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

                                                                                                                   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.

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17 and Counting

I not sure who should have the back.  It looked to me that Bama had Moses playing a spy technique on Mond.  I could be wrong.  If so it would take him out of coverage.  I would think a safety or OS backer would take the back.  I wonder if the OB's should have come off the pass rush and take the back out.  This would, enable Mose to shade the side where their rush was coming from to still spy on Mond  if he tried to escape that side.  Honestly this is all speculation not knowing what the responsibilities of the coverages.  As far as the run game, I was thinking about this today.  I would have to watch again, but it seems A&M had numbers in the box.  I wonder if they came in thinking Jones may not be able to beat them with his arm.  You would think after a while this would change.

I don't know how involved Strong is with the defense.  As far as punting, I guess Perine was beaten out by the Freshman.  There are some things that needs cleaning up on defense.

                                                                                                            A&M vs Bama

First, congrats to the Bama players and coaches on the big win today.  Bama looked unstoppable when they wanted on offense, but had a tough time stopping A&M on defense.  I will go into that later.

OFFFENSE:  The offense put together 544 yards of total offense which included 435 passing and 109 rushing.  The rushing game really didn’t do much until the 2nd half.  For negative plays, I credit Bama with 1 sack, 3 tackles for losses, and 1 pass interception.  Bama also had 2 three and outs during the game.  They got into the red zone 4 times and scored 3 touchdowns and kicked 1 field goal, 3 touchdowns were scored from outside the red zone and the other touchdown came from the defense when they got a pick 6.  For plays that covered 10+ yards, I have Bama with 14 passing plays and 3 running plays.  All of the running plays came in the second half.   
QB:  I thought Jones played a good game as he completed 20 of 27 passes.  He did have one interception and I think he probably should have changed the protection as the OL was outnumbered on the left side of the LOS.  He completed 74% of his passes and averaged almost 22 yards per completion.   He continued to make throws that were right on the money and hit the receivers on stride.  One of his incompletions was an overthrow which would have been a touchdown if caught.  This was also on of the times Bama went 3 and out.  There was also one time where it looked that Jones could have gone to Waddle for a touchdown but threw to Forristall.  I think Bama went ahead and scored on that drive, so it really didn’t hurt them.

RB:  Harris ran hard and had 43 yards on 12 carries.  The average is a little less than 4 yards.  A&M did a good job getting off blocks and not allowing the OL to get to the 2nd level early.  Robinson came in and did his damage in the 2nd half as he had 60 yards on 10 carries.  He had all the carries of 10+ yards.  Sanders came in and had a 9-yard run only to have it negated by a bad snap which caused a big loss.  Harris did have a big blitz pickup which help Bama complete a 35-yard pass.  He also had 2 catches which added 26 yards to his total offense.

Rec: This game shows other teams if they concentrate on Smith and Waddle, Metchie is a threat.  He averaged 36 yards per catch.  The ball was spread around as Metchie and Waddle each had 5 catches while Smith had 6.  Forristall added 2 catches.

OL:  The OL played well but I think they need to improve their run blocking.  They only gave up 1 sack and 3 tackles for losses, one which was caused by a bad snap.  It seems to me, and this is my opinion, they are not sustaining their blocks long enough or they don’t get to the 2nd level when they have a chance.  The pass blocking was solid even when A&M brought and all out blitz. I know on the interception the left side was overloaded and either their needs to be a call from the tackle or the quarterback needs to make a protection change.  I don’t know what they do in this case.  I will say, when Bama is in the red zone the run blocking has been solid and they have gotten a push. 

Def:  Bama gave up a total of 450 yards of total offense, 335 passing and 115 rushing.  I have Bama with 1 sack, 4 tackles for losses, and 2 interceptions, one which was returned for a touchdown.  I know the stats above won’t match the official stats, but I think they called the sack a tackle for loss.  Bama only had 1 three and out for the game.  For plays that covered 10+ yards, I have A&M with 14 passing plays and 3 running plays.  A&M got into the red zone 4 times and scored 2 touchdowns, a field goal and missed a field goal.  They scored one touchdown outside the red zone.  Here is am going to give some stats I wanted to see.  They won’t match up with the official stats because some of the plays were negated because of penalties.  I have Mond throwing the ball 43 times.  26 of those throws were under 10 yards and he completed 17 of them.  17 of them were thrown over 10 yards and he completed 8 of them.  What this shows me is they wanted to get the ball out quick with hopefully what they considered mismatches.  It also shows the downfield coverage was pretty good.  There was rarely a pass that wasn’t contested down field.  Battle actually got his hand on one ball, but the catch was still made.  The interception was a ball that was thrown right at the sticks but looked to be under or right at 10 yards.  Something else I wondered is if Bama may have underestimated the speed of a couple of these guys. 

