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Mocs Fall To Alabama, 45-0

November 21, 2009

The No. 2 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide scored five touchdowns on five straight possessions in the first half in a 45-0 shutout of Chattanooga at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Senior Day.

CrimsonTideUTC held the SEC foe on a three and out on Alabama’s first possession, then the Mocs got a first down. However, it was downhill after that.

UTC gained 53 yards on the ground and 36 in the air against one of the top defenses in the country.

Sophomore Mark Ingram ran for 102 yards and two scores on 11 carries before the break, and senior cornerback/returner Javier Arenas scored his seventh career punt return touchdown to break the Southeastern Conference record. Arenas also intercepted a pass on the afternoon.

Senior kicker Leigh Tiffin tied the Alabama record for career field goals and single-season field goals with a 41-yarder in the third quarter, giving him 78 for his career and 25 this season.

Before the game, the 27 members of the senior class were honored on the field.

It was the final game of the season for the Mocs, who finish with a winning record of 6-5 under new Coach Russ Huesman after managing only one win last season and two the season before.

Alabama goes on the road next week to face rival Auburn on Friday. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Central time, and the game will air on CBS.

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Tags: alabama crimson tide, bryant denny stadium, career field goals, central time, cornerback, Crimson Tide, denny, final game, Insider, kicker, kickoff, leigh tiffin, m central, mocs, punt return, shutout, southeastern conference record, straight possessions

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Don’t forget about Arenas

November 21, 2009

Alabama has so many good players, and it’s easy to get caught up in what Mark Ingram has done this season on offense and what Rolando McClain and Terrence Cody have done on defense.

But the unsung hero on this team is without a doubt senior cornerback Javier Arenas, who played his final home game Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium and went out in style in Alabama’s 45-0 rout of Chattanooga.

Arenas returned his seventh career punt for a touchdown, an SEC record, and has been one of the Tide’s best all-around defenders all season.

You could make a case for his being the the most valuable player on Alabama’s team this season with all the different things he does for this team.

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Tags: bryant denny stadium, chattanooga, cornerback, denny, different things, home game, mark ingram, Punt, rolando mcclain, rout, sec record, Tide, touchdown, Tweets, unsung hero

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Never one to sweat, Jones delivers for Tide

November 9, 2009

The sweat beads on Julio Jones’ forehead Saturday night made it look like he’d just hopped out of the shower.

So as cool a customer as he is — both on and off the field — we know this about him: The guy does sweat.

Julio Jones finished with four catches for 102 yards.

Julio Jones finished with four catches for 102 yards.

In this instance, it was because of all the lights from the television cameras beaming down on him as he quietly explained for the 1,000th time that he’s about one thing.

Winning.

“It’s never been about me. It’s about this team,” Jones said. “My role on this team is to do whatever I can to help us win.”

On Saturday, he made the play they’ll be talking about for a long time around here if the Crimson Tide go on to win a championship. His 73-yard catch and run for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter of Alabama’s 24-15 win over LSU broke the Tigers’ spirit, raised the decibel level in Bryant-Denny Stadium to AC/DC-like proportions and announced to the college football world that Jones is alive and well.

The LSU defenders that saw him leave a vapor trail down the left sideline would certainly agree.

And so would Jones’ teammates, who’d been saying it was just a matter of time.

“He was gone. He was pulling away from people, and that just shows how explosive he is. All it takes is one touch, and he took it (73) yards,” said Alabama running back Mark Ingram, who didn’t have a shabby game himself with 144 yards rushing on 22 carries.

“That’s just Julio. We needed somebody in this game particularly to make a play, and he stepped up and made a huge play. That gave us the momentum we needed to help us finish off the game.”

Jones finished with four catches for 102 yards, and 92 of those yards came after the catch. In his last two games, he has 11 catches for 156 yards.

