Game note: UT vs Bama

UT vs Bama

First, congrats to the Bama players and coaches the victory. It wasn’t pretty the complete time, but they played outstanding at times. Consistency will be what they need to strive for.

OFFFENSE: The offense looked unstoppable at times, but there were a few times when they looked like they were not fully concentrating on the task at hand. I wondered if the low hit on Young was going to have an affect on him and I think it did for a short time. The offense put together 574 yards of total offense which included 371 passing and 203 rushing. If I hadn’t seen the total stats, I wouldn’t have guessed they rushed for 203 yards. Of those total yards 272 came in the second half, but they were also given two short fields because of an interception and a stop on 4th down deep in their own territory. For negative plays, I have Bama with 6 tackles for losses, 2 sacks, and 2 fumbles. Concerning the fumbles, one was lost in the red zone and the other was recovered by Young on the touchdown. Bama had 2 three and outs and they both came in the 2nd half on their first 2 drives. For plays that covered 10+ yards, I have Bama with 15 passing plays and 7 running plays. Bama got into the red zone 8 times and scored 7 touchdowns. The other trip was a fumble by Williams after a completion. The kicked one field goal from outside the red zone and missed one from outside the red zone.

QB: Young completed 31 of 43 passes for a 72% competition rate. There were at least 2 drops on balls that should have been caught. As I said above, I think the low hit affected him for a short time but came back well afterwards. It is extremely difficult to see what he did outstanding versus what he didn’t do since the angle on TV doesn’t give me the best look. He did a better job running the ball when the chance was given to him. When he does take off, you can see his eyes are still downfield looking to throw first. Tyson was just given the opportunity to run the clock out.

RB: The running game was solid. As I stated above, just watching the game, I really didn’t realize they rushed for 203. Robinson again had a solid game. His vision and change of direction becomes more evident each game. Williams also shows the same ability and there is very little drop off when there is a change at running back. I also saw a very good blitz pick up by Williams. Sanders again, with few reps, shows he could be a back that could get more time down the road.

Rec: Metchie again was the main target according to the number of catches as he had 11 for 121 yards. Williams had more yards with 123 on 6 catches. I am going to say this, Young overthrew Williams on one pass, however, I don’t put that all on Young. It looked to me that Williams reached for the ball, which slows him down, instead of running thru the ball. The tight ends got back involved with 4 catches, but Billingsley had a drop that would have been a big gainer. Bolden added 3 catches and Holden, who they seem to be getting more confidence in as he had 2 catches. He was also involved with an interference call that led to a touchdown.

OL: They had a decent game, but as I said last week, they need to sustain their blocks longer. I also noticed there were times when they weren’t driving their legs and it looked like they may have been playing to high at times. They still missed picking up a couple of stunts on the LOS. There are a couple of ways to do this with a turnback style of blocking where you step play side and turn back to the inside where you basically pick up the gap inside. This requires you to block the back on the play side as he would have the end man on the LOS. Also, you have big on big blocking, but you have to be able to switch on the stunts.

Def: Except for 3 or four plays, the defense played well. The bad part is those 3 or four plays accounted for 3 touchdowns. UT put together a total of 346 yards of total offense which included 282 passing and 64 rushing. Out of these yards 166 came on three plays which leaves 180 yards for the other 51 plays. For negative plays, I have Bama with 2 tackles for losses, 3 sacks, and an interception. Bama had 5 three and outs and this could have been better. Bama would have had another 3 and out but they roughed the punter and gave UT a first down on a 3rd and 28. UT then went on and scored a touchdown. The defense also had a 4 and out as they stopped UT on a 4th down try. Something that is important, on 3 of these three and outs the yardage to get a first down was less that 3 yards and the defense stopped them. For plays that covered 10+ yards, I have them with 6 passing plays and 1 running play and the run came on a scramble by the QB. UT got into the red zone twice and kicked a field goal and scored a touchdown. The scored 2 touchdowns from outside the red zone. A huge stop in the red zone by the defense came on a 3 and out where they kicked a field goal after a blocked punt. If the touchdown is scored there, the game tightens up drastically. I know the crowd noise had and effect on the UT offense, but I wonder did it hurt the communication of the defensive backs?

DL: I thought they played well. As I talked about the 3 and outs above especially when the down and distance was in the offense favor. It was difficult to get much of a pass rush as the QB drop was short. Mathis stood out basically because of his sack. He needs to become a force where the defense has to assign 2 blockers on him to free up others for 1 v 1 blocking. I would like to see a big push on QB’s that take a short drop.

LB: I really thought this was one of their best games. After seeing the stats, it was confirmed. I thought Harris played his best game and seemed to move better than in the past games. They also were not missing tackles like the past games.

DB: I really don’t know how to judge this group. Other than the 3 busted coverages they played well. I know on one touchdown the alignment was horrible or one safety was misaligned. If you are playing man you have to take the inside away unless you know you have help on the inside in combo look. I also know it is easier to make a throw to the inside than outside when the defender has outside leverage. On the 2nd touchdown, and this is one reason I wonder if the crowd noise hurt the defense, Battle was not in the middle of the field. He could have had the coverage wrong but it looked like he was trying to communicate with players on the other side of the ball. The other possibility was the other defender had the coverage wrong and thought the had help on the inside when he didn’t. I do know that a couple of times the defenders stayed in their backpedal too long and allowed the receiver, as we use to say, get on their feet, before turning their hips to get into a proper cover technique. The third touchdown, the corner, Jobe, was looking inside for the call when the ball was snapped, and the receiver ran right by him. This should be a great learning tool for when you play teams with tempo. I need to look again, but I wonder if they use wristbands on defense. On a good note, they again tackled well in this game.

Special teams: The two major plays on the special teams were the blocked punt by UT and the unsuccessful block attempt by Bama. On the blocked punt the blocking by the personal protector was poor and didn’t get to where he needed to be. Fortunately, the defense held them to a field goal. The unsuccessful attempt to bock the punt was poor techniques by the rushers. The other play of consequence was the missed field goal by Bama, which was a 54 yard attempt.

Penalties: I have Bama for 6 penalties, but only 4 were enforced. The worst was the roughing the kicker on the punt. The others were 2 false starts and a delay of game. The delay of game was ridiculous since it was on the 1st play after a kickoff. That should never happen.

Finally, Bama showed signs of being a very good team. However to be a great team you have to be consistent and stop making critical errors. Tackling was better and so was the reduction in penalties. Right now, in my opinion, the secondary has to, as they say, up their game. Simple things like proper technique has to improve.
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