Crimson Red Sports

                                                                                                                   OM vs Bama

First, congrats to the Bama players and coaches on the big win today.  The offense was un-stoppable, and the defense did not stop OM very often.  There was a combined 1370 total yards offense combined.  This is something I thought I would never see when it comes to a Bama defense.

OFFFENSE:  The offense put together 723 yards of total offense which included 417 passing yards and 306 rushing yards.  The offense only had 1 tackle for a loss, 1 sack, and 2 fumbles.  I will say here I do not think Harris’s was a fumble as his momentum was stopped in my opinion.  There were no 3 and outs.  For plays that covered 10+ yards, Bama had 17 passing plays and 12 running plays.  Bama got into the red zone 7 times and scored 6 touchdowns the other was the questionable fumble call.  Bama scored the other 2 touchdowns from outside the red zone. 

QB:  I thought Jones played an outstanding game.  He completed 28 of 32 passes which averages out to an 88% completion rate.  There was one drop and one pass that was thrown a little behind.  However, he puts the ball where it needs to be for the receivers to make a catch most of the time.  The average per completion was 14.8 yards.  What I really liked about this performance was he took what the defense gave him and didn’t let his ego get the best of him since he had been throwing the deep ball for so much success in the first 2 games.  I also thought Jones did a good choice going to secondary receivers at times.

RB:  Harris had a great game scoring 5 touchdowns.  He rushed for 206 yards on 23 carries.  He also added 42 yards on receptions which means he accounted for a total of 248 yards on 26 touches.  He averaged 9.5 yards per touch.  Robinson also had a good game as he rushed for 76 yards on 10 carries. 

Rec: The receivers were led by Smith who had 13 catches for 164 yards, Waddle had 6 catches for 120, and Metchie had 4 for 75.  This means the top 3 averaged 15.6 yards per reception.  Forristall had 2 catches and got his first touchdown for the year.  This group also did a good job blocking.

OL:  I think the OL played a good game except for a bust on the only sack.  They got to the 2nd level in the running game and got a push up front.  This is evident with the few negative plays.  The only question is can they do it against a solid defense.  OM has one of the worse run defenses in the country.  On the sack, I think Leatherwood was thinking he was going to get help by the TE chipping on the outside rusher allowing him to help inside to out. This could be a communication issue or just a bust on Leatherwood since it looked like the TE was going to release to the other side on a route.

Def:  Bama gave up a total of 647 yards of total offense which included 379 passing yards and 268 rushing yards.  Two backs ran for over a hundred yards.  As for negative plays, Bama had 5 tackles for losses and 2 sacks which did not happen until the 4th quarter.  For plays that covered 10+ yards, OM had 17 passing plays and 8 running plays.  OM got into the red zone 7 times scoring 5 touchdowns and kicking 2 field goals.  They scored 1 touchdown outside the red zone.  There were huge issues on the defense.  First, I counted at least 24 missed tackles.  I will say I grade them hard here.  Second, they did not play good assignment football.  They continue to allow the running back or QB to get outside of contain.  I do not understand how the end man on the LOS cannot keep the offensive player on his inside shoulder.  This has happened since the beginning of the year.  Third, how do you continue to allow backs or TE to get lost or not cover?  Fourth, Bama must be more disciplined and get lined up. 

DL: The play of the DL was unimpressive to me.  The do not use their hands well enough and get off the blocks.  They had too many attempts at arm tackles many which were broken.  As I said above, how do you keep allowing the RB/QB to break contain?  Also, they rushed to far up the field a couple of times to allow running lanes for the QB.

LB: The LB’s were some of those who also took bad angles and allowed the RB/QB to get outside.  I would love to see someone hit a crossing receiver.  They must do a better job getting people lined up when teams get in the hurry up.

DB: I think they need to be more physical.  I have yet to see a receiver get jammed on his release when running a slant.  I guess they just teach it different.  A few times they were in phase as they call it, but just did not make the play.  I will say, the best thing that would help the DB’s is a better pass rush.

Special Teams:  Bama did not handle all the pooch kicks well, but they were not hurt because the offense was so effective.  All extra points were good.  I do not understand why the other team does not try to return some of those short kickoffs.  They handled all the onside kick attempts and gave Bama short fields.
Penalties:  Bama had 8 penalties for 76 yards.  The most important ones were a pass interference that helped OM on a touchdown drive.  The one that will probably hurt the most was the targeting by Battle.  The other safeties just are physical enough in my opinion.

