Ryan Fowler’s Good, Bad & Ugly from LSU Win

Ryan’s Reaction

Every Monday, Nick Saban spends part of the afternoon showing his players the good plays, bad plays, and ugly plays from the previous Saturday.

The good section highlights what the team did well in the game; individual plays, series of plays, moments of the game that went good for the Crimson Tide.

The bad section focuses on plays that were run incorrectly, maybe a play designed to pick up more yardage but failed. It might include simple mistakes, a turnover or just a simple missed block or tackle.

The ugly section could also be led the disaster section, plays that went completely wrong or injuries. Ugly plays are learning moments for the team. Part of discussing the bad and ugly plays includes thinking through what they could have done differently.

Alabama vs. LSU

Good

There is plenty of good to discuss with Alabama’s impressive victory over the LSU Tigers. Let’s start by saying that Tommy Reese called the best game since arriving in Tuscaloosa, balanced attack that kept a defense guessing for most of the evening. Jalen Milroe took the gameplan and set a Crimson Tide record with 4 rushing touchdowns, but it was the balanced attack that kept the Tigers guessing. Milroe took what the defense was giving which is what every great quarterback in the Nick Saban era has done in the last 17 years. Alabama is a better team when Milroe uses his speed to make opposing defenses pay, plus his mobility opens up the offense to a different level. If the Crimson Tide offense can play the way they have done in the last 6 quarters, they will have a chance to add to the trophy cabinet in several ways.

The Crimson Tide’s defense in the 2nd half was once again dominating, I am not sure what was said at halftime. However, the adjustments were made and other than the opening drive to start the 3rd quarter, the Tide shutdown the top ranked offense in the 2nd half. Throughout the season, Alabama’s best quarter of play has been the 3rd quarter, outscoring their opponents 93-31 in the 3rd quarter. Kevin Steele deserves some recognition for the top assistant coach of the year (Broyles Award) and hopefully the folks in Arkansas are playing close attention to his performance.

Nick Saban passed Vince Dooley for 2nd all-time in the SEC for league wins at one school, next up is Coach Bryant. Saban also improved to 22-2 when avenging a loss from the previous season. Credit the Alabama fans once again for creating a hostile environment for Tigers and no doubt created some communication issues and added to penalty yards for LSU. Saban is now 13-5 vs. LSU Tigers during his time in Tuscaloosa.

Saturday morning, I was featured on National Radio and I said that I thought Alabama’s best football would be played during this month. Throughout the Saban tenure, November has been good to the Crimson Tide and this is now setting up to be another productive month.

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Bad

At times in the 1st half, the defense had some issues especially late in the 2nd quarter, but you are not going to completely shut down the top offense in college football. LSU picked up 210 yards and 2 touchdowns in the 2nd quarter and going into the halftime break the Tigers had the momentum. Hopefully the injuries to Lawson and Key will be short lived or these could add to the bad section. Saban will hopefully have some positive news during his Monday press conference.

Ugly

Football is a contact sport, and I will be the first to admit that targeting is not called consistently and to be honest most of the time I cannot decide what is targeting and what is not targeting during a game. The college football world went hard after Dallas Turner after his hit on Jayden Daniels in the 4th quarter, many adjectives were thrown at Turner after the hit. A quick search on social networks will help identify those who labeled Turner incorrectly, he is not a dirty player or any of the other adjectives that were thrown his way. The SEC office had plenty of time to review the call and they got it right. I have had made my share of being on the wrong side of opinions during a game, but many of these comments were below the belt.

Coming up Monday on The Game with Ryan Fowler on Tide 100.9, we will discuss the good, bad, and ugly. You will also have a chance to win prizes from Daniel Moore Art, starting at 2 p.m. CT.

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