Every productive thing I did today was about work and class. And since I don’t want to bog you down with those details today, because you’ve had your own already, I’ll just share the leftover things that haven’t made it here this week.
I forgot to link to my football scribblings again this week. My friends at The War Eagle Reader made a post out of my tweets from the Arkansas game, similar to what you saw here on Saturday.
And then on Monday half of my Q&A ran on al.com:
Alabama question 1: … What can the Tide show against Tennessee to put restless fans at ease heading into a bye week?
As for Tennessee, that breaks one of two ways and Alabama can’t win it psychologically either way. Option one: Alabama dominates and we all realize, “Oh, UT is the worst team in the world since San Jose State. This proves nothing.” Option two: Alabama and Tennessee find themselves in the traditional knife fight-rivalry model and we say “Oh, they can’t even separate from a terrible Tennessee, who might need an overtime against San Jose State.”
Sometimes the third Saturday in October comes along at exactly the wrong time.
Especially since this game is played on the fourth Saturday. No one got this joke. Subtle humor was lost on this crowd. Today they ran the second half:
(S)haky as the defense is, there isn’t another team on the schedule where Auburn is going to have to score 50 to guarantee a win. This is the logical conclusion of what I was wondering aloud late in the fourth quarter at Jordan-Hare: Has there ever been a game when you could score 50 and STILL lose to Auburn? This has never happened in any modern context.
The Arkansas game, odd as it sounds considering they gave up 43 (and 330 yards and four scores to the number two quarterback), is thus far the most complete game of the season. It wasn’t complete, but the most complete so far. Blocked punt results in a touchdown. Two big kickoff returns, including a 99-yarder, turn into scores. The kicking game was solid. The offense was terrifying. The defense ultimately sealed the deal with turnovers. It’d be nice to see that for four quarters, but you have to think of that as an unexpected surprise if it ever does appear. And since that isn’t going to happen with any kind of regularity you have to readjust to the new reality: The Arkansas game is the new complete when you dress it up in orange and blue.
The formulation is simple. If Auburn scores points — and you’ve never, even in 2004, been so confident of Auburn’s ability to produce on any given drive — they win games. I’ll take Auburn over LSU, but with the caveat that it can’t be a one score game late, because there is one-sixteenth of Les Miles’ soul that he can sell for another bizarre finish.
Meanwhile, LSU’s Les Miles is thinking of invisible players to try to stop Auburn’s Cameron Newton. I wrote about that very thing three weeks ago. Nice to know coaches are reading your scribblings.
I added a new page to the War Eagle Moments blog. That one came from friends in Washington D.C. this weekend. Since it is football season and some of you are the Auburn traffic I get this time of year, feel free to check out that photo blog which exists simply to brighten your day.
This evening I visited Walmart. The entire trip, to a slowly remodeling, but working store, was to look for a picture frame. They did not have one I liked. But, at this price, I took two of everything on the shelf:
Finally, the update from yesterday’s Alaska journalism story. No charges for anyone.
And, apropos of nothing, this story features an Alabama lawmaker who was smart enough to physically threaten a television reporter while his camera was running.
Just makes you proud.
