This was a fun game to watch as the team was coming off the two tough loses last week. The offense showed some new wrinkles that I think most folks that follow the team have been wanting. They played with a lot of imagination as they made a lot of passes to players on the backside of a play for easy layups or dunks. This is how Taylor and Randolph got most of their points.

The starting five were Releford, Key, Randolph, Taylor and Jacobs. I liked this line up more than any starting lineup that they have had this year. Jacobs is not playing like the Jacobs of old, he actually made a drive to the basket from the top of the key last night and made the shot as well as hit a long jumper from the top of the key as well. This type of play can open up the goal area as we can see from last night with Taylor's and Randolph's performances. Taylor still has a way to go but he is showing a lot of improvement from game to game. Key is another player that has made a lot of progress since the season started, he can be a big factor in the teams success this year.

Even though the team lost the two games in the NIT last week I think they brought a lot of good things home with them and that is a huge plus as conference play nears.

First:   I really hated watching this game again.  This game was lost because of missed assignments on both sides of the ball along with the lack of focus which caused penalties that hurt the team.   There were too many mistakes on both sides of the ball for Bama to win   AU played hard and made the plays at the end to win the game. 

Offense:   The offense played too inconsistent to win the game.  They didn’t finish when
they had a chance to ice the game.  They only had three 3 and outs in the game.  As far as negative plays Bama had 5 tackles for losses, 1 sack and 2 block kicks.  For the positive, Bama had 6 pass receptions for 10+ yards and 5 runs for 10 plus yards.  One run was negated by a penalty.  I have at least 5 low snaps and two of those were on plays that could have been TDs.  First the throw to Cooper who dropped the throw the second was where AJ had White open for a TD, but was flushed .  This was combined with a missed block by the back.  A third AJ had to drop the ball down and had an open Howard eeper down the field which would have been a first down.   

QB:  I don’t think AJ played a very good game.  Part of this was because of the low snaps which threw off the timing of plays.  I also think he should have checked out of a couple of plays and ran wide instead of inside.  This may not have been his choice.  He threw 3 deep balls that should have been TDS.  One was when Cooper slowed to catch the ball on the 99 yard play.  He was also off target on a few throws and the rec did not come up with the catch.

RB:  They ran hard but the holes closed quickly.  They made yardage on the outside.  They made some big blocks on the blitz, but missed a big one on a play in the red zone.  I am not sure why Drake did not run in the second half. 

REC:  They did not play their best game.  There were a couple of balls that should have been caught.  Cooper dropped one in the end zone and I thought Jones could have made the catch on a high ball on the sideline. 

OL:  I didn’t think they played well at all.   They missed blocks and assignments.  I saw AS miss the LB and this backside LB made the play for a little of no gain.  They missed assignments on They had 4 false start penalties, one was on the FG that was made and didn’t count so Bama had to rekick and missed.  The line was out hit but the charging D line of AU.  It looked like the AU D was getting of the ball as fast as the Bama OL.  I don’t know if they were getting some indication of when the ball was going to be snapped or if they were getting a run pass key from some of the OL.  There miscommunicated on the 4th and short which stopped the Bama drive and chance to ice the game.  AU was getting pressure with a 4 man rush a lot of the time as doing nothing more than a twist stunt in the middle. 

Defense:  The made too many mistakes in the game but still gave Bama a chance to ice the game in the 4th quarter with a stop on 4th down.  They had three 3 and outs and 1 4 and out.  They had 5 tackles for losses, 4 sacks, and 1 fumble recovery.  They gave up 8 runs for 10+ yards and 3 passes for 10 plus yards.  I have them losing contain at least 7 times.   Because of the loss of contain, the DB now have to play pass and run.  This was the big issue on the last TD for AU.  I didn’t count all the missed tackles, but there were many.  There were also some bad angles taken by the DBs. 
DL:  They were pushed by the AU OL.  They didn’t keep the OL off the LB’s.  When they played with proper techniques they did well.  They just didn’t do it well enough.  One of the best examples was the 3rd and 18 play where the rush pushed the pocket back but didn’t keep outside leverage.  This allowed the QB to get outside and complete the pass for a 1st down. 

LB:  They had to shed blockers most of the day.  They got caught up not reading their key correctly.  At times they looked confused. 

DB:  They allowed themselves to get blocked and the AU rbs got the edge.  They were cut to often. 

ST:  People will say this is where the game was won or lost.  It wasn’t.  They game was lost on the OL/DL.  Yes Bama missed some field goals but they had 3rd and short many times and didn’t convert.  Also, the dropped passes didn’t help either.  Bama could have won the game by making a couple of the FGs.  .  I don’t know what was wrong with CF yesterday, but his alignment or timing was off.  There were also missed tackles here.

Penalties:  Too me this is where Bama gave the game away as bad as they played.  On the first false start, Bama had a nice screen set up but was negated.  The second false start Bama had a 2nd and 5 that turned into a 2 and 10 which they didn’t overcome.  The third false start what when they had the wide rec screen set up and was going to be a big play maybe a TD.  The fouthe took points off the board.  Finally, the holding penalty coupled with the personal foul by White.  Bama would have had a first down because of the dead ball foul if White had not retaliated. 


Overall, Bama did not play well on either side of the ball.  What concerns me is this happened last game also.  Ever since the 2nd half of the LSU game Bama has not played well. 


