This about sums it up.

Coach Nick Saban On the victory:
“Well, we’re certainly happy to get the win, but we’re not pleased with the way we played. We played O.K. on defense. We played O.K. on special teams and we made some plays and scored a touchdown. Offensively, we couldn’t get anything going. We had too many negative plays. It’s great to win, but you don’t feel good about it when you don’t play well. Give Tulane credit, too. They played well. They made some plays on offense. There were a lot of good things that happened, just not a lot on offense.”

Injuries, etc.:
“It’s the first time Motley’s played. I’m sure he’ll learn a lot from his performance. We had Motley playing a different place, David Ross playing a different place, and Mike Johnson playing a different place, so you basically had three different people playing from what we were last week. We kind of lost our continuity on the offensive line. I think our guys are capable of playing a lot better and we’re certainly going have to get them to improve. All in all we didn’t get them blocked up front, but there were three sacks that weren’t (to be blamed) on the offensive line. The tailback didn’t block the corner blitz once, the quarterback didn’t throw the ball hot once, and the tailback missed his blitz pick up on the opposite side. Everyone thinks that every time there’s a sack that it’s the offensive line, but that’s not always the case especially when there is edge pressure. We obviously didn’t control the line of scrimmage the way we’d like to, and those are things we have to work on improving. Marlon Davis pulled a hamstring. I don’t know how bad. Leigh Tiffin got hit in the head, and Javier (Arenas) got hit in the head. Those are the three guys that had issues in the game.”

ARENAS SETS SINGLE-GAME PUNT RETURN YARDS MARK – BREAKS 61-YEAR-OLD RECORD
Junior cornerback/return specialist Javier Arenas gained 147 punt return yards on five punt returns (29.4-yard average), setting an Alabama single-game record for punt return yards. The old mark of 122 yards was set by Harry Gilmer against Georgia on October 25, 1947, in a 17-7 Alabama victory in Athens . Arenas accomplished virtually all of that total in the first half before leaving the game with an injury suffered on his first punt return of the third quarter.

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Team Statistics (Final)
via UA
Tulane vs Alabama (Sep 6, 2008 at Tuscaloosa, Alabama)
 Team Totals TU UA
FIRST DOWNS 18 11
  Rushing 6 4
  Passing 11 6
  Penalty 1 1
NET YARDS RUSHING 86 99
  Rushing Attempts 32 26
  Average Per Rush 2.7 3.8
  Rushing Touchdowns 0 1
  Yards Gained Rushing 101 130
  Yards Lost Rushing 15 31
NET YARDS PASSING 232 73
  Completions-Attempts-Int 29-50-0 11-23-0
  Average Per Attempt 4.6 3.2
  Average Per Completion 8.0 6.6
  Passing Touchdowns 0 0
TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS 318 172
  Total offense plays 82 49
  Average Gain Per Play 3.9 3.5
Fumbles: Number-Lost 2-0 1-1
Penalties: Number-Yards 4-29 6-43
PUNTS-YARDS 7-226 7-280
  Average Yards Per Punt 32.3 40.0
  Net Yards Per Punt 7.9 33.1
  Inside 20 1 1
  50+ Yards 0 0
  Touchbacks 0 2
  Fair catch 0 3
KICKOFFS-YARDS 3-209 4-242
  Average Yards Per Kickoff 69.7 60.5
  Net Yards Per Kickoff 39.3 49.0
  Touchbacks 0 0
Punt returns: Number-Yards-TD 2-8-0 7-171-2
  Average Per Return 4.0 24.4
Kickoff returns: Number-Yds-TD 3-46-0 3-91-0
  Average Per Return 15.3 30.3
Interceptions: Number-Yds-TD 0-0-0 0-0-0
Fumble Returns: Number-Yds-TD 0-0-0 0-0-0
Miscellaneous Yards 0 0
Possession Time 36:35 23:25
  1st Quarter 10:55 4:05
  2nd Quarter 6:57 8:03
  3rd Quarter 7:55 7:05
  4th Quarter 10:48 4:12
Third-Down Conversions 7 of 20 3 of 11
Fourth-Down Conversions 1 of 2 0 of 0
Red-Zone Scores-Chances 2-3 1-2
Sacks By: Number-Yards 4-29 1-8
PAT Kicks 0-0 2-3
Field Goals 2-4 0-1

