Crimson Red Sports

                                                                        Duke vs Bama

First, congrats to the Bama coaches and players on the win.  This was a game where you can see there are some improvements needed.  However, there were many positives for Bama to build upon.

OFFFENSE:  The offense put together 512 yards of total offense, which included 367 passing and 145 rushing.  I also want to add here, Bama lost 80+ yards on penalties.  As for negative plays, I have Bama with 4 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, and a fumble.  Bama is credited with 2 three and outs and one 2 and out because of a fumble.  For plays that covered 10+ yards, I have Bama with 15 passes and 3 runs.  Bama got into the red zone 3 times and scored touchdowns each time.  They also scored 3 touchdowns from outside the red zone. 

QB:   I thought Tua had a very good game.  Tua was 26 for 31 for 336 yards which equates to 84 percent.  He threw 4 touchdown passes and had no interceptions.  When Tua reads the coverage and takes what he is given he is a very effective quarterback.  This is a huge positive for Bama because they have receivers who can make plays after the catch.  Three of his misses were on deep balls, however he was basically on target on the short to intermediate throws.  Jones came in and did a good job.  It is good that he got to work with the first teamers. 

RB:   The played pretty well.  I may be wrong, but it looked like Ford was trying to change the ball from one hand to the other when he fumbled.  This really doesn’t make sense and I am probably wrong because he would have been moving the ball to the side of the defensive pursuit.  The RB had a hard time between the tackles and a lot of that had to do with the OL.  I’m not sure, but it looked to me that Harris wanted to bounce the run and not trust the hole a couple of times.  The running backs had 130 yards on 33 carries which equates to 3.9 yards per carry.

Rec:  Not counting backs, there were 8 different receivers who had catches.  Juedy had the big day with 10 catches for 137 yards.  Also, 4 different receivers had touchdown catches.  Most of the balls that were catchable were caught.  There is the one that was a little behind Waddle that could have been caught, but it was a little behind and basically a jump ball with good coverage.

OL:  The OL has a lot of improving to do if Bama is going to be successful this year.  I have them giving up at least 4 pressures on the QB.  There were opportunities on 2nd or 3rd and 1 and they didn’t get the push to get a first down.  There were some bad steps or miscommunications on the blocking schemes.  It looked like Bama used, what I call, a slide protection at times.  They were hurt a couple of times when they did this.  It is good when you have one guy outside the last man on the line of scrimmage because the back takes the outside guy.  However, there seemed to be a guy on the end man on the LOS (tackle) and a guy stacked over him.  When the end man on the defensive LOS goes inside you would expect someone to come outside and the blocker has to be able to work back out or the back has to take the first man and the outside rusher is free.


Def:  I thought the defense played well, especially since they probably didn’t expect the offense Duke came out in.  Bama gave up a total of 204 total yard which included 97 passing and 107 rushing.  As for negative plays, I have Bama credited with 1 tackle for loss, 2 sacks(one was a bad snap), 2 interceptions, and a fumble recovery.  The fumble recovery led to a touchdown.  I have the defense credited with five 3 and outs and one 2 and out because of the fumble recovery.  As for plays that covered 10+ yards, I have 2 pass plays and 2 running plays.   Duke got into the red zone twice and came away with a field goal and they turned the ball over on downs on the other. 

DL:  I thought the DL played well in the running game.  I didn’t see a lot of pressure in the passing game without a blitz.   All of the D linemen made plays as did the backups when they were in.

LB:  I thought Lee and Harris played very well for 2 starting freshmen.  They were both making tackles from sideline to sideline. 

DB:  They only gave up 12 completions and most of those were on short passes where Duke put the linebackers in coverage.  They did complete one for 37 yards where the defender was in good position but just missed knocking the ball down.  Surtain had a pass break up in the endzone to stop a touchdown.   Diggs played the interception perfectly and Battle got and interception when he was in good position when Duke tried to go deep at the end of the game.

Special Teams:  The special teams were solid.  I know the kicker missed two field goal, however he hit them well and they could have been from further away if necessary.  Duke had no kick off returns because every kickoff went into the endzone.   Bama had no real mistakes on their special teams except for a penalty which didn’t end up hurting them.

Penalties:  Bama hurt themselves here.  They lost at least 80+ yards on 2 plays because of holding penalties.  They did have a couple of pass interference calls that against a better team could have really  hurt.  The only thing I can say about Saban’s penalty is, what if it had been a tighter game? 

