Our seeding just took a VERY significant hit.

There goes our #1 seed chances

Another coach G special

The subs couldn't have been worse

MookieBlaylock said:

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Another coach G special

The subs couldn't have been worse

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Subs had nothing to do with that loss.

Losing to RPI #66 will probably take us from a NCAA 1 or 2 seed to a 3 or 4. And that's with SC and UT on the horizon.

A little odd for Hill, Piper, Lopez, Ziemer, Asdis, and Watt to miss significant minutes in a close road match.

Honestly, I'd prefer Asdis at 70% over Smith at 100%.

I wonder why Bates gets no time in front during a bad offensive showing? Drop Asdis back and switch up.

.....and if Watt was dominating I'm not sure what game I was watching.

I'm not sure A&M played their worst game of the season tonight, but it was pretty bad despite dominating the 2nd half and creating plenty of scoring chances. It's one thing to lose to a decent Arkansas team on the road in your first road game without your gameday coach (Phil), but it's something entirely different to lose to a bad Alabama team that was headed for a losing record and next to last place showing in the SEC. That was their highlight of the year and one of their biggest wins in school history in beating a Top 5 team. This was an embarrassing loss for the players and coaching staff, and completely unacceptable from a fan perspective.

Any chance for a #1 seed is gone now (with a #2 seed on life support as well), as is any realistic shot at the SEC title. A&M hasn't won a conference title since 2014 and it's now tied for the program's longest stretch without a title since 1998-2001 (4 years). The scary part is that A&M could easily lose its last two games against Tennessee and South Carolina and finish middle of the pack and not even get a bye in the SEC tourney. To be fair, the team raised expectations after early results and a big win over an elite Santa Clara squad. Most of us thought this would be rebuilding season but I didn't expect the newcomers and overall talent on the team to be as good as it has been, so that's why the loss tonight was a big blow and raises the question of whether or not we may have been playing above our actual ability early in the season. Because right now A&M is on pace for a very average conference record (5th or worse), combine that with two 6th place finishes in 2015 and 2016 and there may be a troubling pattern taking hold in SEC play. A&M amazingly, and to Coach G's credit, finished either 1st or 2nd for 11 consecutive years between 2004-2014, so there has been a clear drop-off. Yes, the SEC is a good conference and continuing to improve on the national stage, but A&M has had either the best or second-best roster every year since we joined the league in 2012. However, A&M could still finish strong with wins over the Vols and Gamecocks, so I won't throw in the towel just yet.

A&M is a truly awful road team this season (2-2-1). Apart from 2 gimme wins against abysmal Kentucky and an overmatched Hawaii squad, A&M has come out flat in every game and seemed genuinely disinterested in playing until about 30 minutes into a match. Contrast that with most home games (11-0-0), where A&M comes out and takes control of matches quickly and makes the opponent play our game. The bad news is that playing every game at home in the NCAA tournament is no longer an option; in fact, it now looks like we'll only play one game at home in the 1st round. This is the second game that the substitution patterns and selection of substitutes was just strange. I don't know if the coaches were just benching some players that were ineffective (Piper, Zeimer, Hill) or they just saw something in the way Alabama was aligned, but whatever the case it didn't work.

The lack of cohesion and simple fundamentals most of the night was really disappointing. Consider Ally Watt's wide-open miss in the box for what should have been an easy put away early in the 2nd half. Rheagan Smith, who played her best game of the season tonight, collects a great long pass from McCain, brings two defenders to her and then makes a good pass to Watt, who doesn't trap the ball effectively, resulting in the ball bouncing away from her by a good 2 yards and forcing her to take a quick off-balance shot with her left foot falling backwards, which goes over the crossbar. Another couple of high shots taken by Emily Bates from distance were shot with her head and body behind the ball and falling backwards. I believe even Asdis (who played poorly tonight) had a shot or two well off the mark because of a lack of positioning her body before taking the shot. As a striker you must get your momentum and body over the ball with your head down if you want to make a strong, accurate shot on goal. Only McCain had a great shot tonight because she did exactly that. I've also noticed that in the last 3-4 games now that Ritchie's left leg off set pieces has weakened considerably, with several shots hardly getting off the ground. It might be time to let someone else take those free kicks. And we continue to struggle with the final pass and touch to the forwards, which are usually too far for Watt to run onto. Passing and trapping have been deteriorating throughout this stretch of the season, and we weren't great at it to begin with anyway. Little things add up to missed opportunities and a result like tonight in a game we had no business losing.

The midfield really was dreadful in the 1st half and multiple substitutions were made to try and mix things up, but it didn't work. We simply cannot pass effectively in the midfield with even the slightest bit of pressure applied to us when we play on the road. We instead quickly go backwards (which seems to be our default setting) and put the pressure on the backline instead. Notice that when Alabama pressured us early in the match, they won most of the 50/50 balls and they disrupted our rhythm. In the 2nd half for some reason they backed off and it allowed us to start playing our game and setting up some scoring chances. I don't know what the solution is, but we have to find a way to stay calm and keep possession in the midfield when under pressure.

The backline seemed rattled several times tonight as we struggled to recover on counter attacks (usually as a result of turnovers in the midfield). Alston and Hill were out of position quite a bit and had to scramble to stave off scoring chances. Alabama should have scored early in the game when we didn't bother to close down a cross from the wing and then didn't mark the striker in the box. We also had trouble clearing the ball out of the box quite a bit, instead trying to shield Bama players and make intricate passes out of danger. And the winning goal was scored on a complete breakdown with Alston out of position and not marking her man, which resulted in a through ball to the side of the goal that Walton did actually follow through the box and defend, but then Ritchie didn't bother to mark her forward who ran across her into space to receive the final pass and convert the shot past Morche (which also wasn't well defended by her either). Basic fundamentals again came into play on that winning goal.

A&M's season will come down to match-ups in the NCAA tournament, because we'll most likely be on the road and we have to hope to play teams that sit back and play the counter because we just don't handle the pressure or physical play well at all. For a moment I thought this season might be a special one because everything was aligning for a shot at #1 seed in a year we didn't expect it to happen. A&M's RPI will take a plunge losing to a low ranked team, probably around #8-12. But right now I'm just concerned about trying to get to a seed and give ourselves a chance in the postseason.

This game was difficult to watch. The first half was awful, it is the same things match after match and it is worse on the road. Passing is so bad, which is partly do to our continually poor spacing and lack of effective movement. We have way to many lazy players, I wish all the forwards would follow Allys lead and increase their work rate. Asdis does a good job but poor decision making resulting in bad shots that lose possession.
Everyone in our midfield is just there, so few impact plays, players just disappear for long stretches.
Im not sure we had any good crosses into the box from the outside all game. Set pieces were mostly wasted, completely agree with hidden on richies lack of power the last couple weeks. Every direct kick she has taken has been a waste.
The subs were fine, everyone who came out other than those needing a rest, were playing poorly.
G really needs to go back to the drawing board and work on some fundamental strategies for effective ball control, and then work on the fundamental passing skills needed to make that occur.
We are playing the beautiful game, but look like *****