Crimson Red Sports

First: I want to congratulate the Bama coaches and players on the win.  Ole Miss came in and played well, but the defense led the way.  The offense needs to play with the sense of urgency that the defense showed.  Bama must improve on offense like they did this last week.  They also have to cut out the mental mistakes/penalties that hurt the team.  

Offense:  The offense quietly put 437 yard up.  There still mistakes that need to be corrected.  They had 11 negative plays.  This included 3 fumbles which Bama kept, but still hurt the drive. I fumble was in the red zone that put Bama behind the sticks.  Also, it included 1 int.  This leaves 7 plays that were tackles for losses and one those was a sack.  Bama had 2 three and outs all day with one 4 and out.  They only got in the red zone twice and got a field goal out of it.  The defensive teams seem to get of the ball well against Bama.  I don’t know if they need to change the snap count more or something in the stance is tipping them off.  They also didn’t take advantage of good field position at times.  Something that you don’t notice a lot and Bama uses it is the unbalanced look.

QB:  I think AJ had a very good game and here is why.  He was 25/32.  This is a good stat alone, but he was under pressure most of the night.  About 3 of his incompletions were on deep ball, one of which was underthrown that could have been a TD.  One incompletion, at least, was when he was scrambling and the recs did not come back well enough to help him out.   The biggest stat I have is he completed at least 5 passes when he was getting ready to be hit.  I think he was hit at least 6 times and one of those was late.  He did a good job directing the team before the half to get points.  

RB:  They ran hard and made positive yardage most of the time.   Both Drake and Yeldon hit the hole hard.  They also displayed good vision and toughness.  

REC:  Eight different players caught the ball which includes RB’s.  Jones again was the leading rec along with Norwood.  Norwood made a great catch when he was covered and AJ threw the ball in a tight window down low.   I would love to see these recs do a better job on the scramble drill.  I will put this here but I am not sure it was a problem.  It looked like a couple of times the recs may have busted a route.  I say this based on AJ reaction a couple of times.

OL:   I am putting the TE Vogler here.   He has got to do a better job.  He missed at least 3 blocks and at least 2 of those led to negative plays.  He missed a block that allowed immediate pressure on AJ and he fumbled.  The OL did make improvements, however they still need to get better.  They continue to put Bama in the hole early with false start penalties.  I know they haven’t, but it seems on every first possession for Bama they have a penalty to put themselves in a hole.  I thought Lindsay came in and played very well.  He may have even played better than Kelley.

Defense:   The defense played well.  They gave up only 205 total yards to a team that was averaging close to 500.  Sixty four of the yards came on 2 plays.  They had 5 negative plays which included a safety, an interception, and a fumble recovery.  I have them pressuring the OM QB at least 7 times, one of which caused the grounding call.  If my stats are correct, he only completed a couple of balls when he was scrambling.  They had 2 three and outs, 1 four and out and two one and outs.  Overall I thought the D did a good job tackling.  

DL:  They played well and were responsible for stopping the running game.  I say this because the safeties were involved with coverage most of the time.  The Ole Miss running back had run for 164 against UT, but Bama held him to 28 rushing and 12 rec.  
  
LB:  I know this sounds like a broken record, but CJ played well again.  It looked like he was the Spy for the OM QB.  TD also had a pretty good job at LB.

DB:   I thought they played well.  I also thought Jackson caused a fumble on the played that was ruled incomplete.  They did a good job coming up and making tackles and covered well enough for the DL to get pressure.  The D line getting pressure make covering guys a lot easier.  There were a couple of bust that allowed recs to be wide open a few times.  

Penalties: This is another game where the opponent had less penalties than Bama.

Special teams:  This was a difference maker in many games.  Bama doesn’t allow big returns very often.  Mandel has turned into a guy that can flip the field for the team. He made a great play on the first punt on the high snap.  Many punters would have panicked and shanked the punt.  Collins is always making plays on special teams.  Besides getting the punt off from a bad snap, the other big play was pinning OM back on the punt right before the safety.  CF hitting the 53 yarder has to be big for his confidence, and it was one of the best balls he has hit on FGs.


