Crimson Red Sports

First:   First congrats to the Bama team for the victory.  It was a game where Bama got control of the game early, but then allowed UT to get back into the game.

Offense:  The good news is Bama rolled up 469 yards of total offense.  The bad news is 253 of this was in the first quarter which means they only had 216 for the rest of the game.  While Bama raced to a 27-0 lead they only had 2 negative plays.  One was a tackle for a loss and the other was a fumble which TJY recovered and Bama went on to score the touchdown.  After this point Bama had 7 negative plays.  They were 4 tackles for losses, one sack and 2 lost fumbles, one of which took a TD off the board.  I don’t have Bama for any 3 and outs, but they had 2 four and outs.   The offense was 11/15 on 3rd down conversions.  This is 73 percent which is a high average considering the distance needed for a first down.  The offense had 4 runs of 10+ yards and had 14 pass plays for 10+ yards.  They scored 4 of the touchdowns outside the red zone and would have had another had JF not fumbled.  Only one trip in the red zone resulted in a TD.   There was what I would call 2 key points for the offense.  The first was when UT pulled within 10 points 27-17 Bama went on a long TD drive to push the score to 34-17.   The second was after the FG by UT Bama kept the ball for about seven minutes not leaving UT time for a comeback.  If they hadn’t fumbled going in it would not have mattered.   

QB:  I thought BS played pretty well.  He made some huge plays on scrambles one of which gained a 1st down by lowering his head instead of going out of bounds on the big touchdown drive mentioned above.  I thought he tried to force one throw to AC which almost resulted in a pick.  He showed some very good elusive moves to keep plays alive.  Also, on the fumble on the exchange it looked like the back side defensive player was waiting for him and probably should have left the ball with Henry.  It looked to me like he tried to pull the ball. 

RB:  They ran hard and but did have some mistakes. One was the dropped screen by TJY.  I know it was 3rd and 21, but it looked like he had room to run with a blocker in front.  Other mistakes I saw was JF not getting to the outside of the defensive player allowing them to make plays for short gains.  There were fumbles which took points off the board.   

REC:  AC had another good game.  One thing Bama did to help was when UT put a safety over the top they ran the inside rec on a fade type routes which occupied the safety.  What I noticed was they didn’t expect to get the ball and basically stopped the route when they got to the safety level.  I know AC is a horse but just two wide rec’s that had catches yesterday.  I would love to see other players get involved. 

OL: As you notice the low number of negative plays mentioned above you could say the OL played pretty well.  I though LB came in and did a good job at left tackle.  There were a couple of missed assignments like AS missing the block on the UT player who had a direct line to Sims.  It looked like the defensive player had a wide set and AS didn’t take a big enough drop step to account for the rush.  They didn’t gain a lot at times when they ran the ball, but they did gain positive yards.  I thought UT did a good job stalemating the OL at times preventing big gains.   

Defense:  The defense gave up 383 yards of offense.  Almost all of it came in the last 3 quarters.  They had 7 tackles for losses, 3 sacks, a fumble recovery, and an int.  The defense gave up 4 runs of 10+ yards and 9 passes of 10+ yards.  The Bama defense had 2 three and outs and 1 4 and out.  UT made 4 trips inside of Bama’s red zone and scored 2 touchdowns and kicked 2 field goals.  It looked like UT’s game plan was to stretch Bama’s defense since they kept going wide with the passes and runs.  They did try to run inside just enough to keep Bama honest.  There were way too many missed tackles.

DL:  They played OK.  They have played better.  It looked like they were catching blocks a lot of the time.  They allowed UT to get outside a couple of times one that went for a 44 yard run.  XD did a heck of a job chasing down the UT player from behind after a big gain.

LB:  RR again played well. He made a good play when defending the pass on a good throw by the UT QB.   There was one time where TD had the QB stopped for a loss and missed the tackle.
 
DB:  Again, there was some confusion.  They were confused on the 2nd TD pass where there were actually 2 players open.  CJ didn’t get the defensive call early enough and as flagged for a pass interference trying to play catchup.  They got cut on the edge at least once and allowed the UT players to get outside a couple of times.  They were in position to make plays and didn’t a couple of times.  I also think they underestimated the speed of the UT players not taking good angles for tackles.

Penalties: Bama had 6 penalties.  They had two false starts and substitution infraction.  One of the false starts caused a change in play called, the change was the play that Bama fumbled on which led to a UT score.  The PI could be contributed to lack of communication.  The fumble by JF came after a delay of the game penalty which took Bama out of the red zone and gave them a 1st and 15.  This should not have been a factor. 

Special teams:   They gave up one return of 33 yards but kept them bottled up most of the day.  AG practically shanked the 1st PAT.  I didn’t notice a bad hold/snap.  They did cause a fumble on a punt, but UT recovered. 

