Who's really to blame?

It happens after every weekend of football in the south. If a team loses, every true fan begins to dissect the loss. Some take it farther than others. Some even watch the game back and replay it like a coach. Most have no idea what they are looking at since they don't know what the play called was or what the players are really supposed to be doing. But it makes them sound more intelligent when they write or say, "Well I went back and watched the tape and so and so did this when he should have done that." If you don't know what is supposed to happen then it's easy to assign blame to whomever you desire.

I watched a few games this weekend! Let's start the blame game with my favorite team the Florida Gators. Tim Tebow is awful, he couldn't play for a pop warner team! Not really, but you get the picture. Everyone can easily blame Tim for the Gators' struggles in the red zone. And he would be the first to put most of the blame on himself. That's not the correct read here, or I should have thrown it there are statements that he can make better than the rest of us. He knows what the plays really were. He knows the coverages, the blocking schemes, and the routes that were called. He also knows whether the line missed the block, the receiver ran a wrong route, or whether the defense just made a great play. But rarely will (no make that never) will you hear Tim blame anyone but himself. That's a shame and if you are reading this Tim, it's not all your fault!

On the first pick-six if that was a called route, then the blame should fall squarely on the coaching staff. There were two receivers in the same area that could be covered by one guy in a third down situation. If they weren't supposed to be there, then obviously someone ran the wrong route and brought either the defender that tipped the ball or the guy who caught it and went the other way for six to the spot where he was not supposed to be. Or we could take a look at the offensive line that didn't protect enough to the play side and caused Tim to throw it off the back foot without having time to see the defenders. Of course Urban could have called time out to change the play or taken a delay of game penalty so it's his fault. Or the MSU defenders could be to blame for tipping the ball, catching the tip, and having the gall to not drop it or fall down or get tackled before returning it for a touchdown against the mighty Gators. Or it could have been my fault because I just said "I would rather Tim throw a pick than hold the ball too long on this next play." I never said anything about a return for a touchdown!

My guess is that we could all play the blame game a lot in our daily lives as well. There is always someone to blame for our mistakes. The truth is that we all make them, we should own up to them, deal with the consequences, learn what we can from them and then move on. That seems to be great advice, tough to do, but so worth it in the end.

Which brings me to my favorite blamer, Lame Kitten. Not only is it not his fault for not making the kick easier for his already once-blocked field goal unit, he is convinced there is a conspiracy afoot to keep Alabama and Florida on an undefeated track to Atlanta's showdown. Or at least that is what he implied with his comments this weekend after Alabama's narrow win. He wasn't going to risk letting the refs lose the game for him. That's classic. Instead all he did was risk losing the game by not running another play to try to get closer. Not to mention the other 59 minutes and 56 seconds that his team had to get one more touchdown, the line didn't keep Cody from pushing them back, and the kicker didn't get the ball up enough to clear a mound of little people, and the kick was going left even if it cleared the line. Cody jumped higher when he was throwing his helmet than he did to have to block the kick. Heck, it hit him, not the other way around. So let's leave the blame on the officials to when it was really deserved like the folks at Mississippi State. They have a real beef with the replay official, who in my opinion got it wrong but probably got it right with the information and views he had to work with. Gator fans have been on enough of the other side of the "non" or "bad" calls by the guys in the stripes to know what that feels like. Let's just leave it at it feels better being on the good side of it for once or twice!