35 thoughts on “Alabama defeats Tulane”

  1. If Marlon Davis, Leigh Tiffin, Andre Smith, Earl Alexander, and Javier Arenas aren’t back by the Arkansas game, we’re in trouble. Our defense was phenomenal, and the final score should’ve been 20-3, but a stupid roughing the passer call on an incomplete third down attempt, led to an eventual three points scored on that drive. Our offensive line’s performance was tremendously horrible — the worst I’ve seen it since the 2005 year against LSU and Auburn. We desperately need Andre and Marlon back ASAP or else our running and passing game will perform ineffectively until they return. And Corey Smith missed TWO SIMPLE field goals! I hope ALL of these guys are 100% healthy by the time SEC play begins or else we’re in trouble.

  2. Yeah, might want to put those 2008 Nashnul Champeenship t-shirts on hold, boys. Back to reality for you.

  3. I would like to say congrats to the Tide for their win. I thought they would blow Tulane out, but being kind of sluggish the week after a big win is common.

  4. This is exactly what I was talking about last week!

    The victory over Clemson was one-sided only because Clemson always fails to show up at the beginning of the season.

    I said last week I’d be surprised if we finished the regular season with a 6-5 record and I stand by that.

    We won’t beat Georgia and that’s a fact. We have a shot at beating Arkansas if, and only if, our offensive line is fully restored. But without Arenas setting us up with halfway decent field position, the possibility of defeating Arkansas will become even more of a challenge than a breeze.

  5. 1) A win is a win, regardless. We’re too buys comparing the Tulane win to the Clemson win that we’re officially accepting this victory as a moral defeat.

    2) Even though our offense seemingly “underachieved”, you have to remember we were without three of our key starters. You may say losing three guys doesn’t make a difference, but it made a significant difference in the execution of our offense. Parker had no time to throw, and the defense was in his face on every passing play. In addition to that, holes were rarely open for the running backs, and I can assure you had our two key guys played tonight, our offense would have performed alot better than they did.

    3) Kevin, correct me if I’m wrong, but APIs’ final score nearly reflected ours. However, did you even know API played a game today? Or was you too concerned with the Alabama game you had completely forgotten all about it? I’d even bet you spent half of your well earned minimum wage, ordering the game just for false hopes of seeing Alabama lose severely. Sorry you were disappointed. Better luck next time.

  6. Christopherson,

    I would think that even the most undeducated football fan could admit that the quality of AU and UA’s opponents were less than equal this week. Surely you aren’t suggesting that the relatively similar final scores suggests the teams played equally well. I’ll admit that UA looked better than AU last week… are you willing to reciprocate this week? I think Kevin’s sentiment is shared by a lot of college football fans (i.e., it was a bit premature last week to exclaim that “Bama is back”).

  7. Our offense was lazy and they played sloppy. Its like CNS said confidence can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing and we cant expect to show up now and kick everyone’s ass. This is a wake up call for the team. The defense showed up but the offense never stepped onto the field. We would gain momentum after a promising drive and then it would die just as quick as it started. Its no hangover effect it was a flat out bad game because of our offense. We cant say the team because for the most part the team played well. The offense should take the blame for the falters because they was the only unit filled with them.

  8. AUTiger who the hell proclaimed Alabama to be back? Do us a favor and search through the page and you will notice 90% of the Alabama fans on this site was not optimistic after the Clemson game. Theres more misinformation on your part. What you mean by a lot of college football fans repeating each other should be replaced with barn fans. Nobody else cares about Alabama enough to talk about them, but it does feel special knowing the barn brand does. Keep the misinformation and Alabama AUbsession flowing because we are loving it!

  9. Well, there is no hiding the fact that our offense flat out stunk tonight.
    Not all of the blame should be placed upon JPW either because he can’t help the fact that as soon as the ball was snapped, the defenders were immediately in his face 9 times out of 10. Like someone said previously, our offensive line hasn’t played this bad since the 2005 Iron Bowl.
    Losing the big three did hurt and that’s the reason no one should fret just yet. If we display improvement against Arkansas with the big three returning, then we can breath a sigh of relief.
    And I’ll give Auburn credit, but honestly do y’all think y’all performed that much better than us? I watched the AU game today and I’m not fibbing anyone by saying Auburn was no more impressive than we were.
    It’s way too early in the season to be making ridiculous assumptions and that can be said for all the SEC teams.
    And will somebody please tell me why the hell OSU is still ranked in the top 50?