DL: The play of the DL was spread around but most of the big plays it seems were made by Anderson and Allen.  There were a couple other plays made, but I’m not as familiar with the names of these players.  I do know Anderson may have prevented a competition if he had gone to the QB instead of the ball fake.  He works hard, but allows the QB to get to his outside shoulder.  I do think they need to do a better job using their hands to get off the blocks.  It will be hard to get sacks with the ball being thrown that short that often.

LB: The LB’s were the leaders among tackles.  Harris led with 10, 8 that were solo.  I thought Bama ask a lot putting Moses on the quicker player from A&M when they scored their last touchdown.  I also am not sure who had the bust on the touchdown where the player didn’t go out of bounds.  I know the LB to that side blitzed so I would think it had to be a DB or the OB on that side.  On another touchdown the TE used the slam release.  When he looked like he was blocking the coverage was not there.  Again, I don’t know their coverages/rules so I don’t know who was supposed to have him.

DB: I thought they played well.  They challenged plays downfield and made some plays.  I thought Moore played well and I think Wright has his moments.  I don’t think Wright is a as physical as he needs to be.  There were a couple of times I noticed on man coverage the players looking back into the backfield which causes separation from the rec.

Special Teams:  Bama was solid in the special teams except for the 26 yard punt that gave A&M great field position and it led to points. 

Penalties:  Bama had 6 penalties.  Bama had their usual false starts.  A holding by the DB, an illegal shift, and an offsides on the kickoff cover team.  Overall, Bama overcame most of these penalties.

Finally, this was a good win where Bama actually had to fight to the end.  I do think the absence of spring ball is evident as some assignments are busted.  In my opinion, they need to get better in the running game as well as stop these unforced penalties.  I do think this team has some promise and could improve as the year goes on.

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17 and Counting

Saw a stat somewhere yesterday talking about the rough start for some other big stars from earlier days and they said don't be surprised by the first game.  Derrick Henry among others were listed in the article.

He may be tentative at this point.  Coming off an injury with very little contact for a long while could add to that.  Also, the just wasn't a lot of push by the OL when he was in the game, even when some of the starters were still in.  I really didn't see a lot of openings when he was in there. 

I think you had a lot of underclassmen and first timers in with the backups.  The lack of the spring game as well as limited practices, probably hinders some of the progress.  I would imagine a lot of times are in the same situation.

                                                                                      UM vs Bama

First, congrats to the Bama players and coaches on the big win today.  Obviously, some improvement needed in areas, but not a bad start.

OFFFENSE:  The offense put together 414 total yards which included 303 passing and 111 rushing yards.  For negative plays, I have Bama with 7 tackles for losses 2 sacks, and one fumble lost.  Most, if not all of these occurred in the 2nd half.  Bama had 2 three and outs one which was on their first possession of the game. For plays that covered 10+ yards, Bama had 14 passing plays and 4 running plays.  As far as scoring drives, Bama got into the red zone 5 times. They scored 4 touchdowns and fumbled once.  The other scores came from outside the red zone with a touchdown pass and a field goal. 

QB:  I thought Jones played a very good game.  After starting out 5 for 10, he went 13 for 14 the rest of the game.  The one incompletion was a drop.  He put the ball on the mark where the receivers were the only ones able to make a play on the ball.  Many passes hit the receivers in stride.  There were a couple of throws that had to be perfectly thrown and he did it.  Young had a decent day for his first game in college football.  He was 5 for 8 and showed some poise in the pocket.  He did make a bad throw on his last pass but thankfully it wasn’t in a crucial situation.

RB:  Harris ran the ball well and had over 100 total yards when combining receiving and rushing yards.  The other running backs didn’t find the openings that was provided for Harris.  I do think most of this was the fault of the offensive line.

