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Title: Initial Impressions from the North Texas Game Post by: pmull on September 18, 2011, 12:07:27 PM A few early thoughts from the initial aftermath of Alabama's 41-0 win last night over North Texas:
As expected, 'Bama went through North Texas with no real issue on Saturday night and at no point did the Mean Green ever mount a serious challenge. To be sure, though, no sane person ever thought Alabama would be legitimately tested, and the biggest concern throughout was clearly injuries with Arkansas a mere six days away. To that end, fortunately, all seemingly went well. Robert Lester went to the locker room in the second half with a back injury, but in the postgame press conference Nick Saban referred to it as mere spasms and did not indicate it was a serious injury, and beyond Lester there were few reports of any other injuries. Courtney Upshaw (hip) and William Vlachos (foot) fought through some minor injuries, but in both cases the ailments were pre-existing and on the whole 'Bama seemingly avoided any serious, long-term injuries last night. http://www.rollbamaroll.com/2011/9/18/2432492/initial-impressions-from-the-north-texas-game Title: Re: Initial Impressions from the North Texas Game Post by: BAMAWV on September 18, 2011, 12:25:50 PM Quote The offensive line continues to largely be a mess, as inconsistency and constant personnel shuffling have become the norm. William Vlachos continues to be limited with lingering foot issues, and no less than five different personnel groupings took the field on Saturday night, though it was largely to no avail. If the Penn State game represented a slight step forward for the offensive line, consider the performance last night against North Texas a moderate step back. The running game remained inconsistent and for the first time this year pass protection became an issue. It's easy to criticize the staff for the constant shuffling, but in reality this staff has always wanted a stable personnel grouping before, and the shuffling now is almost certainly based on the overall ineffectiveness of the line as a whole. The staff would clearly prefer to have a set five, but continued struggles make that unfeasible and therefore the shuffling becomes a necessity as the staff searches for a solution to the offensive line woes. Regardless of exactly how the personnel shakes out up front, I'll reiterate my previous comments that 'Bama will have to play better up front if it legitimately expects to reach New Orleans. We need CK to "grow into" big time football and get BJ back to his guard position.I'm not sure what foot issues are bothering WV, but having him at 100% would be a great start to solving the OL problems. |