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UM vs Bama

First, congrats to the Bama players and coaches on the big win today. I think I heard that was 9th straight 11+ win seasons by Bama. Hopefully this trend will continue.

OFFFENSE: The offense put together 480 yards of total offense which included 327 passing yards and 153 rushing yards. Many of these yards came in the second half and 91 of them came on a crucial drive when Bama was backed up near their own endzone in a close game. As for negative plays, I have the Bama offense with 5 tackles for losses. I credit them with only 2 three and outs, one in each half. I guess you could have a 1 and out on the first drive since Bama scored on the play that went 85 yards for the touchdown. As for plays that covered 10+ yards, Bama had 9 passing plays and 7 running plays. This is a total of 16 plays that covered 10+ yards and 10 of those came in the second half. Bama got into the red zone 2 and scored 2 touchdowns, while 3 touchdowns came from outside the red zone. I don’t know if you saw it, but Jones had his choice of receivers on the first play that went for the touchdown as Ruggs was also open.

QB: I thought Jones played a very good game. He completed 64% of his passes and had no turnovers. The reason I think he played a very good game is because several times it looked like the pocket was collapsing around him. It did look as though he was fooled on coverage once when he threw an out route into coverage. One of his big throws was a 14 yard completion that came on a 3rd down and 11 near our own goal line on the drive that went 91 yards for the touchdown.

RB: Harris had a good day running, but also blocking in pass coverage. He carried the ball 24 times for 136 yards. He was key in the end of the game when Bama was running the ball and UM knew they were running the ball. Not only did he gain big yards, he also protected the football. One of the biggest plays he caused to happen was the touchdown to the tight end. The RB rail out of the backfield was covered by 2 defenders which left the tight end wide open for the score. Robinson only carried the ball 3 times, but gained 16 yards.

Rec: Jeudy as you saw had a huge game as he had 6 catches for 204 yards which breaks down to 34 yards per catch. Smith and Forristall had 3 catches apiece and all of these three had a touchdown catch. Waddle had 1 catch and a drop. On the drop, he felt he was either held or interfered with. There was one other completion to Billingsley which ended in a loss of 3 yards.

OL: Too me this was a game of two halves for the OL, especially in the running game. Early in the game it was tough going in the running game for Bama. The 2nd half was better as they got a better push and even got to the 2nd level. The pass protection was good enough that they didn’t give up any sacks. Par of this was because of Jones getting rid of the ball as well as movement in the pocket to avoid the rush.

Def: This was also a game of two halves. Bama gave up 16 points in the first half and zero in the 2nd half. The defense gave up a total of 395 yards which included 233 passing and 162 rushing. Most of these yards came in the first half. Bama gave up yards, but came up strong the red zone since they only gave up 1 touchdown and 3 field goals. As far as negative plays, Bama had 3 tackles for losses, 3 sacks, 2 interception, and cause 1 fumble which they didn’t recover, however, it moved UM way back for the next play. I credit Bama with 1 three and out and 1 one and out because of an interception. The 3 and out was huge as if came right after a big kickoff return. For plays that covered + yards, I have UM with 8 passing plays and 5 running plays. None of the 10+ running plays happened in the 2nd half. Um got into the red zone twice and scored one touchdown and kicked one field goal. The other two field goals came from outside the red zone. The defense made the same mistakes in the first half like they have done in all other games this year. They missed tackles, they didn’t get off blocks, they lost contain, and they didn’t secure their gaps. A few times it looked like they would freelance and go where they wanted instead of staying in their gaps.

DL: The DL looked to be manhandled in the first half. They also were not getting off blocks and losing their gaps. They were allowing the OL to turn their shoulders and open up the holes for the running backs. The second half they did a better job. They were not getting a lot pressure on the passer either in the first half and this also improved in the second half. I think one of the big telling stats I mentioned above is they had not 10 runs in the second half.

LB: The inside backers played ok as they missed some tackles but not as many in the second half. They were put in difficult situations in pass coverage a few times as they had to cover the backout and even cover some wide receivers at times.

DB: I thought the DB’s played pretty well. They had some PBU’s and had to come up and make some tackles. I didn’t see as many busted coverages. I will say they UM QB helped out by not making accurate throws. The passes that were completed were when the D didn’t get much of a push on the pass rush and the QB had too much time. I thought Jobe came in and did a good job as a replacement for Diggs. Early in the game they went after him and he was beat, but he did the right thing by not looking back for the ball and closed in on the receiver and knocked the ball away.

Special Teams: Bama gave up a couple of kickoff returns which they have done a lot of this year. Waddle had one punt return for about 13 yard that help set Bama up in good field position. He had a kick return for 23-yards but didn’t get to the 25. All extra points were good and all punts were good enough. UM did return a pooch kick late in the game but it was all for nothing.

Penalties: This was one of Bama’s better game with only 5 penalties for 25 yards. There were 3 false starts, one defensive offsides, and a delay of game on a punt. Even though they hurt themselves a couple of times they didn’t do the damage to themselves like they have in other games this year.

Finally, this was a good way to end the season. The sad part is Bama wasn’t really beat by others as much as they beat themselves this year. It is frustrating because of what could have been because of all the injuries and self-inflicted mistakes made by Bama this year. However, we have high standards and must realize this was still a good year with 11 wins.

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