Random thoughts

[JustBlues]

I’ll start by admitting that I was wrong. I said last week that if there were snaps over the QBs head, we would be in trouble against Alabama. I just didn’t understand that with the swag effect, snaps over the head are a good thing… I just hope that it doesn’t happen again.

Speaking of that brilliantly designed play… Many people are saying that it was all luck. While luck certainly played a part in that play, don’t make the mistake of overlooking the skill and confidence that were also important contributions. First, Kelly had a huge amount of confidence in his talented receivers. I hope that he never throws the ball up like that again- I’m certain that the coaches will make it clear that he shouldn’t- he did so because he felt that his receivers could beat anyone to the ball. The real skill, however, belongs to Atta Boy Joe. While everyone else in the neighborhood loss track of the ball, Quincy never did. He showed tremendous ball awareness. His speed can’t be ignored either. Even in the middle of a heart attack, I had the presence of mind to realize once Quincy had the ball in his hands that we were going to score a touchdown because nobody was going to catch him.

Speaking of presence of mind, I believe that Kelly would have made the first down had he run the ball like he started to do. What great awareness in that situation to spot the wide open receiver while at the same time realizing where he was in relation to the line of scrimmage and making the jump pass.

Some people want to make a big deal about the ineligible receiver downfield, and there certainly was one when that pass was made. However, anyone that knows college football knows that that is a call that is very rarely made. It is interesting to note that Ole Miss did have one called against them earlier in the game. One of the most entertaining moments for me came on Alabama’s next pass play after that touchdown. The ESPN talking head had just talked about Ole Miss having an ineligible receiver on the touchdown play. Alabama lined up and threw an incomplete pass and lo and behold, they had a lineman just as far downfield as the Ole Miss lineman had been and nobody said a word about it. There are missed calls on nearly every play and the lineman downfield is one of the most common missed calls in college football. If you pick a specific play and point out that a call was missed on that play, then you can probably make a point about the officials deciding a game, but I don’t buy it. I’d say that in about 96.3214% percent of the games, if instead of cherry picking a specific play you went back and looked at all the missed calls, you would find that in the end the officials did not impact the final winner or loser. One thing that I like about football is the human element. Let’s say, hypothetically of course, that the officials miss a flagrant facemask that cause a fumble which is returned for a touchdown…. Well, not that the exact scenario I describe would ever happen, but those things do work themselves out. Actually, I am just glad that we have lineman who can drive defenders down field, even if we do get penalized for it now and then. “Five yard penalty for excessive blocking”.

Ole Miss beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

Ole Miss put up 43 points on Alabama.

I make the mistake at times of reading comments that show up after articles. I have read that Kelly was not very good in that game and I’ve also read that he was “mediocre”. I’ll take mediocre every day if it means a win, but 341 yards passing, three passing tds and a rushing td against one of the toughest defenses in the nation in a hostile environment in your very first ever SEC game doesn’t sound half bad to this old man.
I have read some of the arguments comparing QBs in other threads and I’ll say that I don’t understand why people feel the need to compare one to another. There isn’t a poster on this forum (except perhaps the trolls who appear now and then) who doesn’t love Eli. Kelly is our QB now, however, and let’s just enjoy Chad being Chad.

Kelly has a unique skill that few QBs have and I don’t think that many people recognize despite its importance. He can forget the last play. He can, of course, mentally remember the plays and learn from them. However, emotionally, he can put things behind him and not get frustrated. He can start a game horribly with balls swatted back into his face and still calmly come back out the next series and find an open receiver with 102,000 hostiles screaming at the top of their lungs. He is the quintessential unflappable QB. That is something that we very well may be very grateful for during the playoffs.

Vanderbilt is better than last year. So are we, however, and it is in Oxford. Despite being a person who worries about nearly every game, I’m not really fretting much about this one. I am already thinking ahead to the swamp. I hope, and really am certain, that the coaches and players are preparing as if Vandy is the best team ever to play the game, but my thoughts are in Florida. Florida has absolutely no offense, but their defense is very nasty. They could give us trouble and with the hostile crowd and a great defense, an upset could happen if we are not prepared.

Oh, in case I didn’t mention it, we beat Alabama… in Tuscaloosa.

[BobReb]

Sweet, isn't it?

[Titles 'R Us]

Some good random thoughts there. And not much seems to be made of the fact that the 'Bama Good Hands Team actually batted the ball forward in order to make the onsides kick work. If that had been called, it would have been a penalty and a re-kick. That TD 'Bama got would likely never have happened. Had they re-kicked and we had recovered, we would have gone on downfield to pad the score. So, if anyone complains that OM got a TD out of the lineman downfield, then 'Bama got one out of the batted onsides kick ball. Those two TD's cancel each other out, and Ole Miss still wins the game by the same margin.

[badmotorfinger]

Justblues, I agree with everything. I'd like to add a few observations. Passing yards and TDs are important stats. There isn't a stat for stepping up in the clutch. There were huge shifts in momentum and so many times in the 4th quarter I could feel the game slipping away. Kelly made plays when they were desperately needed.

I LOVE it that some bammey fans might be pouting that one TD play was controversial and another was "lucky. You know what I say? Cry me river!!! We've been on the wrong end of grossly incorrect officiating so many times.

I also love that Bama fans are crying that it's the beginning of the end of a dynasty....bla bla bla. They are so arrogant that they can't fathom the fact that the talent of our coaches and players has caught up to their level.