game notes Bama vs UT

[hscoach]

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

[ALTideUp]

Great job as usual coach. I would have to add, under special teams, that our freshman punter continued to distinguish himself with his consistent excellent play. We know how much coach values field position, and this kid delivers.

[hscoach]

Great job as usual coach. I would have to add, under special teams, that our freshman punter continued to distinguish himself with his consistent excellent play. We know how much coach values field position, and this kid delivers.

You are 100% correct.

[lstephen]

Great job coach.  Interesting comment about being tired.  I know they seemed to lose focus after racking up the big first quarter.  Maybe that's why?  In your opinion will the open date before LSU help with that?  Also, on Robinson's hgh ankle sprain, Coach Saban seemed to say he might be back in a couple of weeks.  None of us know how severe the sprain is but he'd need to practice some to be back for LSU, wouldn't he?

Anyhow, we beat UT and LSU beat Ole Miss.  If we win out and Miss. State beats Ole Miss, WE GO TO ATLANTA!  ROLL TIDE!!!

[ricky023]

Thank you hscoach. I too saw something was wrong after the first QTR. but I couldn't figure it out. Maybe it was a tired team. I still say on games like A&M we should do the 2nd string if they are going to play next year in the 3rd and 4th should get to play a lot. Then if we give up score or have bad offense at least it won't be the 1st team that we holler at. lol, RTR!

[McBaman]

Great analysis Coach that captures the good & bad in this game.  I thought the D more than the O lost focus in 2nd qtr.  O wasn't doing very well either but it seemed to start with the D.  Maybe they are tired.  Off week should help with that.

Bottom line is we gotta keep getting better and gotta keep winning.  Some tough games ahead.  One at a time.

[hscoach]

Great job coach.  Interesting comment about being tired.  I know they seemed to lose focus after racking up the big first quarter.  Maybe that's why?  In your opinion will the open date before LSU help with that?  Also, on Robinson's hgh ankle sprain, Coach Saban seemed to say he might be back in a couple of weeks.  None of us know how severe the sprain is but he'd need to practice some to be back for LSU, wouldn't he?

Anyhow, we beat UT and LSU beat Ole Miss.  If we win out and Miss. State beats Ole Miss, WE GO TO ATLANTA!  ROLL TIDE!!!

I think the off week will help.  There are a lot of little nicks that need to heal as much as possible.  Jones didn't play because of a slight hamstring problem and DW came off limping once.  With high ankle sprains you never know how long they will take. 

[N.AL-Tider]

Great analysis and thanks for posting it each week.  I have been extremely impressed with Reggie Ragland's play this year.  He shows me that he will be an extremely dangerous player for opposing offensive coordinators to have to deal with when he becomes the "every down" LB... I can't wait... 

[2Stater]

Great assessment, Coach. It really seems with this team that when they lose focus, they really lose focus. I'm just glad that they regrouped enough to put the game away. I hope the bye week will give them time to heal and catch their breath. To me, the LSU game is the most important game in front of us that we have in the regular season. We play so well at home that I feel quote confident that we will take care of business against MSU and Auburn.

LSU on the road will be a big challenge, especially as well as they are playing right now. What are your thoughts on that?

[bama87]

Coach good stuff as always. I think the qb change by UT changed the way the game was played. Dobbs was more read option while Worley kind of stays in the pocket. Dobbs took pressure off their line and we had to adjust on the fly.

Coach what is your opinion on the blocking down field rules. I hate it because these read option teams have linemen blocking 5 yards downfield and when they roll out there are blockers in front. Not a fair rule.

[Chechem]

AG practically shanked the 1st PAT.  I didn’t notice a bad hold/snap. 

Eli Gold mentioned that the poor-quality sod contributed to the missed PAT.  The field was re-sodded several times, and overseeded when that didn't work.  Apparently artificial lighting was brought in to help speed the growing, which helped some but was inadequate to prepare the field by game time.

Basically, the field was sloppy and an embarrassment to UT.

[hscoach]

Great assessment, Coach. It really seems with this team that when they lose focus, they really lose focus. I'm just glad that they regrouped enough to put the game away. I hope the bye week will give them time to heal and catch their breath. To me, the LSU game is the most important game in front of us that we have in the regular season. We play so well at home that I feel quote confident that we will take care of business against MSU and Auburn.

LSU on the road will be a big challenge, especially as well as they are playing right now. What are your thoughts on that?

I agree.  LSU has improved week to week.  Also this has, to me, turned into a huge rivalry game and it is played at LSU. 

[hscoach]

Coach good stuff as always. I think the qb change by UT changed the way the game was played. Dobbs was more read option while Worley kind of stays in the pocket. Dobbs took pressure off their line and we had to adjust on the fly.

Coach what is your opinion on the blocking down field rules. I hate it because these read option teams have linemen blocking 5 yards downfield and when they roll out there are blockers in front. Not a fair rule.

In my opinion, they need to watch this more closely.  Years ago we would tell our safeties to read uncovered linemen.  This would give them a great read on if it was a run or pass play.

[hscoach]

I don't usually do this but I want to say I think Butch Jones is doing a good job at UT.  He is playing a lot of young players with this being their 1st year of DI football.  They had a backup QB in and never gave up.  Many teams with young players would have quit after being down 27-0.  I think UT will be in contention for the East title by next year.

[Chechem]

AG practically shanked the 1st PAT.  I didn’t notice a bad hold/snap.  

Eli Gold mentioned that the poor-quality sod contributed to the missed PAT.  The field was re-sodded several times, and overseeded when that didn't work.  Apparently artificial lighting was brought in to help speed the growing, which helped some but was inadequate to prepare the field by game time.

Basically, the field was sloppy and an embarrassment to UT.

Pics of the grow lights like those used in Neyland Stadium last week or so (and explanation):
Click here for link

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