Finally:  This is just my opinion, but Bama looked like a tired football team.  I can only think of 2 big hits during the complete game.  They didn’t play with the emotion they did while playing A&M.  There seem to be a lot of arm tackles or just not getting there at times.  They allowed UT to convert on 3rd and 13.   It may have been they just lost focus after racking up a 27-0 lead, but too me they looked tired.

Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll 
15 and counting

Great job as usual coach. I would have to add, under special teams, that our freshman punter continued to distinguish himself with his consistent excellent play. We know how much coach values field position, and this kid delivers.

You are 100% correct.

Great job coach.  Interesting comment about being tired.  I know they seemed to lose focus after racking up the big first quarter.  Maybe that's why?  In your opinion will the open date before LSU help with that?  Also, on Robinson's hgh ankle sprain, Coach Saban seemed to say he might be back in a couple of weeks.  None of us know how severe the sprain is but he'd need to practice some to be back for LSU, wouldn't he?

Anyhow, we beat UT and LSU beat Ole Miss.  If we win out and Miss. State beats Ole Miss, WE GO TO ATLANTA!  ROLL TIDE!!!

Thank you hscoach. I too saw something was wrong after the first QTR. but I couldn't figure it out. Maybe it was a tired team. I still say on games like A&M we should do the 2nd string if they are going to play next year in the 3rd and 4th should get to play a lot. Then if we give up score or have bad offense at least it won't be the 1st team that we holler at. lol, RTR!

Great analysis Coach that captures the good & bad in this game.  I thought the D more than the O lost focus in 2nd qtr.  O wasn't doing very well either but it seemed to start with the D.  Maybe they are tired.  Off week should help with that.

Bottom line is we gotta keep getting better and gotta keep winning.  Some tough games ahead.  One at a time.

I think the off week will help.  There are a lot of little nicks that need to heal as much as possible.  Jones didn't play because of a slight hamstring problem and DW came off limping once.  With high ankle sprains you never know how long they will take. 

Great analysis and thanks for posting it each week.  I have been extremely impressed with Reggie Ragland's play this year.  He shows me that he will be an extremely dangerous player for opposing offensive coordinators to have to deal with when he becomes the "every down" LB... I can't wait...  :popcorn2:

Great assessment, Coach. It really seems with this team that when they lose focus, they really lose focus. I'm just glad that they regrouped enough to put the game away. I hope the bye week will give them time to heal and catch their breath. To me, the LSU game is the most important game in front of us that we have in the regular season. We play so well at home that I feel quote confident that we will take care of business against MSU and Auburn.

LSU on the road will be a big challenge, especially as well as they are playing right now. What are your thoughts on that?

Coach good stuff as always. I think the qb change by UT changed the way the game was played. Dobbs was more read option while Worley kind of stays in the pocket. Dobbs took pressure off their line and we had to adjust on the fly.

Coach what is your opinion on the blocking down field rules. I hate it because these read option teams have linemen blocking 5 yards downfield and when they roll out there are blockers in front. Not a fair rule.

Eli Gold mentioned that the poor-quality sod contributed to the missed PAT.  The field was re-sodded several times, and overseeded when that didn't work.  Apparently artificial lighting was brought in to help speed the growing, which helped some but was inadequate to prepare the field by game time.

Basically, the field was sloppy and an embarrassment to UT.

I agree.  LSU has improved week to week.  Also this has, to me, turned into a huge rivalry game and it is played at LSU. 

In my opinion, they need to watch this more closely.  Years ago we would tell our safeties to read uncovered linemen.  This would give them a great read on if it was a run or pass play.

I don't usually do this but I want to say I think Butch Jones is doing a good job at UT.  He is playing a lot of young players with this being their 1st year of DI football.  They had a backup QB in and never gave up.  Many teams with young players would have quit after being down 27-0.  I think UT will be in contention for the East title by next year.

Pics of the grow lights like those used in Neyland Stadium last week or so (and explanation):
http://www.volnation.com/forum/tennessee-vols-football/228336-looks-like-ground-crew-improved-field-2.html

I noticed this and find it disturbing. We have to spread the ball around & are relying way too much on Amari Cooper.


 :tinfoil:

Great analysis hscoach as usual, let me add some thoughts as well.

Offense: The offense played to the same level that they had in the A&M game for the first quarter and the beginning of the second then I think it was not a loss of focus but more of a complacent attitude. They did not have the same aggressiveness they started the game with. Then is the second half when we had to make the scoring drive when TN pulled within 10 points they put together a 70 yd+ drive that was kept going by three big third down conversions!! The scramble that Blake had on a third and nine that he ended up diving to make the last couple of yards was a key play for us to extend the drive and for him as a confidence elevation, which lead to the screen to Derrick Henry to push the lead back out to 17 points. This was huge for the offence since they had struggled a bit to get things going again after taking the 27 - 0 lead.