Finally:  Bama needs to continue to improve.  This is supposed to be one of the most potent offenses in the NCAA with all of the firepower Bama has on O.  They didn’t show him a lot, but I wonder if AC foot is still bothering him.  The mental mistakes and problems with the OL have to be corrected.  

Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll  
15 and counting

I think Lindsay at center did a great job replacing Ryan and will be the full-time guy now. Overall, O-line is still maddeningly a problem child. I do not understand the continuing problems with penalties.


 :wall:

Special thanks, Coach. The OL is shaky. This is usually because the players are not big enough, quick enough or they are missing assignments.  Would it be one or both of the latter? 

I think it is missing assignments more than anything.  They show signs of doing it right on many occasions. 

Thanks, hc.  Very well thought out, and good input.

Alabama isn't playing like a championship team yet, but they're improving and playing a crowd of young players.

These next 4 "cupcakes" on the schedule must be times when Alabama improves dramatically. 

And we need a bit of improvement on injury luck.  We didn't need to lose the starting center (Kelly).  That's be a huge loss if he can't return (regardless of how well Lindsay played).

Thanks, Coach.  How long does it take an offensive line to "gel"?  We've got 6 weeks until our next big test.  Is that enough time for them to find cohesiveness, or do you think we'll still have issues then?

That is hard to say.  It is strange to me they seem to do a better job pass protecting than run blocking.

Good thoughts, coach.  I think Drake showed why he needs more touches in the game. Also, Jackson is going to be a star on at CB, might be better that Milner when all is said and done.

Vogler was also responsible for AJ's INT.  We really need Howard to develop quickly so he can start by the time we play LSU, IMO.  Or maybe put Nudie over in that spot.

I think the OL played much better with Lindsay.  I wonder why he isn't the starter.

The RBs need to learn how to secure the ball.  I cringe every time I see one of them flopping the arm with the ball around like a chicken wing.

I hated to keep piling on Vogler, it did look like he slipped which led to the int.

I started watching him closely as the game went on.  I did see him make a pretty good block one time, he just doesn't play with a lot of consistency.

He missed more than he made.

True.  I was trying to say something good.  :lol:

I know.  He just didn't look real athletic this game.  OM had a good defensive game plan.

Great job as always hscoach. I do hope our offense and defense play well next week against Ga. State so we can begin a foundation to build on. We also need those big leads to let the younger players get some playing time. Sometimes I wonder if the younger players are scaring the older play about building a big score because they are afraid the young guys will out play them. You know we have a lot of competition and I feel the coaches will put the best players on the field. JMHO. RTR!

Thanks, Coach. Great analysis, as usual. I would like to add just a couple more observations, if I may.

One good thing about being at the game, you can see the whole field. Bama receivers were covered extremely well, downfield, by OM defenders. That's why you saw AJ completing a lot of short and underneath passes. I've never seen an OM team with that kind of quickness. What I saw last night was a Bama team that ended up dominating a very talented OM team. The OL grew up in the 2nd half. Robert Nkmjhgbjhg terrorized us in the first half. He is everything people thought he would be.

How about Eddie Jackson?!!! What a performance. I agree with others on the forum, he has the potential to be better than Dee M. He was exciting to watch last night. In fact, it was a pleasure watching the entire "D" at work last night. I can't say enough about how good they played.

The last thing I would mention, is how great the crowd was. Nobody was sitting on their hands, BDS was rocking! Even the student section didn't completely bail out as bad as they normally do.  :lol2:

It was a great night for the team and us fans.

Those are very good observations.  I always wonder about coverages and routes because you can see them all on tv.  It did seem to be very noisy and I am glad most of the crowd stayed to the end.  I don't remember how many plays OM average a game, but Bama kept them way under. 

I forgot to mention, OM receivers are NOT as good as A&M's and Mr. Wallace is no Johnny Manziel.

