Do not, EVER ease up on the gas if you have a lead on bama.

We've done it twice now and with double digit second half leads and its basically the singular reason we lost both of those games.

Has any other team have those kinds of leads on them? Not that I recall, so while I think it says we are the 2nd best program in the country over these last two yrs but that doesn't ease the pain of how we should have won at least one of those games if not both.

ARRRRGH!

So, come next season, when we play them again, and we will, kick their hind parts for 4 qtrs and not just 2 1/2.

Seeing us get up and whoop around, after making good plays in the 1st half, only to run out of gas late-hurts my eyes. I don't understand why we get tight, late against them. Are we gassed? Does it boil down to them believing that if they turn it up late, they will overcome? In 2012, we stubbornly refused to sub on the DL, and had nothing left in the tank late. They ran, at will, in big chunks late. We seem to game plan really well, against their starter, but when he gets pulled/hurt, then we have no answer for the back-up. It's dumbfounding. The lack of carries for Swift in the 2nd half confuses me. I sure hope that next year, we stick to what is working, in the 1st half. Did bama change what they were doing, to prevent us from continuing what was working early? I'm still not over it. It took until August last year, before I could get past it. Maybe I need some counseling-ha.

I think the problem with Bama is that we are used to overpowering teams and by the 4th quarter, the game is already decided. Bama is as deep and strong and conditioned as we are. Probably only 2 or 3 other schools in the country has that kind of depth and talent and S&C program. So, when they are still in it come the 4th quarter, it sorta throws us off a bit cause we're not used to it. Case in point, we looked lost against LSU in the 4th quarter. We just wasn't used to actually being behind. It's almost like we don't have a game plan for playing catch up that late in the game.
The only way we're gonna beat Bama is to not rely on our talent and conditioning...they will always be as deep and strong and conditioned as us. We need to have a game plan for finishing when we play them. Just my non-expert opinion. If we could have stopped them a couple of times and held on to our lead a little longer, it would have been in the bag. But they just did what they did in the NC game. They just keep clawing and clawing and get right back in it. We have to figure out how to handle that.