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| Thursday, September 2, 2010 |
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Alabama welcomes its bye
Published October 26, 2009
TUSCALOOSA — There was a common theme among Alabama players and coaches after a dramatic ending to the Tennessee game. After 5 SEC games everyone is glad to make it to the open date with SEC Championship and BCS hopes very much alive.
Terrence Cody’s two blocked field goals, including one as time expired to preserve the 12-10 win over Tennessee, elevated him from pop culture hero among Alabama fans to legend status.
It was no surprise that he was named SEC defensive lineman of the week on Monday, but the big news came later that day when sports artist Daniel Moore announced Cody’s block with 4 seconds left would be immortalized on canvas.
“It was a wake up call but we had faith in Cody and our front three including Marcel and Deadrick. We just put it on their shoulders and they came through and won the game for us,”said Drew Davis, a starter at right tackle on the offensive line who said he never expected to see Tennessee lining up for a potential game winning field goal attempt.
Davis was blocking on the line that enabled Leigh Tiffin to hit four field goals against Tennessee, including the 49-yarder with 6:31 left in the fourth quarter.
“Tennessee has a good team and it’s always a smash mouth game against them. They didn’t let down at all. They played a good game. We are disappointed we didn’t score touchdowns. As an offensive line I think we just need to pay more attention to detail, stay on our blocks, and receivers blocking downfield,” Davis added.
Greg McElroy said after the blocked field goal he “got down on a knee and said thank God. It was out of our control. Fortunately, Cody made a play for us to keep the dream alive. I’m happy for that.”
McElroy’s offense had its worst offensive output of the season against Tennessee, getting outgained by nearly a hundred yards and badly losing the time of possession. McElroy bounced back with from his worst game of the season to finish 18-29 for 120 yards but the offense didn’t score a touchdown and now has one touchdown in the last eight quarters of play.
“I felt night-and-day better than I did the last couple of weeks,” McElroy said. “I was back on my game making quick reads, hitting the correct guy, and at the correct time. That goes back to this week’s preparation. Looking at the film I realized I didn’t play with a lot of emotion last week. You can’t play this game that way. It has got to mean something to you. Wear your heart on your sleeve and sometimes you’re heartbroken. We got a hard fought victory over a rival. I’m proud of the effort on offense and defense.”
At 8-0, 5-0 in SEC play, the Tide will enjoy an open date thanks to the SEC policy that no team gets an open date the week before the SEC Championship game on Dec. 5. LSU comes to Tuscaloosa on Nov. 7.
“A lot of people need it.,” Davis said of the open date. More than one player said that it will be a chance to rest and get their legs back under them.
“We needed this break to take some time to relax, settle down, fix some things that need corrected and use it to our advantage,” said McElroy who plans to go see his hometown Dallas Cowboys play during the off-week.
According to head coach Nick Saban the passing offense has plenty of work to do in the bye week.
McElroy had success attacking the perimeter of the Tennessee defense and got the ball to Julio Jones who had 7 catches for 54 yards. But only two Alabama drives went inside the red zone. Once there incomplete passes to Jones were the biggest breakdowns.
“They are loading the box and we can’t block them all,” Saban said. “We have to be more aggressive on what we are doing on offense. There were more plays we could have made today (on offense). We need to create the balance we had early in the season and that is what we will work on in the bye week.”
Tiffin has 11 field goals in the last 3 games, all wins against SEC teams.
He was a perfect 4-for-4 on Saturday against Tennessee, scoring on kicks of 38, 50, 22 and 49 yards. He was 2-for-3 in the Tide’s 20-6 win over South Carolina and made all five attempts in a 22-3 win at Mississippi on Oct. 10.
Tiffin was named SEC special teams player of the week on Oct 26. He now has 73 career field goals, trailing only Philip Doyle at 78 for the career best. His father Van Tiffin had 59 career field goals.
“My experience is every kick I’ve ever had blocked the coach says it was a low kick. Whether it was good pressure up the middle or not,” said Tiffin about the two field goals Tennessee’s Jeremy Lincoln had blocked by Terrence Cody.
Game time for the Nov. 7 home game against LSU (6-1, 4-1 SEC) is set for 2:30 p.m. and will be televised by CBS. That game will likely determine who is the SEC Western Division Champion.
McElroy summed it up. “We know it is a one game season when we come back,” he said.”
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