Alabama’s Crimson Tide continued their undefeated season yesterday against Texas A&M…but it was quite a struggle. They got their offensive line issues sorted out and turned up 31 first downs and 500+ yards of offense; including 234 rushing…along with a great passing day and 4 TD passes. After a slow start when they fell behind 14-0 (darn those A&M guys play fast) they scored the next 35 points and then another 14 in the fourth quarter.

The defense on the other hand…played poorly. True, they were playing Johnny Manziel the whiz kid…and he’s going to get his yards and pass completions…but they gave up way too many cheap yards and scores due to penalties, being out of position and just playing poorly. Nick Saban will still have some teaching moments for them during practice this week. Next up is Colorado State on Saturday the 21st.

There was one very strange play during the game. One of the A&M receivers went up for a deep ball down the sideline and ‘Bama’s defender was also going for the ball. They bumped chests and the ball was incomplete although the defender came closer to intercepting it than the receiver did to catching it. The ref threw a flag for “targeting” which in the new rule means you hit the head or neck area of a “defenseless” receiver…with a 15 yard penalty and ejection of the defender from the game. The replay official overturned the call and said it wasn’t targeting since the defender was going for the ball and only their chest/shoulders hit anyway. However…the only thing that can be overturned in this situation is the ejection…and not the penalty…so the defender was allowed to stay in the game. Basically…Alabama got hit with a 15 yard penalty…simply because the ref made a mistake. Even though the review concluded that it was not targeting the penalty was allowed to stand. What a dumb way to enforce the rules. I agree with the targeting rule since it does protect defenseless receivers…but if the replay official determines that it wasn’t targeting then penalizing the defense 15 yards anyway seems dumber than dumb.

Sheesh.

Today was Mass and then we sat around and watched TV…Neil checked the air and oil in the vehicles and planned out our detailed route and stops between our leaving here on Wednesday morning and arrival in Moab, UT Sunday afternoon. We’re watching the weather in the Denver area and will make a call a couple days before we leave Moab on the 30th to decide whether to follow our original plan of a 3 day stop in Denver, modify it with a stay west of the Rockies where they haven’t had the rain and flooding like Boulder and the northern Denver suburbs, or whether to head south and then east through Durango, Albuquerque, and then up to Junction City.

We also did some laundry including the sheets and towels so we’re starting out with an empty hamper. Tomorrow it’s a Costco run for some meat and then we’ll head up to pick up some jewelry that Connie is getting repaired and a stop by the Ford place for some Diesel Exhaust Fluid for BAT…and if the rain holds off we’ll go to Military Appreciation Day at the County Fair. Tuesday we’ll be getting ready to travel…and we are surely ready.

No pics today…can’t see the mountain and it’s rainy and foggy.

Cyas.