Rec: As expected this year, Waddle and Smith were the main targets coming in.  They both had 8 catches and Waddle had 2 touchdowns in those 8 catches.  Metchie looks to be a good complement to the receiving core.  Also, they throw in a ball or two to the tight-end every once in a while.  The backs, except for the drop by Robinson, also have the ability to make plays in the passing game.

OL:  This game really didn’t impress me with the offensive line.  Bama did run for over a 100 yards and most of it was done in 3 quarters.  I say this because they were not dominant in the closing part of the game.  The good news is there were few negative plays in the first half, but almost all, if not all came in the second half.  I did notice the OL chasing the wrong way a couple of times which allowed the Tiger’s LB to shoot the gap and make the play.  If the OL hadn’t been chasing back, then he may have gotten to the 2nd level to make the block and spring the runner.  I also, saw a missed stunt pick-up which led to a sack.  I don’t know they just looked lazy to me in the 2nd half.  If
could be they need to be in better game shape.

Def:  Bama gave up a total of 322 yards which included 253 passing and 69 rushing.  Of this yardage, 187 came on the last 3 drives when there were some back-ups in.  This is also where most of their points came from.  As for negative plays, I have the Bama defense with 5 tackles for losses, 5 sacks (officially it shows up as three in the stats), and 2 fumbles recovered (one on special teams).  As for plays that covered 10+ yards, I have Missouri with 8 passing plays and 2 running plays.  They got into the red zone 3 times and scored 2 field goals and a touchdown.  One touchdown came from outside the red zone.  The touchdown at the end of the game was where the DL lost their lanes and allowed the QB to walk into the end zone. The biggest flaws I saw on defense was missed tackles.

DL: The DL, as no one really stood out to me they played a solid 3 quarters. I guess this could be expected when not really knowing what to expect from a new coach and team.  Also, I don’t know how long Bama had to really prepare when Missouri was added to their schedule.  I am sure they had to scramble to get video on them.  I do think Anderson with be a star if he can remain healthy.  I also think the long touchdown on the wheel route may have been a bust on the freshman outside backer Sanders #16.  I say this without knowing their coverage and responsibilities.

LB: It was great to see Moses back on the field.  In my opinion, the defense didn’t seem to be moving around as much.   I thought he showed the speed he had before the injury.  I also thought Harris looked like he was freed up to play with less responsibility on his plate.

DB: They really weren’t challenged much downfield as most of the passing game by Missouri was in the short to intermediate parts of the field.  The quick passing game by Missouri also help take away from the pass rush.  It also seemed they like to throw the ball were the inside backers vacated. 

Special Teams:  Bama’s special teams were solid.  They hit all the extra points and field goals.  There was only one kickoff return that went for 25 yards and that return was aided by a penalty.   Punts were decent and covered well where they even recovered a fumble that led to a field goal.

Penalties:  Bama had 7 penalties.  Many of them unforced.  There was an unsportsmanlike conduct on the kickoff return that gave Missouri good field position.  Fortunately, didn’t hurt them.  They had a holding that negated a sack.  Three false starts by three different OL.  There was an illegal formation on the extra point which didn’t hurt, and finally a delay of game.  These, as usual, need to be cleaned up.

Finally, this was a good way to start the season. Bama has some areas to clean up, tackling/penalties.  Also, there is some blocking assignments that need to be fixed.  I will say, the commentators kept saying that Missouri had a solid defense, so that may be part of the problem.  It wasn’t a good look to the start of the game when Bama had a player coming on late as well as going 3 and out.  The good news is there is plenty of room for improvement.  I also think the defense played very vanilla, but they must clean up tackles and assignments.  By assignments I mean coverage responsibilities as well as rushing lanes and responsibilities. If you are playing on the end of the LOS, you have to keep the offensive player on your inside player.  This hurt Bama a couple of times yesterday.

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17 and Counting

This win could be huge because the game was won without Petty.  It should build the confidence of all the other players.  Also, it looks like Davis is becoming more of a force and a little more physical.

I can see him as a special teams coach.  Also, many people working under him as S&C coach.

Let me guess He'll be back?

Any names floating around as a replacement?

Talked about they have been close all year and now seem to be playing well.