Coaches are to blame!!!

Look, I don't have a problem with Mike Shula, and I am not one of these people who thinks his days are numbered. BUT, I saw some things (and didn't see some things) Saturday that disappointed me.
Before I go into detail, let me say that Alabama gave an incredible effort on the road on both sides of the ball. JPW was poised and made great decisions. Our offensive line protected well. Our defense kept Arkansas off of the field.
Now for the bad stuff! No, I'm not going to point fingers at Leigh Tiffin. I'm pointing them at Mike Shula! Late in the game, with the score being tied at 17 and your offense having moved the ball well all day through the air, (and your kicker having already missed one kick) is it a good decision to play for the field goal? Try to get in the end zone, THEN kick if that doesn't work!!! In Tiffin's defense, his first miss came from short distance at a severe angle, and those kicks tend to be tough. As a golfer, I understand how a bad kick (shot) can get in your head.
In overtime, our defense stepped up HUGE and intercepted Mustain, essentially giving us the win. All we need to do is put them away, as they are now somewhat demoralized. But what do we do? We hand off three times up the middle to Darby (more on him later) for four yards. PLAYING FOR THE FIELD GOAL???? When you've already missed a short one and a game winner? Are you lacking confidence in your QB? Come on Coach, that's just stupid, but I guess you realize that now. And don't give me that hindsight is 20-20 bullshit, I was screaming at you before the kick was made!
Then, to top it all off, who do we send out to kick the extra point? A true freshman walk-on who has already had his confidence shot down three times in the past three hours. I'm sorry, but in that situation, I'm either going to go for the 2-point conversion, or send Christensen out to kick the PAT.
The next part of my problem is with the post-game press conference. Shula came out and said: "We didn't hit the field goals or the PAT. But we're not pointing fingers. That's not what we're about. We're about coming together as a football team. We've got to stick together." Isn't that essentially pointing fingers? Shula should have stepped up for his teams sake (and especially for Leigh Tiffin) and said "It was MY fault! I made some poor decisions toward the end of the game and in OT." A truly good coach would not have left his kicker hanging out for the media to beat on, but would have attempted to deflect some of the criticism to himself. This was the most disappointing thing I saw from Mike Shula Saturday!
Now to talk about Darby. I was/am a huge fan of Kenneth Darby. I touted him as the best running back in the SEC, if not the country! He has always been a hard runner who could dance out of the way of oncoming defenders with the grace of Fred Astaire. But now, he needs some pine time! He has lost his forward explosion. He is dancing in the backfield sometimes before he even gets the ball. A lot of people have blamed it on poor run blocking, but why does Jimmy Johns come in and immediately gain 6-8 yards per play behind the same O-line? Because he runs hard into the line! Darby needs to run hard at the line, then try to make people miss. I would bet that he has almost as many negative yardage plays as he does positive yardage plays at this point in the season. That's unexcusable from one of our offensive leaders. Maybe he has watched himself on tape too much, or maybe he is protecting himself from injury. If that's the case, then what are you protecting yourself for, Kenneth? Your future as a used car salesman? If you don't start hitting the holes running downhill instead of trying to cut around in the backfield, you definitely won't make it to the NFL, and might not even be starting by the end of the season!
Arkansas was a hard pill to swallow, and will stick in my craw for some time to come. We were the better football team all around, dominating in every key statistical category, yet we come away losers. Many people have said that the Arkansas game might determine how the rest of the season would go for both teams. Man, I hope not! Hopefully we learned some valuable lessons about scoring in the red zone (a category in which we are dead last in the SEC). Rader or Shula need to stick with the game plan that got them to the red zone. I am sick of seeing us get to the 15 yard line, then start running happy-feet Darby up the middle. Roll JPW out, for God's sake! He can make things happen with his arm OR feet, or he can throw it away if he gets in trouble. Don't put him in a straight drop situation where he may be forced to take a sack, and don't run up the middle against a 7- or 8-man front that's expecting just that. Try to be UN-predictable, rather than predictable!
Okay, that's enough ranting for today. Roll Tide!