rd quarter. Out of town scores were shown so fast that Evelyn Wood was flummoxed (old person joke). Maybe if we had come out of the building victorious, I may have been ok with the 73 ramps down to the exit only to arrive at Times Square on New Years and feel like Nancy Pelosi at an NRA party without champagne or an Uzi. Just endless people trying to go anywhere but there. There might be big events in this building with an oblong ball again soon...hope they figure it out.

Believe it or not, I was absolutely happy with what I saw last night until #12 went down, probably never to get up again in 2017. There was no appreciable talent difference between these two shades of red last night. Our offense moved the ball effectively at times, and our defense owned the line of scrimmage, it was only when the kickers walked out onto the turf that we spit up on ourselves like a toddler when you mix beets and Cheerios for the first time. We had 3 outright turnovers, and they had none. You lose those games, but conceding that we did not belong...not quite. This was a team built to be dominant, and was delivering. Now, the leader of the band will be a true freshman. Not even Jameis had that kind of pressure. Yikes.

Back to the good news. Our offensive line not only held up, but was downright impressive at times. Eberle, without two broken hips, was the best of the bunch. Pass protection was outstanding, and when we got Cam in there, the running game had a little spark. One from deep in our own end was a 85 yard home run last year, but Jacques is not Dalvin and it went for 9 as he clumsily crashed into a blocker. As soon as Jimbo has faith in the freshman as a pass protector, Patrick may be relegated to short yardage again. Minshew had a few misses in the second half, but this was an encouraging effort from the fat boys. Blackman also has a myriad of large human options to toss the rock to. Auden Tate proved again that any ball in his area code is simply his. Not yours...his. If the officials did not have a steak and lobster feast awaiting them in the locker room at halftime, they might have noticed the Bama defender attempting to get his helmet under Noonies jersey and his arms reaching around him like a death row inmate welcoming his last conjugal. But alas, dinner called, and the game turned. Keith Gavin, although he showed on special teams that he does not spend his off days swapping astrophysics tips with Stephan Hawking, was another physical option in the passing game. Ryan Izzo is a hurried QB's best friend, and Cam looked he could be just as dynamic as the kid who just left out of the backfield.

There is hope, if some how, some way, this young kid behind center can survive his head coach and the doctoral level offense he has to interpret after 3 weeks on campus. Last night, when the opponent in the second half switched to an umbrella zone and just baited Francois to throw with his head, and not his arm, our "seasoned"QB could not see the change in front of him.  The result was two picks, the ballgame, momentum, and incessant shakers taking over the facility. There is going to be some tough love between Young Mr. Blackman and Jimbo in the month of September...

If only Derwin had hung onto that tipped ball and sprinted to the Marching Chiefs. Damn. The only other break we got all night was a 9 yard punt, and a truly crappy opposing placekicker. But, the defense is 2013 good. Christmas and Nnadi were a wall of nasty, and what will happen if Matthew Thomas actually practices? This was probably the only matchup all year that did not work for Brian Burns. He will be a factor here on out, and with Sweat killing it on the other side, mercy are they good. Our much maligned DC had two brain farts, one of which cost us a TD, and the other a FG. Both instances, he inserted a true freshman DB and Bama attacked immediately. Calvin Ridley ran by Stanford Samuels III like a sprinter racing past me in my prime (side note, my "prime" included a recorded 5.5 forty). Hey coach, maybe the directional school from Louisiana next week is a better time to get these kids some experience. Other than that, crazy good D. McFadden has added physicality to his game, and the other DB's all are confident and feeding off of Derwin's swagger. They better be all that every week if we are going to run the gamut. The hill got ridiculously steeper all of a sudden.

Saban commented post game that they noticed some protection issues in our kicking game and took advantage. You think? Sherman noticed some kindling on the ground when he wandered through Georgia, and he took advantage as well. Jay Graham must have had a lovely rest last night. What is it like to be in charge of the unit that so obviously cost us the game, that I heard kindergarteners leaving the stadium last night asking why the Noles kept getting their kicks "pushed backwards". Yeah, me too kid. And when you are playing Northern Colorado, go ahead and try to take that kickoff out of the end zone. Against a team with nothing but frustrated 5 star backups flying at you; take a knee young man.

So, it is a new season again. Three weeks of tailgating in the shadows of Doak, and not having clueless folks with crimson and white pons in your face. Let's start over. In a better stadium...