Ryan Fowler’s Reaction: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, Alabama vs. Cincinnati Edition
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 called 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. Cincinnati
Good
Alabama won by playing a different style of football. Nick Saban used his famous phrase in the post game press conference, “we took what the defense gave us.” I have heard Saban say that countless times in the last 15 years.
Brian Robinson continued his warrior mentality into another game, this time he showed up in the statistic book with a 204 rushing yard performance. The Crimson Tide’s defense had a nice gameplan that slowed down the Bearcat offense. After the opening drive, the game felt like a game separated by four touchdowns. Both lines of scrimmage for Alabama dominated a majority of the game. Bryce Young left with two more school records.
Bad
Injuries are always something that will be a part of contact sports, but for Alabama these injuries are starting to add up. When you look at this Crimson Tide team, there is little margin of error at several key positions. When I watch Alabama, I have almost come to watch expecting the next injury. Give the Bearcats credit, they presented Alabama with a new set of obstacles. To win a National Championship in Indiana, this team will need more production in this department. The Crimson Tide will need to take advantage of the Georgia secondary like they did earlier this month in Atlanta.
Ugly
For the last two years, we have heard about expanding the CFB Playoff beyond four teams. The excuse is getting wide variety of teams involved. We should back off that conversation for a bit. The real problem is college football’s desire to live in mediocrity. The SEC has taken advantage of these other college football programs’ lack of production. We are going to hear this type of talk for the next 10 days, but the real question is, when are some of these programs going to be dedicated to putting an elite product on the field?
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 a framed Daniel Moore print, “ Unrivaled,” which recognizes Alabama’s 18th National Championship, starting at 2 p.m. on Tide 100.9 and on the free Tide 100.9 app.