Finally, this was a game where Bama had to come back, and they did. It also showed how out of sorts the defense was.  They must do a better job with assignment football and tackling.  That alone would make for great improvements with this team.

Feel free to comment:

17 and Counting

Thanks for the analysis coach.  Spot on as always.

The defense better grow up in a hurry.  Georgia looks to be for real.

ROLL TIDE!!!

How do you account for the bad angles and awful tackling by 4 & 5 star recruits and starters in a Nick Saban defense? Plus, how can you correct this in a week?




 :stars: :stars: :stars:

Thanks hscoach as always. Next week is gonna bring reality to us again. GA defense is for real and their offense is as good as OM.
There was no one on the site last night for the game and next week I probably won't be on the site because of who we are playing. Do I sound worried for our team; ABSOLUTELY! RTR!

Thanks Coach. Another great assessment. I'm trying to convince myself that we were sandbagging for Georgia.  :lol2:

If I was a defensive coach I would be pissed off.  There would be some major butt ripping in film time.

I heard a report yesterday that a coach got fired on the field I was hoping it was pete golding. RTR!

It was Saban directed at Golding

 :lol: :lol: :lol: I hope you ain't kidding although I know you are. So now let me ask you hscoach, how would you adjust what You see on the defensive scheme? RTR!

^^^THIS^^^

No scheme will work if you can't tackle somebody.

I'm blocking out the Bear's statement that a good defense always beats a good offense. Something like that.

Whatever happened to the days of our defense being the best in the nation? I mean we had a defense that gave up 10 and they were mad as all get out. RTR!

The offenses have changed drastically.  Kid are coming in to college ready to play, especially on the offensive side of the ball. 

A note I left off, not counting kicking game Bama defended 87 offensive plays while running 71 offensive plays.

I know this is going to sound like sacrilege and I might get ripped for it: I don't think it all falls on Golding. Some of it does, but a lot of the defensive decline we have seen over the past few years falls on Saban. The scheme he perfected and won tons of ball games with is out of date with today's offenses IMO. It's more than recruiting different body types for LB and DL. Look how many times they are not set prior to the snap - they are all looking toward the sideline to get signals. They look confused. how many former Bama players have said that when they get to the NFL that the defense is a lot easier? I don't think a defense needs to be overly complex to work. There is way too much talent on the field for the results we are seeing. You win ball games with players, not schemes. What would be wrong with simplifying calls and letting the big dogs eat? I know Coach Saban is the best there is, and he knows more about the game than most of us combined, but surely he can figure out than streamlining the defensive playbook and making things more simple will allow players to stop thinking and start reacting and playing fast. Now, go ahead and scorch me. :)

I have said before, I don't think they let the athletes play sometimes.  Maybe this group need to keep it simple.  That being said, it doesn't account for the busted assignments and missed tackles.  Like I said earlier, I would be livid at film time with some of these players.

Oh I agree with you there. The missed tackles and flat-out blown assignments are infuriating. It's almost if they don't know that the TE is an eligible receiver.

The tight end and back on wheel route eats our lunch everytime. RTR!

I would also think it is amplified without a spring training.

The obvious negatives of total yardage and points allowed by the defense of Alabama being what they are.

The overall takeaways from the game should be positive.

Najee Harris plays football.
Mac Jones can toss the rock.
The WRs/TEs can catch and run.

The facts are that BAMA allowed the offensive genius (lane kiffin) 647yds and 48pts; and BAMA still won by 15 and won every category.

The future is Crimson!

From Saban
“First of all, I don’t think the call is necessarily the issue," Saban responded. "I think the execution of the call has been the issue. Sometimes we coach players for what we want them to be. But we really need to coach them for what they are. And when I say that I’m talking about how much experience do they have? How much can they handle? How much can they execute?

Next paragraph from Saban
“So, if the players are mis-executing, that’s not a good thing from a coaching standpoint because that means we have to do a better job of teaching them or make sure we’re not trying to teach them too much so they go out there and they can’t perform well with confidence and make plays we’d like for them to make.”

OK so what is the answer to the problem? Then, let's fix it. Georgia is a power house and we are gonna have to play for 60 minutes. RTR!

Those Saban quotes sound like he agrees with some of you guys about the need to simplify things for the current players.