QB: Blake had a solid game which was sorely needed for his confidence about playing on the road. He only had the one bad pass that could have been picked, but other than that he made good decisions and good throws. On the fumbled exchange with Derrick Henry in the fourth qtr, to me it looked like he did give the ball to Derrick or left it there for him to take and Derrick must have thought he was going to pull it back and it fell to the ground. When they were talking after the play to me their body language seemed to suggest that.

RB: For the most part they had a solid game. There were a couple of miscues that hscoach covered all I would like to only add that on the one swing pass to Derrick Henry it looked as if he never was able to find the ball in the air. But other than that they played well.

REC: Coop had another monster game, at the 5:18 mark left in the first quarter he had 185 rec. yards!! The first play from scrimmage was a thing of beauty!! Executed flawlessly by the entire team!! D. White also had some good receptions as well. I want to address something right here. I know that everyone wants to see the ball spread around more than what it is now as I would also but, when you have an Amari Cooper on your team and he is open you throw him the ball and let him make the plays he is capable of!!! Bottom Line!!! Now with that said if he is not open then you can't just dwell on him Blake has to be quick to go through your progression of other receivers to find the open man. I know  that everyone knew that this was a trait of CLK to get the ball to your best play maker and Amari is our best play maker!! This is the same thing he did with Marquis Lee when he was the OC at USC and Lee had huge numbers in that offense. OK rant over!!

OL: They played not a great game but a good game especially after Cam Robinson went down. Leon Brown moved over to left tackle and Bozeman took over at right guard and both played very well imo. There was the one missed blocked that for the sack but that was on Austin Sheppard.

Defense: This was almost like the tale of two cities. They played great against the starting QB TN had but when they put the freshman Hobbs into the game, and started running the Zone Read in the second qtr they had trouble containing him on third down. As of a result of that is why they were able to score and get the crowd back into the game!! I wish I had the answer to containing this type of offense but the bottom line is that it is very difficult and that allowed them to convert those third downs and kept our defense on the field in the second qtr. and they got tired!! They did a better job in the second half and it showed. This will be an issue against MS St. & Auburn that we must be able to handle.

DL: Not much to add here hscoach had that summed up pretty well. They played well but not great and as was mentioned about XD chasing that guy down and saving the TD was an outstanding effort on his part almost George Teauge like!!

LB: What can you say about Reggie Ragland but Daum!!! He has gotten better and better with each game played this year and there is no reason to think that this will not be the case foe the remaining games!!! the hit he had to cause the fumble, the ball looked like it was launched for a cannon!! Outstanding play on his part!! Trey had a solid game as did the others.

Penalties: We had a few but when we have a delay of game or 13 men on the field after a time out is excusable!! That is the type of things that CNS goes nuts about!!! It just should not happen!!!  >:(

Special teams: AG missed his first PAT of the year. I saw somewhere that there may have been an issue with the turf but, I think he just had a terrible kick!! It happens and he did not seem to have any other issues on other kicks.  :dunno: As mentioned coverage was good all day except for the one return they broke for 40+ yards.

Final Thoughts: I knew that it would be very difficult to match the emotion we had for the A&M Game again. While we did a good job to start the game after they made the QB change in the second Qtr they were able to make consecutive third down conversions to keep the defense on the field and they did get tired!! That remains something that has to get better for us to be successful against MS St. & Auburn!!

Please let me know what yall think and always Roll Tide!! 

Eight games in a row will make you tired.

Incredible that Sims has only thrown 3 ints at this point.  Granted there were some should haves, but they weren't. 

65% completions.

I love how old blond-tips Herbstreit keeps complaining about BAMA targeting Cooper.

What are you supposed to do?  Not throw to the guy?  Tam game he was complaining about Cochran and the players cheering a Tam bad play.

Something about, "That is not Alabama football cheering a bad play by the opposing team.  When they were good they did not do that.  blah, blah, blah..."

What a doof.

Desmond and Corso are cool though.  Definitely drink beer with those two and make tips sit at another table.


Always good to leave knoxville.  Even better to leave w/ a W.

I agree with throwing the ball to Cooper when he is open.  My biggest fear is that the other recs will give up on their route and when Cooper is not open will there be another option.  As far a containing the QB, Dobbs, this is where I think Bama looked tired.  They were slow in their steps to keep contain and what really make me think they were tired was all the missed tackles.  Glad to have you sharing you thoughts.  Keep them coming.