“Julio is an outstanding player, and I think probably last week, the Tennessee game, is where he looked like his old self in terms of having the juice and the burst, and he played a good game tonight and a good game then,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “We want to continue to feature him, but I’m really pleased with the way the rest of our receivers played in the game.

“They all made some big plays. (Darius) Hanks made a big catch. Marquis Maze made some big plays, and that’s what we need. We need that kind of balance. We need the ball distributed where it’s supposed to go, and I think Greg (McElroy) did a great job of that tonight.”

In addition to Jones’ 73-yard streak, Maze had a 37-yard catch and Hanks a 21-yard grab.

Prior to Saturday’s contest, Alabama wide receivers had combined for just two catches of longer than 15 yards in their previous three games.

“We had to step up because we knew they were going to load the box,” said Jones, who showed about as much emotion as he’s ever going to right after the game while celebrating with a few of his teammates.

Jones shrugs it off, but his teammates say the biggest difference with him now is that he’s healthy, especially coming off the bye week. He had an ankle injury coming into the season and then bruised his knee in the second game.

“Everybody has injuries. You just have to get over them,” Jones said. “I did all right. I could have done better.

“I expect to make plays. That’s the kind of player I am.”

The Crimson Tide are thrilled to have him back.

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Tags: ac dc, Crimson Tide, decibel level, denny, football world, forehead, fourth quarter, julio jones, lsu, mark ingram, matter of time, proportions, SEC, sideline, sweat beads, television cameras, tennessee game, vapor trail

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Cody’s two blocked field goals, Tiffin’s four FGs save No. 1 Tide’s undefeated season

October 24, 2009

TUSCALOOSA – Who needs offense?

Tennessee Alabama Football -Terrence Cody

Terrence Cody

When you have the nation’s top-ranked defense and you have Leigh Tiffin, you have enough to win.

And when you have Terrence Cody.

At least that was enough today for the top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide.

Barely.

Alabama’s defense almost held a third-consecutive opponent without a touchdown and Tiffin kicked four field goals to lead the top-ranked Crimson Tide (8-0, 5-0 in the Southeastern Conference) to a 12-10 victory over Tennessee (3-4, 1-3) in a defensive battle today at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

A late Tennessee touchdown and a successful onside kick added late drama to an intense physical battle.

The Vols drove to the Tide’s 28-yard line in the last minute, but Cody blocked a 44-yard field attempt. It was the senior nose guard’s his second blocked field goal of the game.

Tiffin’s field goals included kicks of 50 and 49 yards.

The Tide kept the Vols out of the end zone until there was 1:19 left in the game. Jonathan Crompton threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Gerald Jones.

Tennessee was held to one field goal in three attempts by Daniel Lincoln. He missed a 47-yard attempt at the end of a first half that ended with Alabama leading 9-3. He also had a 43-yard attempt blocked early in the fourth quarter by Cody.

The Vols drove into field-goal position on one other possession in the third quarter but were pushed backward by the Alabama defense and had to punt.

Alabama’s offense, which averaged 40 points in its first five games, has averaged only 18 points in its past three, but its top-ranked defense has stepped up.

But this game wasn’t about red-zone failures. The Tide only reached the red zone once, but with 1:11 left in the second quarter, it settled for a 24-yard field goal by Tiffin.

Alabama now only has 16 touchdowns in 37 red-zone opportunities this season for a 43.2 percent rate. Fifty percent is considered average.

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Tags: alabama crimson tide, bryant denny stadium, Crimson Tide, denny, end zone, field goals, goal position, jonathan crompton, jones tennessee, leigh tiffin, nose guard, onside kick, ranked defense, red zone, SEC, southeastern conference, touchdown pass, vols, yard field goal, yard touchdown

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Winning is what Alabama does best

October 18, 2009

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Coming off Saturday night’s 20-6 victory over South Carolina, maybe it’s premature to call Alabama the best team in the country, the No. 1 team in the country or even the team that deserves to be No. 1 in the country.

