That would be nice.  They went on and on Saturday about the camera man, the booth, the equipment in the booth, where everybody stood in the booth.  Meanwhile, the actual game is in a tiny window in the corner so we can see their booth.

 
 
 

I'm a little shocked.  Didn't think they'd put us #1 ahead of an undefeated team.

If this final 4 holds, does it mean we play MSU again in the first playoff game?  Is that good or bad?

hscoach did mention the missed block by DeAndrew White as well.

First:   First congrats to the Bama team for the victory.  This was a great game for Bama considering what they had to come back from, the physical play from the game last week.

Offense:  The offense only had 335 total yards in the game and missed some opportunities to score more.  They had 5 tackles for losses, and 1 sack for 6 total negative plays.  They had sic total 3 and outs and out which equated to 3 each half.   Two of the three and outs in the first half were on back to back series. The only put together a couple of long drive, but one was crucial in the second half to seal the game.   They had a total of 4 runs of 10+ yards and 8 passes for 10+ yards.  Bama got to the red zone 5 times and had 1 field goa l and 3 touchdowns.  There was a missed field goal again that could have been costly if not for the defense.  In my opinion this wasn’t one of Bama’s better played games which I will address in the individual sections.  The most worrying part is Bama’s offense did not give the defense very good breaks by sustaining drive in the second half when they had the 13 point lead.  The biggest high point was the important drive that put the game back to a 2 score game.
 
QB :  Blake completed 61% of his passes.  I think he played a pretty good game.  The drops were not his fault, but he did miss a couple of open rec.  The biggest complaint was the underthrown balls that could have been a touchdown, especially the one to AS.  The biggest plus was his directing and making plays on the drive that put the game back to a two score game in the 4th quarter.  He made some huge plays on the scrambles and checking down to his recs.

RB:  They ran hard and pass blocked well when called upon.  The problem was there wasn’t a lot of room at times which I will address in the OL.   They caught the ball and made big plays when it counted.

REC:  In my opinion this was not on of the better blocking games by the recs.  There was one  play AC doesn’t block on an outside run to him.  Also it looked like he was running a route.  On the outside screen BV missed a block where he had the perfect angle on him..  On the plus side AC made some big catches by going up and getting the ball.  In other words he high pointed the ball.  I am not completely sure he didn’t score on the long pass because it looked like he was laying on the defender when he went down.  There were drops by AC and OJH which were big.  If OJH makes the catch Bama does not have one of their three and outs in the second half.  I think it would have been a huge momentum builder and given the D a little more rest.  DW missed a big block on the wide rec screen to AC which looked like he had room to run.

OL:   This is where I think Bama didn’t play well.  I know there were not many negative plays , but I saw too many mistakes.  On one play running to the right, AK goes left.  Would this have made a huge difference, probably not.   Many times the center was hit in the mouth and driven back.  There were opportunities for combo blocks that were not made.   The MSU LB ran thru when LB didn’t come off the combo block to take the LB.  I don’t think they took good angles to get to the second level.  One on play run to the right for a short gain there were 4 or 5 MSU players and only 2 crimson shirts, where the OL?  When they did make the blocks and sustained them Bama moved the ball well.

Defense:  As much as they were on the field they played well.  They had to defend 88 plays and gave up 428 yards.  You can look at this a couple of ways.  First they were on the field for 88 plays which breaks down to 4.9 yards per play.  You can also take the incomplete passes out and say they gained 428 yards on 67 plays which equates to 6.4 yards per play.  You also have to take in account the last drive where Bama was playing safe and not letting them score quickly and MSU moved the ball 70 yards.  Bama’s defense had 7 tackles for losses, on sack and 3 interceptions for negative plays.  They had 4 three and outs and one 2 and out when they got the safety early in the game.   MSU got into the red zone 6 times and came away with 2 field goals and 2 touchdowns.  They also had two of the 3 ints in the red zone.  These guys in my opinion deserve a hell of a lot of credit coming off last week’s physical game and playing 88 snaps in this game.  They were aided by the special teams which I will talk about later. 
 
DL:  I thought these guys played a very good game.  They help hold two powerful runners to a total of 119 yards on 32 carries.  I thought JR played well again along with AR.  They played their positioning well and allowed the LB to make plays if they got to them. 

LB:  You didn’t hear their name much.  I thought TD played up and down.  It looked like he was spying on Dak and didn’t come hard to make the hit a couple of times.  He also missed a big tackle that would have forced a three and out.   

DB:  I thought they played well here.   CJ always seems to be in position and so was EJ most of the time when he wasn’t getting pushed.  They had three picks that stopped drives and two were in the red zone.  I had both CJ and EJ for two PBU’s.   They were aided by a pass rush that may not have gotten to the QB, but put enough pressure on him to hurry some throws.