15 and counting and I don’t believe it will come this year. 

Please feel free to comment.

After reading some of the readers posts, I must say that it disappoints me to see their anger toward a single player for the loss last night. I can understand the disappointment of losing a big game but we all should know and understand that a team has not and will not win all of their games. A winning streak is no more than a set up for some big time sadness when the team finally loses and I use the term team and not player to indicate the loss.

Football is a game that is made up of nothing more than a package of emotional ups and downs. Some players handle emotion better than others but still it is all a team concept that dictates the success or failure of a team. It's the same with the fans as well, some handle it better than others.

Everyone is pointing their finger at Cade Foster for losing the game but I have to question why was he having to kick the ball at all. In a perfect world you shouldn't need a kicker, except for extra points, if a team plays to perfection. We also know that kickers, and I mean the best, have missed game winning opportunities but still, had the team done everything right on the first three plays of the series you wouldn't need to try a field goal.

My point is that the kicker is just part of the team and there are going be failures of players at whatever position during the course of a game. This is why the term team is used because there is no one player who is going to win or lose a game. Every player that played last night made a mistake during the course of the game.

There were so many plays that failed before the attempted kicks that included bad passes, dropped passes, missed blocks, missed tackles, coaches decisions, and so on and had some of these failures worked we wouldn't be here discussing why the team lost last night.

This was a historical run by CNS and the Bama team, it should be something that all of us Bama fans can hold our heads high and appreciate the fact that we all had the chance to enjoy such a feat. How many other schools would like to be in our position?  With this winning streak having ended, we should  applauded the many players and coaches that made this all possible and not single out a certain player or coach for the loss that ended it, you win as a team and you lose as a team.

ROLL TIDE!!!

 

 

Good read and common sense approach. This is the best story I have read about AJ & the Heisman. Read entire story, interesting comments about Manziel & McCarron.





Click here for link


 

First: I want to congratulate the Bama coaches and players on the win. 

Offense:   In this practice game Bama put up 435 yards of offense and missed a possession because of a punt return for a TD.  They had 2 negative plays on offense, both tackle for losses.  The other negative play came in the special teams.   They had 15 plays of over ten yards, 8 runs and 7 passes.  They were in the red zone only 3 times and scored TDs each time.  They scored 3 times from outside the red zone, 2 passes and 1 run.  The other TD came on the punt return.  They had no three and outs, but they did miss a 4th down open Howard which turned the ball over after a drive. 

QB:  Not much to say here except his techniques was a lot better this game.  This probably was due to the competition because he didn’t get much pressure.  Sims made one good throw to Black, but it looked like he gave up on routes or didn’t pull the trigger. 

RB:   They ran hard and it was good to get the others in there to get some real game experience.

REC:  They were open all day.  They did a good job blocking and many players got catches.

OL:   They seem start slow.  It looked like they may not have been sustaining the block, but the game on the computer was a little behind and I didn’t see all the play at times.  AK did not come back in after he left in the second quarter.  They got some good quality time for the backup line and I thought they did well, computer was better after half time.   They made some good combo block and got to the second level.

Defense:  The defense gave up 175 yards.  They had 6 tackles for losses, 1 sack, 1 int, 1 fumble, and a blocked FG.  They had 4 three and outs along with one 4 and out.  They gave up 3 pass plays for over 10 yards and 1 running play for over 10 yards.  They also had a chance to get many backup for quality work.  The negatives were they lost contain a few times and they missed a few tackles. 

DL:     They played pretty well and rotated many players in.

LB:  Again, I thought DePriest had a good game.   

DB:  The DB’s lost contain a couple of times and they corners were getting cut.  They must do a better job here. 

Penalties:  They had 2 penalties for 20 yards. 

Special teams:  There were 2 big plays here.  First, the fumble, and the D made a stand where it didn’t hurt.  Second was the punt return for the TD.  Jones had had a convoy of players escorting him into the end zone. 

Finally:  This was a game where there was little emotion, but they knew they were playing an outmanned team.   They can’t afford to come out slow next week. 

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll 
15 and counting

Thanks to all the Seniors for your hard work and dedication to the Alabama football program.  You have help keep the tradition alive.  To you underclassman, learn from this and strive  to be even better.  You have had great leadership and been great leaders which have allowed you to attain goals only others can dream about.  You will always be a champion and a member of an extended family.  Good luck in your future and thank you for all the happiness/enjoyment you have brought to us fans.

I posted once about this 2 years ago in a similar thread, but I became an Alabama fan when I was a little kid living in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl, long before we moved to Montgomery.

My grandfather on my mother's side was absolutely my idol. We would go visit him in Hattiesburg, Ms every summer or fall. In the fall, if there was a Bama game on, he would be in front of that TV cheering the Tide on. I asked him one time why he like Bama so much. This is a man that was born in 1887.

He told me that ever since the Civil war, the North had always looked down on the South as being a bunch of uneducated, dirt poor, worthless nothings, inferior to the North in every way. In the 1926 Rose Bowl, a bunch of country kids from Alabama, not the Rose Bowl's first choice, played and beat a heavily favored Washington team.

The South took notice, including my grandfather. There was something that the entire South could hang their hat on, not just people from Alabama.

My grandfather became an Alabama fan on that day in 1926, and was until the day he died in 1975.

The day he told me that story, I became an Alabama fan and will be until the day I die.