2037 Week 11

#1 Alabama (9-0) is A+ across the board. We are #1 in everything except pass offense (41st) and turnover differential (22nd). Vanderbilt (5-2) is B across the board. They are #84 in pts/gm, #107 in total offense, and #53 in total defense. We are #2 in the BCS with a .992 Poll Avg. and Northwestern is #1 with a .994 Poll Avg. We'll see if they can make it to the showdown as they have Iowa (5-3), #5 Ohio State (6-1), and Illinois (4-4) left on their schedule. Weather: Clear.

VU K Smith knocks in a 30 yard FG, 3-0 Commies. QB Jesse Russ throws a quick sideline route to WR Ian Edmonds and he takes it 50 yards for a TD, 7-3 Bama. VU HB Young breaks about 500 tackles and scores on an 80 yard TD run, 10-7 Vandy.

On 3rd and long we try to throw a screen pass, but VU LB Fraser steps in front of the pass, picks it, and goes 14 yards for a TD, 17-7 Vandy. K Dennis Larkins hits a 34 yard FG with :36 left in the quarter, 17-10 home team. VU HB Young breaks about 2 billion, 6 hundred thousand tackles and scores on an 81 yard TD run, 24-10 Commies with :17 left in the quarter. Amazingly, Vandy comes out in man vs. our 4 WR set. QB Russ throws a pass to the flat out to HB Nick Brown and he outruns the Vandy secondary for an 83 yard TD with :03 left until halftime, 24-17 Vandy.

QB Russ throws a 34 yard TD strike to WR Lance Carter to tie it at 24 with 3:37 left in the 3rd. VU K Smith blasts a 49 yard FG to make it 27-24 Commies with 1:54 left in the quarter.

QB Russ scrambles and fumbles the ball at the Vandy 5 yard line. HB Brown had two chances to grab it, but Vandy recovers early in the 4th quarter. VU QB Smith throws a 48 yard TD pass to WR Jackson over SS Demarcus Amadi's reach, 34-24 Vandy with 5:37 left in the game. QB Russ goes deep for WR Carter again and he hauls in the 82 yard TD bomb, 34-31 with 5:25 to play. On Vandy's next possession they have a 3rd and 6 at their 24. They run option to the side our Dline is not crashing toward. ROLB Jermaine Gay takes the QB and he pitches to HB Brown who has been killing us all day long! Our closest unblocked defender is CB Matt Smith who is at our 40 yard line. I user control him and make the tackle at the Vandy 28 yard line bringing up 4th and 2. This was a critical play in the game as we hadn't stopped them practically all day. They punt. On our next possession QB Russ goes deep to WR Joe Tyler and he brings in the 63 yard TD bomb, 38-34 Tide with 3:32 left in the game. Our defense holds on the next possession and forces a punt. We drive into Vandy territory and K Dennis Larkins boots a 42 yard FG to make it 41-34 with :32 left in the game. Vandy gets the ball with no timeouts left and throws a bomb down to our 40 yard line on first down. Going hurry up they throw an incompletion on second down. On the next play the VU QB throws to a WR that looks like he's about to go out of bounds. This play by their WR is kind of reminiscent of the catch Swan made against Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl in Miami. Anyway, he comes back down and gets a foot in bounds at our 5 yard line with :04 to play. On first down and goal at our 5, the VU QB drops back to pass and ROLB Gay gets in his face almost causing an interception. :01 left! We open up our Dline and have both ROLB Gay and LOLB Kevin Stegall blitzing outside. Vandy picks up the blitz, but DT O'Brian is heading toward the QB when he throws it and our captain FS Tim Hopkins picks it off in the endzone to end the game.

This game was much closer than I expected. Vandy's senior impact HB Gregory Young had 23 attempts for 319 yards and 2 TDs while officially breaking 11 tackles. Trust me, he broke more than that. Vandy had 34 pancakes in the game to our 15. If it wasn't for our passing game with our talented WRs against their poor secondary, we would probably have lost this one. BTW, the first time I was playing this game, we were tied 7-7 in the first half and Vandy had just kicked to me, but before my PR could field the ball the game froze. In injury news TE Neal Smith will miss 3 weeks with a shoulder injury.