The following theory was explained to me this evening by that Bama graduate who signs my paychecks.  He's a pretty logical guy and so I thought I'd share.  I'm sure someone around here (I'm looking at you Tankertoad) will consider this theory and promptly shoot it full of more holes than a crocheted doily. 

So here we go.....

I said something about Bobo's play calling and the consistent 1st & Bomb only working maybe 1/3 of the time, and 3rd & long always being a run up the middle which rarely works.

He said, think about what the defense is trying to do in those situations.  On 1st down, the defense is thinking they need to stuff the run here, dominate the line of scrimmage.  Then on 2nd down, they get a little looser and on 3rd down defense gets even more loose as they spread out and try to cover more ground. 

Under this theory, 1st & bomb and 3rd up the middle make perfectly good sense.  Plus he said, if you understand defenses operating this way, then your best chance for the long pass working is on 1st down.

Over to y'all for disputing...........