re: Bobozos, time to make your case

In the other thread I pointed out how many times Bobo's offenses scored a good number but the defense lost the game anyway (hat tip Dirty for the topic). It made me think...the 2 biggest things the bobo haters latch onto for dear life and won't let go are 1)hurr durr carlton thomas up the middle THIRTEEN YEARS AGO and 2)he lost the 2014 SC game! I can't believe we ran play action!

Well that is a monumentally dumb mindset that I've discussed int he past but wanted to dive deeper into it this morning. To set the scene we are down 35-38 with 5 minutes left and have the ball around SC's 10.

-On 1st down we ran a play that Bobo had run countless times prior in his career. I have no way of knowing but I'd make a very casual guess that we'd run this AT LEAST 2 dozen times in the past 7/8 years almost always with success. We'd fake the pitch to the RB and sneak the FB coming the other way and hit him for an easy gain. I'm sure y'all might even remember some plays specifically that it's worked. So the play call itself was not crazy or hare brained, and had a proven history of success. And in this moment, SC was surely thinking we'd give it to Gurley which made it an even better call. HEre is the scene:



You can see Gurley at the bottom of the picture on the 10 yard line and has 2 defenders directly in front of his face, those guys clearly bought the pitch and had we actually given it to him he'd have his work cut out for him. In the middle of the picture you can see the FB streaking to Mason's right, with the outside receiver coming down to block the ILB leaving only a safety left and our FB open. What else do you see? I see our senior QB throwing the ball 2 feet in front of himself at the defender's feet.







#20 for SC was blocked so Hicks has an easy catch but there is 1 defender unaccounted for. Would he have scored? Probably not, it depends on how he handled that one defender. But worst case we are around the 5. Our QB singlehandedly and soley fricked this up and received an intentional grounding call. That is not on Bobo in any conceivable. way.

-2nd down we pull a couple lineman to the right and hand to Gurley. It looks like he may have some room and the pulling center is making his way out there but he misses the block and Gurley is stopped for a 4 yard gain



-3rd down Mason is looking to pass down around the 5 to a guy with 2 defenders near him, but the ball is tipped at the line.



-And finally, to top it off, Marshall Morgan who earlier in this game just set an SEC record by hitting 20 straight field goals, missed a chip shot 28 yarder that half this board could make



So to recap we have:

-A fantastic play call that would lead us to the 5 worst case or endzone best case if executed normally that our SR QB botched and backed us up
-A run to Gurley that may have gone for at least 10 had our center moved faster
-A throw into double coverage that was batted at the LOS
-A missed chip shot field goal that was less than 30 yards

....and yet, it's Bobo's fault we lost the game. Anyone who claims bobo sucks by citing the '14 SC game instantly loses any and all credibility in my book.