Crimson Red Sports

                                             ARK vs Bama

First, congrats to the Bama players and coaches the victory.  The was a hard-fought game where Ark never gave up or backed down.  Bama’s defense only had a few 3 and outs but a couple were huge.  The offense actually made some adjustments against the blitz, and it looked like it took Ark out of blitzing as much as they wanted. 

OFFFENSE:  The offense put together 671 yards of total offense which included 559 passing and 112 rushing.  As for negative plays, I have Bama with 4 tackles for losses, 4 sacks, and a loss fumble.  For three and outs, I have Bama with 1. They did have another fumble, but it was on special teams and did not lose it.  For plays that covered 10+ yards, Bama had 21 passing plays and 5 running plays.  Bama got into the red zone 5 times.  They scored 2 touchdowns, kicked a field goal, fumbled at the 2, and a sack took them out of the red zone and led to a missed field goal.  From outside the red zone, Bama scored 3 touchdowns and kicked a field goal.  They did score a two point conversion which was huge at the time.

QB:  Young completed 31 of 40 for 559 yards and a 78% completion rate.  There were also a few drops in the game that would have made these stats even better.  He did make a huge mistake when he took a sack on third down and put the kicker in a situation where he had to make a 47-yard field goal.  Granted he can make it, but if he had thrown the ball away it would have been 31-yarder.  What I still see is his ability to keep his eyes downfield and get completions, like the touchdown to Leary.

RB:  Robinson had a good game rushing for 122 yards on 27 carries.  However, he did a very good job picking up the blitzes.  He also added 3 catches for 18 yards.  Basically, he played the whole game as he was only subbed for a few times. 

Rec:  The receivers were again led by Metchie (10 for 173) and Williams (8 for 190). As far as receivers Latu and Bolden both had 3 catches, Brooks and Billingsley both had 1.  The remainder of the completions went to backs.  Latu’s made a good catch and run but fumbled in the red zone at the 2-yard line.  It was huge because Ark had pulled within one score of Bama.  I do think the receivers blocked better in this game than they have in the past.  Brooks made a huge block on a reception by Metchie.

OL:  The did better in my opinion, but part of that was the formations that help take Ark out of their blitz packages.  They were beat at the point of attack on the 4th down play, but they were also outnumbered in the box. I really don’t know if George played better than Owens, but at least there is some completion there and everyone knows their job is on the line. 

Def:  The defense started out playing well. Then they seem to get pushed around some.  That being said they made the plays they needed to get the win.  Bama gave up 468 yards of total offense which included 358 passing and 110 rushing. For negative plays, I have the defense with 7 tackles for losses, 3 sacks, and 2 fumbles one of which they lost. I have Bama with 3 three and outs and a 1 and out as they recovered a fumble on the first play of a series.  The last 3 and out was huge as Ark had pulled to within one score of Bama.  For plays that covered 10+ yards, I have Ark with 11 passing plays and 4 running plays.  I think 2 of the running plays were QB scrambles as Bama’s pass rush got too far up the field.  I will say Bama is still doing a better job making tackles.  They don’t miss as many as they did earlier in the season.

DL: They made some big plays, but they also were beat when they rushed too far up the field against a QB that could run.  This opened the running lanes and Ark made some of their biggest runs when this happened.  In the first couple of drives, they were getting a good push and separating from the OL. 

LB: They played better than the score indicates.  To’oTo’o was the leading tackler with 13.  Anderson was not far behind with 11.  They also combined for the 3 sacks.  Harris was put in a bad position with the running back on the touchdown pass.  Hard to ask a LB to cover a skill player in the open field. 

DB: There were more pass plays that were thrown short and yards were made after the catch.  They did hit a couple of bigger ball.  I will say I thought the long touchdown pass was offensive PI.  However, it wasn’t called so you have to play thru it.  There was at least one bust on coverage as the DB was late on the touchdown pass.  They have got to clean up the mistakes here for Bama to be successful.

Special teams: There were a couple of plays that could have been disastrous for Bama.  First, Bolden fumbled a punt, but he got back on it.  This would have put Ark in the red zone.  The second was the missed field goal where points were needed to help widen the lead.  There was 1 play that was disastrous when Ark converted on the fake field goal.  Usually, the DB’s are man to man on a receiver, so I can understand how the guy get free down the field. 

Penalties:  Bama had some crucial penalties.  One holding negated a TD for Bama.  A pass interference gave Ark a 1st down on 3rd and 16 and allowed them to continue on a TD drive.  While I am speaking of penalties, I was not impressed with this crew.   

Finally, Bama will have to play better if they are going to continue to win.  Too many mental mistakes as well as poor execution on both sides of the ball.  This night they left anywhere from 6 to 21 points on the field as they missed a field goal, after being in the red zone, 3 to 7 pts there.  They fumbled at the 2 which would have been a 1st an goal.  They started the first scoring drive at Ark 32 and ended up kicking a field goal.  You really need to convert at least a couple of these.

Feel free to comment:

Thanks hscoach. If we play like this against auburn we will get beat. We do not have any DB's who can cover WR's. Whoever coaches the DB's either need new players or that coach needs to go on down the road. Giving up this many yards on defense is embarrassing.RTR!

Thanks for the analysis coach.  I agree with you on the refs.  Not a great crew but that's the game.  In another thread I commented that the mental errors (fumble at the 2, 16 yard sack, etc.) are on players, not coaches.  Your thoughts?

Thanks again, Coach. Spot on, as usual. Finley for Auburn is another big guy at QB. What do you think the game plan will be to contain him?

I agree mental errors are a killer.  Just like your pass rush getting to far up field, or losing your gap.

They used To'oTo'o as a spy the last night and I could see the same in the next game.  At least there seemed to be a better game plan for the blitz.