Conspiracy! Was the Tulane game a designed "let down?"

[REBELZED]

As most people have noticed, we very obviously went with a different game plan this game. We got away from the smashmouth run-it-right-at-you offense that worked so well against Clemson and started throwing a lot more. Combine that with CNS's post game conference after Clemson and how he adamantly reminded us that it was "just one game" and tried to remind us to keep our expectations in check, it seems all too possible that this game may have been designed to bring us as fans and our team back down to earth.

The game was never really out of our control. It seemed like we could run the ball at will, but decided to call more passing plays. We will HAVE to throw vs. SEC teams, so maybe this game was meant as a trial by fire tune-up.

Another interesting thing was how calm Coach was in his post game after Tulane. He didn't seem very displeased, as he did in last year's poor perfomances/unexpected losses. We know he gets fired up if he thinks we played below his expectations. It's almost as if he EXPECTED the outcome.

I'd noticed this mentioned in other threads and figured it would be worth having its own thread. Coach knows how quickly we can inflate expectations and start talking championships. He also knows that leads to overlooking lesser opponents (ie: ULM). Could it be that CNS and staff threw a purposefully overwhelming game plan at our team as a way to deflate their egos (and the fans' too) a little after that big-time win over Clemson?

PS: The "conspiracy" line was tongue-in-cheek RTR

 

[RVTIDER]

We played a very average game, take it and then move on......

 

[Dr. Van Nostran]

I think Tulane was in on the conspiracy.

 

[UAME]

There is no way this was orchestrated. My first question would be, "Did you actually see the game?"

While it is true that our defense never broke, it's not as if the outcome wasn't in question. Our defense was tested. That QB was throwing lazers. It appeared when we tried to take the game to them with blitzes, they picked them up perfectly - protecting the quarterback and allowing him to find the open receiver.

Offensive production was so dismal (except when we finally made a commitment to run) there is very little postive that could be taken from it - in other words, the damage done by this performance wouldn't have been worth the positive "reality check" you are proposing.

Lastly, Tulane was the more physical team on Saturday. Apart from the huge hit that knocked Arenas out, they were laying the wood to Bama players everywhere you looked. I think Saban's calmness after the game (and his gesture of speaking to the Tulane team in the post game meal) was more of an acknowledgment that Bama has withstood a test of an opponent who was ready to play. I think most of the breakdowns were exposed due to a lack of depth - not from our coaches intentionally setting our guys up to struggle.

 

[tuck]

Could it be that CNS and staff threw a purposefully overwhelming game plan at our team as a way to deflate their egos (and the fans' too) a little after that big-time win over Clemson?

It's going to be really difficult for me not to be sarcastic in a reply to this statement, so I'll just answer um...no.

If the purpose of any gameplan, of any coach, anywhere is ever to deflate egos, they should probably be fired. I think thou overthinketh this too mucheth....

It was a gameplan that was poorly executed. I didn't see anything overly complicated about it. Seemed like Tulane didn't think it was too complicated either.

 

[mlh]

Could it be that CNS and staff threw a purposefully overwhelming game plan at our team as a way to deflate their egos (and the fans' too) a little after that big-time win over Clemson?

No. I don't think CNS and staff did anything to purposefully overwhelm our players and deflate everyone's ego. I think we simply had an underwhelming performance.

 

[BamaBoy3684]

I did not get to see the game, but from what I heard on the radio, I hope it was a conspiracy. To me, it was a pathetic performance. I was very confused by this game.

 

[REBELZED]

Wow, apparently I didn't make it clear enough that I was saying this rather jokingly, haha. I just noticed how other people had been discussing this in other threads and thought I'd give it its own thread so we could have a little fun with it. I know no coach is going to set his staff/team up for failure, but I do think Coach Saban saw our heads inflating and was obviously trying to drive home the point that we need to temper our expectations. However, as I said in the PS, I don't REALLY believe it was all a conspiracy. Lighten up a little

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I think there's some validity in saying that, to some degree, we used the game as an inter-school scrimmage.

 

[bamachile]

Definitely a conspiracy. And at halftime I saw the aliens put Elvis in the black helicopter over on the grassy knoll. Or that might have been Jerry Glanville... :willy_nilly::willy_nilly::willy_nilly:

Thanks for keeping a little humor on the boards, Reb. Sometimes we need it.