Did anyone else see after the first drive and Bama kicked the field goal?   One 3rd down when AJ checked down, after the play it showed Saban and it looks like he was disgusted and mouthed he was wide open.  Did AJ miss seeing a wide open rec that would have been a first down or even a td?

I thought the OL played better with Lindsey in the game after Kelly got injured. I am not sure if we had just worn OM down or if Lindsey just made a big difference.  Jamos and I discussed this in another thread and he said OM was jumping AJ's snap count and he adjusted and changed it up in the 2nd half and that slowed OM down.

I also noticed Steen moved to LG beside CK on a couple of 3rd and short which worked out good.

Beleu and Jackson both played well on the corners. Jackson was a pleasant surprise. He is a good looking freshman. I am not ready to say he looked as good as Milliner yet like some have said but he looked very good.

Great job Coach. I think the Oline will be better with Lindsay in there. He was more animated  with the line calls. He seemed to take charge.
With more time AJ was able to find receivers. The biggest thing I noticed was DB Eddie Jackson. He may be the missing link to the secondary issues. He did a great job last night.

They moved AS over when they went unbalanced.  The TE lined up in the tackle position on the other side.

Good job breaking down the game Coach. I am a firm believer in that defense wins National Championships. It's been a long time since I saw a Bama defense shut down a team in 4th down situations the way that they did yesterday. This to me was the game changer for Bama. Everyone has been talking about this years team and it's identity, I think we saw it yesterday. If this team is to win another NC this year, it will follow the lead of the defense and I think that as the offense improves this will only make the defense better. This team, as a whole, grew up a lot yesterday, even with all of the negative plays and I think there a better days ahead for them.

I agree they grew up a lot.  It is amazing how much difference a week makes, plus a QB who is not as mobile as JM.  Hopefully the O will continue to improve.  They have too many weapons not to be effective.

Thanks, coach.  Great notes!  Any ideas as to why JF played so little?  I only saw him on the field once.  Situational, injury, or just Drake has moved ahead?  I'm tempted to say that he needs to move ahead of Vogler.  Not to pile on!   #+

He played a few downs and was used more as a blocker.  The only thing I can guess is Drake had a good week and is a bigger threat to take it to the house.  That one move he made on the sideline put the poor OM defender on his knees.  Fortunately the guy had the sideline to help him.

The real reason Fowler played little:
Because I predicted he'd carry the ball on the first play.  :lol2:
http://www.crimsonredsports.com/index.php?topic=20789.0

"RB:  They ran hard and made positive yardage most of the time.   Both Drake and Yeldon hit the hole hard.  They also displayed good vision and toughness"

Good breakdown of game.  In regards to good vision though, I thought Drake missed a big cutback lane when he tried to push to the perimeter on one of his runs where he was stopped for a no gain..  But overall, I think he did well.

Although I hope we never have to use him much, I think our punter is excellent.  The value of him "flipping" the field is often overlooked.  Also, the good hang time on his kicks are allowing for great coverage down field by special teams.

Lack of Senior leadership....penalties...plain and simple, it will improve game to game.

Not trying to nit-pic hs, but Bama actually got three 4 & outs.  One at the end of the 1st quarter and two back-to-back at the end of 3rd and beginning of 4th quarters.  One of them was in the red-zone too...

I think this was huge for our D.  They needed to step in those situations and impose their will on another team.  The other big confidence builder was the safety, IMHO.  After that play, the D seemed to have the swagger of old.  I am really looking forward to seeing how they build on that.

They converted on one of the 4th down plays, but was stopped on the other.   I will double check.  You are probably correct.

Ole Miss was 1-4 when going for it on four down. We stopped them three times but none of them were 4 plays and out. They came on drives of 5, 10 and 8 plays. See link below for a drive chart.

http://espn.go.com/ncf/drivechart?gameId=332710333

I agree.  The D did seem to have a swagger, but the excitement of the players on the field was what I like to see.

The 4 and out was the interception drive in the 1st Qtr.

You are correct.  I had my thinking all mixed up. Sorry hc

I probably wasn't clear when I wrote it up.  Sometimes my mind gets ahead of my typing skills.