Penalties: Bama had 7 penalties in the game.  Most of them were overcome.  The ones that hurt were the false start by CR that didn’t allow Bama to go for a 4th and 4.  They were forced to punt because of this.  The face mask penalty help move MSU in the drive before half time where they kicked a  field goal.  This was tough because TD was going to make the tackle and DP dove and his hand just went to the face mask.  The big one that didn’t hurt because Bama got a three and out was the personal foul by DD where Bama had MSU pinned on the 5 and then the ball was moved to the 21.

Special teams:   Scott did a great job pinning MSU back on their side of the field and deep.  Also, the coverage team on both the kick offs and punts did well except for one.   After the 5 yard delay, Scott punted for 46 yards but MSU returned it to the Bama 38 and they later scored their first touchdown.  AG again missed a makeable field goal.  I can’t see what the problem is, he hit one from practically the same distance earlier.  This was 3 important points left on the field.

Finally:  This game was also a battle.  My hat is off to MSU who played hard and never gave up even when Bama was up 19-0.  Bama made the big drive when needed. The areas that need to be cleaned up are the OL run blocking, the rec blocking, the dropped passes, and penalties.  I also hope Bama gets a good lead early and can get some backups in as rest for the starters.

Please feel free to comment.
 
Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll

15 and counting

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First:   First congrats to the Bama team for the victory.  This was a tough battle on both side of the ball.  This was big boy football.   

Offense:  The offense struggled most of the night.  They only had one long drive during the game which ended with a missed field goal.  They had seven 3 and outs.    Bama only ran 16 plays in the 2nd half until the 9 play drive to tie up the game.  They put together only 315 yards of offense.   The offense only had 4 running plays for 10+ yards.  They did have 10 pass plays of over 10 yards, but most of those were throw under 10 yard and the yardage was made after the catch.  Bama’s offense only got into the red zone three times and one of those was in overtime. The positive beside the win, is Bama only had 4 negative plays last night; two were tackles for losses, one was a sack where Cooper was blocking instead of running a route, and the big fumble which allowed LSU to take the lead.   It looked like they didn’t communicate well on offense.

QB:  Blake did not make some throws in this game, but did make the plays in the last 50 seconds and in overtime for Bama to tie and ultimately win the game. Sims missed some big balls which were underthrown and a few passes were behind his rec but some still made the catch.   He was not helped by 4 drops which I will address later.  It looked at times he wasn’t keeping his eyes downfield. 

RB:  They ran hard in very little space.  The LSU players hit them hard and often.  If you watched when they were pass blocking, which they did a pretty good job, they were getting jacked.  One big play not made was the pass to TJY who had a lot of open field to work with.

REC:  There were some opportunities here but plays weren’t made.  I do think LSU got away with a couple of pass interference calls that were not made.  I had Cooper for 3 drops.  I also didn’t think White ran some routes well or didn’t think he was getting the ball.  The good thing here is more rec got involved in the game.

OL:  They did a good job pass blocking but never really established dominance in the running game.  The line did get a push a couple of time,

Defense:  They only gave up 259 yards.   They had 6 tackles for losses, 2 sacks, and 1 interception.   They had 4 three and outs, but one of those was because of the interception.   They did lose contain a couple of time but overall played well.  The biggest plays the LSU had were when the QB scrambled.  The QB ran for 40 yards and most of that was on 3 scrambling plays.  They did have some substitution problems early, but seem to get them worked out.  In the game, LSU had 6 runs for 10+ yards and 4 passes for 10+ yards. 

DL:  Against the big physical offense the DL held their own.  The only problem was they lost contain a couple of times, and when they rushed the QB they got too far up the field allowing a lane for the QB to escape.

LB:   RR again a very good game.  He had at least 8 tackles in the first half alone.   TD also played pretty well, but RR is the one that seems to stand out each week. 
 
DB:  They played a solid game.  One of the best plays of the night was on the 3rd play of the game when LSU ran the option.  Collins got cut and still got up to make the play. 

Penalties: Bama had 3 penalties in the game.  They overcame every one of them which is a plus. 

Special teams:   Scott did a good job in the clutch flipping the field. 

Finally:  This game was a battle.  It is what we have come to expect in these games.  I do think Bama needs to be more balanced on offense.  They threw the ball 46 times and ran 29.   


Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll 
15 and counting

That is why I usually change the channel when they are on.  It is very frustrating to see all those other guys in the game when I know what he is capable of.

New caption...................

"Walk by Chech's office when he's picking the Stanford-Oregon game. He'll pick Oregon. :Snicker:"

I don't want to...but I guess I have to pull for the Barn this weekend. Do we really think Miss State can pull it out for us?

First:   First congrats to the Bama team for the victory.  It was a game where Bama got control of the game early, but then allowed UT to get back into the game.