But there’s not a team in college football right now that has mastered the art of winning any better than the Crimson Tide.

They beat you when junior quarterback Greg McElroy is on top of his game. They beat you when he’s not on top of his game.

Nick Saban's Crimson Tide continue to find ways to win and are making a strong argument for being ranked No. 1 in the nation.

Nick Saban's Crimson Tide continue to find ways to win and are making a strong argument for being ranked No. 1 in the nation.

They beat you with senior starters (Javier Arenas) watching from the sideline. They beat you with budding sophomore superstars (Mark Ingram) having the best rushing performance Bryant-Denny Stadium has ever seen.

They beat you despite uncharacteristic turnovers and penalties. They beat you when maybe they weren’t as focused as they needed to be.

And they always beat you with defense — suffocating, in-your-face, bone-crunching defense.

“It’s all about winning games,” Alabama senior offensive guard Mike Johnson said. “I remember against Arkansas that we weren’t that successful on the ground, and Greg (McElroy) picked us up through the air.

“However we’ve got to do it, we’ll do it.”

The truth is that McElroy hasn’t been real sharp throwing the football the last two weeks. He’ll be the first to tell you as much.

“I just wasn’t seeing it real good. I haven’t been playing real good,” McElroy said. “I’ve haven’t been playing real confidently and stepping into my throws the way I have been. But we’ll get it figured out, I promise. I promise the fans, promise the coaches and promise the players that I will get it figured out and get it straightened out.”

Against South Carolina, he had a hand in all four of the Crimson Tide’s turnovers – two interceptions and two fumbles.

But Ingram was there to romp for a Bryant-Denny Stadium record 246 yards rushing, and the Alabama defense has now gone eight quarters without giving up a touchdown.

In fact, Alabama’s defense actually outscored the Gamecocks on Saturday. Safety Mark Barron’s tackle-breaking 77-yard interception return in the first 62 seconds of the game was the Crimson Tide’s only touchdown until Ingram bulled across the goal line with 4:54 remaining.

“You can say it’s winning ugly or whatever, but it’s still winning,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “There was a tremendous amount of heart, character and competitive spirit in terms of how our defensive players played out there to keep them off the board on several occasions. They hung in there and scored on defense and hung in there and did what we needed them to do to help us win the game.

“There’s going to be another game sometime down the road where we’ll be going up and down the field on offense and we won’t be able to slow them down on defense, and we’ll have to win that way, too.

“But that’s the sign of a good team, when you can pick each other up and do what you need to do to come out on top.”

Indeed, there’s something to be said for winning when you don’t have your best stuff.

Every championship team has a game like this where maybe it’s not as mentally sharp as it needs to be coming into the game and not as crisp as usual during the game … but still finds a way to win.

Saban will tell you that his 2003 national championship team at LSU won a game at Ole Miss it probably didn’t deserve to win.

Was this that game for Alabama?

Only time will tell, but there’s something about this team that screams out that it’s championship material … even on a night when the offense kept putting the defense in tough spots.

“The defense was spectacular,” Ingram said. “The offense wasn’t clicking for a lot of the game. They did a great job of being stubborn and only giving up field goals. I think they’re the best defense in the country. I’ve got to practice against them every day. I feel bad for offenses that have to go against them.”

The first BCS standings come out on Sunday afternoon, and depending on whether Alabama passes No. 1 Florida in the polls, the Crimson Tide may find themselves atop the BCS standings.

Ultimately, it’s not going to matter who’s No. 1 and who’s No. 2 if Alabama and Florida keep winning. They would meet in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta for the right to play in the BCS National Championship Game.

Then it gets down to a one-game playoff.

It’s looking like Dec. 5 can’t get here soon enough.

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Tags: ala, arenas, College Football, Crimson Tide, denny, greg mcelroy, hasn, Insider, junior quarterback, mark ingram, nick saban, offensive guard, sideline, sophomore, starters, superstars, turnovers, tuscaloosa, victory

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