That was a 4 play drive but they had made a 1st down. My difinition of 3 or 4 and out means you stopped them and got the ball back without them making a first down. I might be wrong.

Hugh freeze made some questionable calls in the first half. Specifically going for it on 4th down instead of a kicking field goal and stopping the clock before the half which helped us get a field goal.

I was comfortable at half leading 9-0 knowing we get the ball to start the 2nd half. I would not have been comfortable leading 9-3.

I know Freeze was thinking he could not beat us with field goals but the way the first half was played field goals were valuable.

Thoughts?

I thought he should have taken the points when he had the chance.

I kind of look at it like Freeze.  You are in the stadium of the number 1 team in the country.  Go for it early.  Some of the play calling was questionable,  but some of that may have been on the decision making of the QB.  Also, think of the boost going down and scoring a TD on the first drive if they had been successful.  I think Freeze knew they were better this year than last, but also didn't have the depth that Bama does.

I was at the game IT WAS LOUD!!!! especially after Ivory got hurt the Ole Piss crowd started thier Hotty toddy while he was on the field and the crowd turned on them quick. that was when we got the second 4th down stop!

I do think AJ missed a wide open WR on that check down you spoke of hscoach.

Overall we are just a hair off on O and the D is coming along very well.
RTR

It sounded loud on TV, but sometimes that can be deceiving. (hope I spelled that right)  Was the guy open for a TD or 1st down?

I think it was Volger and i think it could have been a TD. the Corner took the inside route and Volger had a straight shot at the end zone, now would he have got in or even caught it I dont know after the night he was having.

Thanks.  I wish after every pass they would show a wide shot so one can know what is going on downfield.

I was sitting very close to the Ole Miss section. When that happened, I thought for sure some fights would break out. There were some pizzed off fans about that.

Now I know why he didn't throw it to him.  :lol:

When McCarron returned to the sideline a close-up of coach clearly showed him articulating "wide open". I guess coach saw it too. Coach see EVERYTHING.

A couple of things I failed to mention.  First, in the 4th quarter when Jackson was beat he did it right.  What I mean by this is most players look back for the ball when the proper technique is to run to the man.  This is what Jackson did.  The second point was how Blue played his man.  It was around the 10:45 mark when OM tried a deep ball on a double move.  If you watch Blue he is looking back for the ball, however his right hand is on the hip of the rec so he can feel if he breaks off his route.

Plus after Drakes run that was one beautiful OM fan they showed in the stands.

hscoach, help me out here (downed punt in 3rd quarter):

I watched the replay, and it looked like our kick-coverage guy (Collins?) stepped into the endzone before batting the ball back to the 1-foot line.
The OM fans insist the refs cheated in this call.  :lol2: :lol2:
What did you think of the play?  Was Collins in the endzone when he batted the ball?  I know the rules changed on this recently, so I need a refresher lesson.

In college it does not matter where the feet/player is.  It is where the ball is .

Hey thanks hscoach, I didn't know this. I also thought in college if his feet crossed the line then he couldn't down the ball. RTR!

That must be the problem; thanks.  #+

Ole Miss has produced a video, announcing that the loss was a moral victory.
TRUE, a video of them getting crushed.
Listen to the Hugh Freeze comments.

http://vimeo.com/75911475

 ??? ??? ???

Did he say the gap has closed...??? :-\

He did.
In reality, last year they caught us unprepared and uninspired.
This year they got our best shot.  OM played better this year, but lost by more points.  They're a better team than a year ago, but the real test is this weekend.  Can they play well after a disappointment?
 :popcorn2:

Over the last 3 years SEC teams are 1-11 after losing to Bama :lol:

I did something with this a couple years ago - some research and a spreadsheet, and I think I posted the data on here.   The "Alabama hangover" seems to be holding true for several seasons now.

I will say, though, that we've played more than 12 SEC games in the last 3 years.

FIFY   :lol2:

I think from what I read what you all post, the ground and pound was used more against OM than usual. CNS seems to be playing his cards close to his chest this year. I look for him to open up on LSU. RTR!