  10. I know that you are not talking to me, but I can assure you that it isnt getting to me. I simply like college football, and yeah, I had my radio on as I watched Miami and Florida, although after hearing Eli for a couple of hours, I had to go to the ER and get a shot of morphine for my pounding head. Seriously though, even though Bama isnt my team, and I know you all want perfection, like it was said earlier, a win is a win. All I heard last week was how shitty Auburn played, and that was in a 34-0 blowout. I was just glad to get a W. All in all, it isnt that bad. So far, the states SEC reps are 4-0 combined. It could be worse.

  11. All I know is The final stats up there look like UAT LOST!!!…. I watched Both games and If it was IRON BOWL YESTERDAY BAMMERS would be some in jail hung over mean ass drunks this day! OH YEA and if a frog had wings……

    WPB!!!

  12. Can we please finally get past the argument that AU fans are obsessed with UA, as evidence by posts on this website? Really, if I rib or banter with a friend who is an UA fan during a conversation, does that mean I am obsessed with UA? Should I tell all the UA fans that post on AU boards that you believe they are obsessed with AU and feel inferior? Get over it… it’s part of the fun of college football. I will say that I’ve noticed that those comments come from individuals who are less willing (capable to argue facts, and consequently resort to name calling.

    Darkillusions: “Bama’s back” is all I read from you guys last week (see Shane’s ridiculous post). Contrary to what you guys may believe, I am one who wants UA to be a better team. It is good for the rivalry and better for our strength of schedule. Had UA had not been such a perenial cellar dwellar in 2004, we may have played in the NC game.

    I think both teams have some work to do to get better, but I think any reasonable person can see that UA played better than AU the first week, and AU played better than UA the second week.

  13. I’d love to know why we are so quick to compare both teams to each other after every scrimmage, practice, game, etc. Alabama fans don’t have to answer to Auburn, nor do Auburn fans have to answer to Alabama. That’s the reason I seldom post here anymore because it’s a lose-lose situation.

    I didn’t watch the Auburn game, but I do know they won 27-10. Whether they performed better than Alabama or not doesn’t matter to me. Georgia has performed better than Alabama both weeks, but do I care? Do Georgia fans care?

    A lot of Auburn fans were outraged by Alabama’s huge victory over Clemson. But whether they knew this or not, a blaring chant started twice in the 4th quarter, and do you guys know what that chant was? “S-E-C… S-E-C… S-E-C.” By chanting “S-E-C” they’re chanting every team in the conference’s name, including Auburn.

    Last night’s game was somewhat poor, but 20-6, a 14 point win, is better than an ugly 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc point loss.

  14. Coach Saban’s post-game press conference wasn’t very delightful. He made it seem as if we lost the game by a mile. Our team has one week left for prepping up to work out all the kinks and flaws, then the real test begins. It’s too early in the season to begin the whole playing to the level of our competition strategy.

  15. AUTiger, Shane is not all of us as you mentioned above about proclaiming Bama is Back, I think Forbes and SI is getting that into your mind more than the common Bama fan. I watched Au for the first half prior to going to the Bama game and was not impressed with either. But please don’t patronize us by saying you wish Bama would get better, we are the only reason Tubs still has a job, do you think we would want Saban after ten years with only one SEC to his name just because he beat Au six times? I hate to tell you but the answer is a big NO. AL expects to put more in the trophy case than just beating AU, but it seems yall are content with just that, is it just me thinking that or is that correct?

  16. Instead of picking ourselves to peices… be realistic. our offnsive line was cannabalized during this game. Thus a couple of times that Bama had great field position (1st and 10 on the Tulane 20 for expample would have been 6’s. And even if we dont count them we left 2 field goals because Tiffin was out.
    Also, Tulane had 29 yards in penalties, no turnovers, and owned the clock with 12 more minutes of offense than Bama. The also didnt make stupid mistakes. So all in all and credit were credit is due, I have to give the credit to Tulane for playing a much better game than Clemson did. They are well coached and played a hardnosed, disciplined game.
    They took the time they had to prepare and made the most of it.
    I will say that if all of Bama had been healthy it would have been a lot different game. But still Tulane is no joke.