Offense:  The good news is Bama rolled up 469 yards of total offense.  The bad news is 253 of this was in the first quarter which means they only had 216 for the rest of the game.  While Bama raced to a 27-0 lead they only had 2 negative plays.  One was a tackle for a loss and the other was a fumble which TJY recovered and Bama went on to score the touchdown.  After this point Bama had 7 negative plays.  They were 4 tackles for losses, one sack and 2 lost fumbles, one of which took a TD off the board.  I don’t have Bama for any 3 and outs, but they had 2 four and outs.   The offense was 11/15 on 3rd down conversions.  This is 73 percent which is a high average considering the distance needed for a first down.  The offense had 4 runs of 10+ yards and had 14 pass plays for 10+ yards.  They scored 4 of the touchdowns outside the red zone and would have had another had JF not fumbled.  Only one trip in the red zone resulted in a TD.   There was what I would call 2 key points for the offense.  The first was when UT pulled within 10 points 27-17 Bama went on a long TD drive to push the score to 34-17.   The second was after the FG by UT Bama kept the ball for about seven minutes not leaving UT time for a comeback.  If they hadn’t fumbled going in it would not have mattered.   

QB:  I thought BS played pretty well.  He made some huge plays on scrambles one of which gained a 1st down by lowering his head instead of going out of bounds on the big touchdown drive mentioned above.  I thought he tried to force one throw to AC which almost resulted in a pick.  He showed some very good elusive moves to keep plays alive.  Also, on the fumble on the exchange it looked like the back side defensive player was waiting for him and probably should have left the ball with Henry.  It looked to me like he tried to pull the ball. 

RB:  They ran hard and but did have some mistakes. One was the dropped screen by TJY.  I know it was 3rd and 21, but it looked like he had room to run with a blocker in front.  Other mistakes I saw was JF not getting to the outside of the defensive player allowing them to make plays for short gains.  There were fumbles which took points off the board.   

REC:  AC had another good game.  One thing Bama did to help was when UT put a safety over the top they ran the inside rec on a fade type routes which occupied the safety.  What I noticed was they didn’t expect to get the ball and basically stopped the route when they got to the safety level.  I know AC is a horse but just two wide rec’s that had catches yesterday.  I would love to see other players get involved. 

OL: As you notice the low number of negative plays mentioned above you could say the OL played pretty well.  I though LB came in and did a good job at left tackle.  There were a couple of missed assignments like AS missing the block on the UT player who had a direct line to Sims.  It looked like the defensive player had a wide set and AS didn’t take a big enough drop step to account for the rush.  They didn’t gain a lot at times when they ran the ball, but they did gain positive yards.  I thought UT did a good job stalemating the OL at times preventing big gains.   

Defense:  The defense gave up 383 yards of offense.  Almost all of it came in the last 3 quarters.  They had 7 tackles for losses, 3 sacks, a fumble recovery, and an int.  The defense gave up 4 runs of 10+ yards and 9 passes of 10+ yards.  The Bama defense had 2 three and outs and 1 4 and out.  UT made 4 trips inside of Bama’s red zone and scored 2 touchdowns and kicked 2 field goals.  It looked like UT’s game plan was to stretch Bama’s defense since they kept going wide with the passes and runs.  They did try to run inside just enough to keep Bama honest.  There were way too many missed tackles.

DL:  They played OK.  They have played better.  It looked like they were catching blocks a lot of the time.  They allowed UT to get outside a couple of times one that went for a 44 yard run.  XD did a heck of a job chasing down the UT player from behind after a big gain.

LB:  RR again played well. He made a good play when defending the pass on a good throw by the UT QB.   There was one time where TD had the QB stopped for a loss and missed the tackle.
 
DB:  Again, there was some confusion.  They were confused on the 2nd TD pass where there were actually 2 players open.  CJ didn’t get the defensive call early enough and as flagged for a pass interference trying to play catchup.  They got cut on the edge at least once and allowed the UT players to get outside a couple of times.  They were in position to make plays and didn’t a couple of times.  I also think they underestimated the speed of the UT players not taking good angles for tackles.

Penalties: Bama had 6 penalties.  They had two false starts and substitution infraction.  One of the false starts caused a change in play called, the change was the play that Bama fumbled on which led to a UT score.  The PI could be contributed to lack of communication.  The fumble by JF came after a delay of the game penalty which took Bama out of the red zone and gave them a 1st and 15.  This should not have been a factor. 

Special teams:   They gave up one return of 33 yards but kept them bottled up most of the day.  AG practically shanked the 1st PAT.  I didn’t notice a bad hold/snap.  They did cause a fumble on a punt, but UT recovered. 

Finally:  This is just my opinion, but Bama looked like a tired football team.  I can only think of 2 big hits during the complete game.  They didn’t play with the emotion they did while playing A&M.  There seem to be a lot of arm tackles or just not getting there at times.  They allowed UT to convert on 3rd and 13.   It may have been they just lost focus after racking up a 27-0 lead, but too me they looked tired.

Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll 
15 and counting