as you enter post season. Winning streaks are good. They create publicity and another sound bite for the media. But they also increase the size of the target on your back and add to the pressure each week as the streak builds. Players and fans alike may begin to believe a team is 'unbeatable'. Are they the best road to a National Championship? Would be interesting to see the stats on how many unbeaten teams have won a NC vs. how many one-loss teams have won. It takes a very special team to go unbeaten as well as a lot of luck. My point is that sometimes a loss, although Coach Saban would deny this, can be beneficial if it serves to re-focus a team at mid-season (or early season) and reinforce teaching points through actual game results. It allows the players to see the consequences of bad habits and instill an urgency in real time to correct them yet allow time to overcome the errors that led to the loss and still win a championship. I remember CNS saying many times last year in interviews that after the Ole Miss loss the players played with an 'urgency' the remainder of the year because they knew another loss and they were out. I'm sure Dabo Swinney would tell you that Clemson was a different team after the Pitt loss this year. Of course any fan would tell you they would rather go undefeated than lose a game. I'm just saying that it seems that teams with a loss have already had that 'shock' moment during the year, and maybe they play with a certain freedom and focus for the remainder of the year after they've got a loss out of the way. I remember Tebow vowing in 2008 after they were stunned by Ole Miss in September in the Swamp that 'this will never happen again'. Looking at Alabama just in the poll era, we have won NCs with an unbeaten record in these years:
1961
1979
1992
2009
But with one loss in these years:
1964
1965
1978
2011
2012
2015
And now we have been defeated for the NC as an unbeaten team in these years:
1973
2016
I find myself every year looking at the schedule at the beginning of each year and thinking if we HAD to lose a game, who will it be against and would it be the best game to lose IF WE HAD to lose a game. This year I honestly thought Tennessee had the best chance to win based on the preseason hype, followed by L.S.U. based on the location of the game and their absolute hatred of Alabama. I was already rationalizing that it would not be an absolute disaster because one-loss teams making it to the CFP seems to be the norm now. As the year progressed though, I began to think of the winning streak as a liability rather than a good thing. So if all streaks are made to be broken, then an extended winning streak is nothing more than a burden to carry waiting for the next team to break it. When you're holding an SEC and NC trophy, nobody remembers how many games you lost. Like us last year, Clemson may be celebrating today from the lessons they learned from that loss to Pitt. I'll take 14-1 EVERY YEAR if it guarantees us a NC. . .
1961
1979
1992
2009
But with one loss in these years:
1964
1965
1978
2011
2012
2015
And now we have been defeated for the NC as an unbeaten team in these years:
1973
2016
I find myself every year looking at the schedule at the beginning of each year and thinking if we HAD to lose a game, who will it be against and would it be the best game to lose IF WE HAD to lose a game. This year I honestly thought Tennessee had the best chance to win based on the preseason hype, followed by L.S.U. based on the location of the game and their absolute hatred of Alabama. I was already rationalizing that it would not be an absolute disaster because one-loss teams making it to the CFP seems to be the norm now. As the year progressed though, I began to think of the winning streak as a liability rather than a good thing. So if all streaks are made to be broken, then an extended winning streak is nothing more than a burden to carry waiting for the next team to break it. When you're holding an SEC and NC trophy, nobody remembers how many games you lost. Like us last year, Clemson may be celebrating today from the lessons they learned from that loss to Pitt. I'll take 14-1 EVERY YEAR if it guarantees us a NC. . .