  17. Tmc1….I agree. Tulane is no joke. Mor is LAMO. They should have beat Arky. I told my friend when we were watching the LAMO game that they executed really well. Still , there is no real reason for a clsoe game with them or with Tulane. Its the early season and stuff like this happens. Bama was hung over . Auburn failed to execute well against S. Miss. We both got wins and it didnt hurt our rankings. But Im glad to see that yall got a slice of humble pie. Javier Arenas won that game for yall. Period.

  18. What worries me about Javier is, will he lose his versatile ability now that he’s had a taste of the consequence that comes complete with it? I hope not.

  19. Any tackler leading with his helmet is supposed to draw a penalty. It is meant to protect both the tackler & ball-carrier in that as many tacklers sustain serious injury from tackling in this manner as do ball carriers – that play in particular should have been flagged, IMO.

  20. Guys, the Tulane team had all summer to prepare for this game and came into it to play tough. Don’t forget that their HC beat us – TWICE! – where we were favored.

    Also, it’s not just that it was our “second team” offensive line but that 3 of 5 were playing out of position. We don’t have the depth to go a true 2-deep so the coaches are having to move guys all around to get the right coverage in the right places. Should we be better? Sure, but it still is game 2.

    Tulane was never “in” the game – we were in control throughout the entire game. I agree we should have been better at executing offensively but I would rather have an “off” game vs Tulane than Georgia.

    What’s interesting to me is that I think we may have played our best game of the season the first week and let’s hope this one was our WORST game of the season. If that holds true, we will all be happy by the end of the year.

  21. Yeah ATL …..They do get up for yall. That is true. But Nick tried all week to keep his team on the level. And appearantly he couldnt. There is no excuse for playing a Tulane close. NONE. Dont get me wrong. Auburn aint above doing the same. But I aint gonna try to justify it. Last year there was NO reason to lose to S florida or Miss State. NONE. PERIOD. We should have won those games. WE didnt. We sucked. The coaching sucked. The players sucked. There was no excuse for it.

  22. Ballplay only one unit faltered. Every other one played explosively. You can’t put the blame on the entire team just because one unit couldn’t get the job done. The defense and special teams were on fire. The offense was dry.

    Auburn is in a similar boat. The D and special teams are nearly perfect. But the offense still has a few kinks to sort out before the big games begin.

  23. Thats right, I agree….But , who do you think will get it together first / And whos has the more favorable schedule ? Im not saying yall cant do it, you certainly may. I did get the chance to watch the game last night (Tulane / Bama)….It looked pretty dang bad guys. I am NOT trying to flame. Auburn looked that bad in the first half of the LAMO game. Then we foung the running game worked and went with it. We caught MAJOR flak for that. But we did find a way to move the ball. If that would have been the plan to start with, we prolly wouldve had 500 yards rushing. Easy.

  24. Why is that Bamaman. We hardly ran it ANY in the first quarter. And not much in the second. We still had 325 give take on the ground. Maybe thats high. But it aint high by much, if any.

  25. Ballplay, when is the last time yall had 500 yards rushing against anybody, even with Brown and Williams

  26. Are you saying that we couldnt have gotten another 170 yards in 1.5 quarters. The first three possesions were all passes three and out. It aint beyond the realm of possiblilty. 90% of those 325 yards of rushing came after halftime. Plus it was freekin LAMO. Oh , never mind , sorry.

  27. Yeah, that’s what I am saying, when is the last time you had 500 yards rushing, and if you had 90% of that in the second half, that high powered offense must have really sucked the first half against freekin LaMonroe.

  28. Do you suffer some kind of major memory loss. Read above…..They DID suck in the first half………And they DID have 325+ yards rushing once they committed to the run.

  29. Ballplay, my memory is just fine, look at what your saying – 90% of 321(actual total) yards in the game but yet you say you could get 170 in the last 1.5, according to you, then that means you had about 300 yards in the first half of the third quarter. . . think man, quit trying to pad your stats

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