Finally, Bama started slow.  With all the new faces on defense, I thought they played well. I also think it helped that they seem to play a very base defense.  On offense, they have to do a better job in the OL, especially on short yardage situations.  Tua’s job can be simple, if he reads the coverage, takes what the defense is giving him and allow the receivers to make plays. By doing this, it will open up the deep ball.  I thought Sark had a pretty solid game plan.

Feel free to comment:

 17 and Counting

Outstanding assessment, Coach.

Yeah, the glaring weakness was the offensive line. Much work to do there for sure. I was also very impressed with the defense. Lee and Harris played like a couple of veterans, to be true freshman. The future is bright there.

I had never really seen Shane Lee up close. He is a man-beast.  :o

Those two are what I call full growed men.

Thanks Coach and it's good to have you back on-line.

You can add me to the list of those disappointed in the OL.  I had the impression from fall camp that our OL was going to be a strong point this year.  Silly me...  We need an effective running game and that means the OL has to get a LOT better.

The offense had a different look to it.  I can't put my finger on it.  Maybe more crossing routes or something.  Tua seemed to be taking more short/intermediate completions.  I hope that was the game plan and they stick with it.

ILBs Lee & Harris were fab.  DBs still can't locate the ball!!!

RTR...

Once again, thanks Coach.

Even though it was against an inferior team, it's nice to see Bama score every time they were in the red zone.  It doesn't seem like we are always able to do this even when we should.  Tua and the receivers are the difference makers.  In the past everyone knew we would run the ball when we were close to the end zone.  Now the coaching staff trusts the passing game in short yardage and (as usual) we have really good running backs that can also catch the ball out of the backfield.

I agree 100% on Lee and Harris.  I thought they tackled well and were "in position" for the most part.  I expect they will continue to improve.

It's a young team and I'm looking forward to watching them play.  I hope they are able to follow Tua's lead and have some fun this season.  He sure looks like he's having fun!

Roll Tide!

Thanks hscoach. Good to see you back and as always very to the pont. RTR!

I wasn’t able to watch much of the game while working yesterday, and was half awake watching a replay this afternoon. I liked what I saw though. The offense looked sharp after the first quarter. The defense looked great despite the losses at LB.

It was great to see Trevon Diggs playing so well. His absence was critical against Clemson.

It should be a great season.

Thanks, Coach! I always look forward to your analysis each week.

Thanks coach.  Great comments!  Much appreciated!

Thanks coach. I always enjoy reading your observations.

Good to see you back, Coach.

Great analysis, as usual.  :clap:

Brightest spot for me - the LBs.

Roughest spot - the OL.  I think they will gel as the season goes.

Coach, thanks for the write-up.  I'm curious about this however.  Could it be that Coach Saban simply preferred to not pressure the QB except for when he blitzed in order to keep the freshmen LBs more comfortable and to prevent them from tiring sooner? 

That is probably a great observation.  Also,I think it was part of a vanilla defensive plan which would give the new LB's a chance to get comfortable along with not showing too much.  This week should be another opportunity for them to grow.  I will be honest, I thought Duke would come out and throw  a lot of screens or short passes to make these guy cover and run. 

Lol, you really don't hear folks talk about "vanilla" defensive plans very often.  That term is frequently used in relation to offense...   I agree that the game this week will be another chance for the freshmen to gain experience and confidence.  I think USCe will challenge them a bit but their true test likely won't come until aTm on Oct. 19th...

USCe starting QB could still be out by then.  I understand they are starting a freshman this week.  Yea, I call vey little blitzes and not a lot of stunts, vanilla defense.

USCe could actually turn out to be the easiest game on our easy schedule...  :-X

You better not let Nick hear you talking like that.  There are not easy games on the schedule, you are spewing rat poison. ;)

Trust me, If I were to ever get the chance to meet and talk with Coach Saban like my BIL did last week, that topic WOULD NOT come up in the conversation...

 ;)

One thing for sure with all the young guys we have playing mistakes are very close. Every play is a hard play in the game. RTR!

I believe our kicker should get 4 points for hitting the goal post. That's much more difficult than kicking it between them.

Great idea. Ecred for that...

 #+ #+ #+

 :lol: I agree, OT.

:lol2:

With the luck our kickers have had the last couple of years, if they did start giving 4 points for hitting the goal posts then they would just kick it wider still...

 :facepalm:

I wonder if Bobby Bowden at some time was inside our stadium and left his course. RTR!