 

[Special K]

We could have run the ball just about any time we wanted, especially in the 2nd half. We were doing exactly that when Coffee fumbled. Next series, we went right back to it, except this time with Ingram toting the rock, and we promptly scored. With that "insurance" TD on the board, we went right back to throwing it again. There was no conspiracy, but we sacrificed a bigger margin of victory for the opportunity to test an unproven OL in the passing game. Unfortunately, they made a D- on the exam. Without those early ST scores, you can bet the play calling would have been quite different.

 

[Big tide fan forever]

:bs_lame:

 

[bamanut_aj]

I don't think we could have played that poorly on purpose.

 

[JagTider]

...we sacrificed a bigger margin of victory for the opportunity to test an unproven OL in the passing game. Unfortunately, they made a D- on the exam. Without those early ST scores, you can bet the play calling would have been quite different.

I pretty much agree with this. I don't think the coaching staff game planned to blow Tulane's doors off, but rather to gain a measuring stick of how far along we are and get some work on different things. Although I am a little worried about JPW and the receivers being able to hook up beyond about 15 yds, I think the game was largely used to see how other elements of the offense would fair in a game situation. I would rather find out against Tulane than against UGA!

Not a conspiracy and we "didn't play that poorly on purpose". Our RBs averaged 5-6 yds/carry. Why else would we continously run on 2nd and 3rd down in short yardage situations? Tulane was playing us tough, but their defense was not dictating what we did on offense.

 

[tuck]

I don't think we could have played that poorly on purpose.

I think it is everyone's secret wish that the only way we could have played that poorly is that it was on purpose. Unfortunately for us, it wasn't on purpose........that's what is so disturbing.

 

[BamaDMD]

Wait a minute guys, I think there could be something here. You see, Saban didn't want us to run up the score on Tulane so that we might not get a bigger head this week. So when Javy hadn't got the memo before the game and kept firing off points and racking up yards, Saban had the water boy throw a helmet at lightning speed and accuracy to hit him in the helmet, temporarily rendering poor javy confused but ok for next weeks game. If you were to view the footage back in super slomo, then you would see not only one helmet contact but a second one launched from the grassy...eh ... sideline coming in from a different angle. :eek2:


I've got to quit staying up watcing these late night movies.:biggrin:

 

[RolltideFanz]

I was fairly convinced that if we had wanted to, we could have run all day on Tulane. I think we wanted to work on some of the other offensive components. The bad thing that came from the game is that a lot of them didn't work...yet.

I have to wonder, without the injuries and players shifting around so much, if this would have been the case.

 

[crimson_blood]

I don't think we could have played that poorly on purpose.

Agreed

 

[i_live_4_bama]

Absolutely not. Coach Saban is a perfectionist. No way. now how would he purposely have the team play bad just to bring expectations down. The point is, we just played bad. Period.

 

[REBELZED]

Another thing: I wasn't even remotely suggesting that CNS told the players to play badly. Any fool would know better than that. The "what if" I was proposing was that the coaching staff might have purposefully given the team a tougher game plan to follow in order to: 1.) see if they could actually execute it; 2.) force them to face a little adversity and see if/how they overcame it; 3.) help them realize they're not world beaters and can't just walk out on the field and win.

Just for clarification (since I obviously haven't done well making myself clear today haha), I don't really believe there's any conspiracy. I do believe the coaching staff used this game as a sort of practice to see what wrinkles we could implement offensively. When it came crunch time and they saw some new things weren't working, we went back to our bread and butter pound-it-out offense and marched right down the field. I don't think the game was ever out of our control, and I think most of our struggles were due to the makeshift O-line and the "experimental" game plan. Of course our players wouldn't play as well with those factors taken into consideration.

I think the people blasting our coaches for the game plan are being a little short-sighted and not giving the staff enough credit. This ain't their first rodeo, folks. I believe they knew the game plan was going to be a little less productive, but wanted to try it out in a real-live game situation. They did, our team didn't execute it well, they went back to what worked and we won the game. Coach Saban did not seem upset with the results and I believe that's a direct result of he and the staff knowing full well that the game plan they were trying to implement might not be as successful, but wanted to try it out nonetheless.

Hopefully I've made myself clear this time :biggrin: :BigA: