Game notes: Ark vs Bama

[hscoach]

                                                                                                     Ark vs Bama

First, congrats to the Bama coaches and players on the win.  I thought the offensive staff had a great game plan to allow Jones to get comfortable early in the game and progressed from there. 

OFFFENSE:  The offense was the beneficiary of great field position given to them by the defense.  They gave Bama the ball in the plus territory at the 14,48,48, and 25-yard line because of a fumble recovery, 2 interceptions, and a 3 and out where the punter had to punt from inside his own endzone.  The Bama offense put together 459 yards of total offense with included 280 passing and 179 rushing.  Since Bama played a lot of backups in the 2nd half, most of the yards were made in the first half, 275 total yards.  For negative plays, Bama only had 3 tackles for losses and they had one 3 and out.  However, that 3 and out could have been avoided if there had not been a hold on the play.  This negated a 30+ yard pass play that would have put Bama in Ark. Territory.  I credit Bama with 10 pass plays that covered 10+ yards and 5 running plays that covered that distance.  Bama got into the red zone 7 times and scored 4 touchdowns and kicked 2 field goals.  On the other instance, they turned the ball over on downs.  They did score from outside the red zone once on a long pass.  The other touchdown came from the defense when Diggs returned the interception for the score. 

QB:   I thought Jones played a very good game.  Jones completed 18 of 22 passes for 235 yards.  This equates to an 82% competition rate.  He did miss a deep ball and also missed an open Robinson when he threw to the tight-end.  However, on that throw he had to contend with a high snap which probably threw the timing off.  He did a good job getting rid of the ball on a couple of throw aways when there were no open receivers.  I also thought he did a good job finding the secondary receiver at times.  Taulia played pretty well and connected on 6 of 8 throws.  He did make a mistake when he almost threw and interception.  He was looking at the receiver the complete time and never came off when the guy was double covered.  Taulia stats were hurt when the holding call I mentioned above took away a 30+ yard competition. 

RB:  Harris and B Robinson combined for 154-yard rushing on 26 carries.  This breaks down to 5.9 yards per carry.  K Robinson added 29 yards on 9 carries.  I thought they all did a good job getting up the field and running hard in traffic.  I really like this K Robinson, sort of reminds me of K Drake.

Rec: Not counting RB’s 6 different receivers had catches.  Jeudy led the way with 7 catches and was the receiver who was overthrown on what could have been a touchdown.  Waddle was second with 5 while Smith and Ruggs had 4 each.  Smith didn’t play as much after his injury which gives others and opportunity to make plays.  They did a good job blocking downfield for both the running backs and when passes where thrown short.  The negative was the holding call which negated a 30+ completion and enable the only 3 and out for the day.

OL:  The OL, in my opinion, played one of their better games.  I think this because they had no offensive penalties called on the OL.  This is unusual when you have a change in QB’s.  Second, I rarely remember the running backs having contact in the backfield or behind the LOS.  Third, there were no sacks.  Fourth, they got a push on the DL in short yardage situations and got to the second level on other plays.  Finally, I saw them getting downfield on the running plays looking for another block.

Def:  I thought the defense played a pretty good game and really helped the offense by giving them great field position, which I mentioned above.  They still made some mistakes, however, they didn’t hurt them as much as they have in the past.  The defense gave up a total of 213 yards which includes 107 passing and 106 rushing.  Two drives accounted for 136 (85 and 51 yard) of these yards.  However, the one drive of 85 yards should have been a 3 and out but the offsides call on the punt allowed a first down.  This drive led to the only touchdown for Ark.  As for negative plays, I have Bama credited with 4 tackles for a loss, 1 sack, 3 interceptions, and a fumble recovery.  These turnovers led to 3 touchdowns and a field goal.  I credit Bama with 5 three and outs and it should have been 6.  One of the three and outs was because of an interception.  For plays that covered 10+ yards, I have 6 passing plays and 3 running plays.  Ark got into the red zone once and scored a touchdown.  They didn’t get into the red zone until late in the 3rd quarter and the score came early in the 4th quarter. 

DL:  I thought this was one of their better games.  They didn’t have many sacks, but Ark didn’t really drop back a lot of times.  Ark was getting rid of the ball quickly utilizing the short passing game.  They only averaged 3.5 yards per rush.  There were mistakes made when they allowed them to break contain, however, most of these where when Miller and Jennings were lined up on the LOS.

LB:   In this part I am including Jennings, Harris, Lee, Benton, and Miller.  They again led the team with tackles.  The short passing game didn’t allow many sacks, but they did affect the passer.  They had batted ball, especially by Jennings and Miller.  There was a busted coverage and on TV they blamed it on Jennings, because, according to the announcer, it was man coverage.  If this is true, then Jennings should have come off his rush and picked the RB up.  This allowed for a 22-yard gain on a 3rd and 7.  On the touchdown throw the inside LB, who I think was Lee, stumbled and allowed the separation by the tight-end.  Benton missed a tackle when he was just out of control and allowed the runner to make one move and get by him.  He had the sideline to help him if he just breaks down the runner either goes out of bounds or has to turn back into him.  This happened at least once a game and I think it is because they want to make the big hit.

DB:  The starting QB for Ark only had 5 completions and 3 interceptions.  However, many of the throw were underneath.  When they did got downfield the DB’s did seem to be in pretty good position.  Ark did miss a deep ball throw to an open receiver.  Carter allowed the running back to get on his feet before he opened up to cover the guy.  When this happens, he is beat. 

Special Teams:  The best part about the special teams was there were no missed field goals or extra points.  Also, the average per punt was 47.5 yards.  They had no punt returns.  Bama did make a mistake on one kickoff return where they caught it close to the sideline and stepped out of bounds. Bama did allow one return to get past the 25-yard line.

Penalties:  The good news is they cut down on their penalties.  They only had 6 for 60 yards this game while Ark had none.  They had 2 offsides, one by Barmore who lines up right in front of the ball and one by Davis which gave Ark the first down on a 4th and 1 which kept the drive alive for a touchdown instead of a 3 and out.  Jennings had a holding call and a hands to the face.  The hands to the face was iffy.  A holding by Jeudy negated a 30+ yard pass play, again this help Ark get the only 3 and out they had yesterday.  The other call was the unsportsmanlike conduct on the kickoff coverage team. 

Finally, Bama made some improvements on both sides of the ball.  They need to continue to improve in all phases of the game.  I was wondering if anyone knows why Mayden wasn’t in the game?  I thought he had played well the last game and I noticed Wright was in the game more.

Feel free to comment:

17 and Counting

[2Stater]

They certainly did improve, Coach, on both sides of the ball. Still too many costly penalties, even though there were less of them. Arkansas held on several plays, but they were never called on it.

Mac Jones did a great job. He was very good at seeing the whole field. The only real miscue that I saw was a throw to Jeudy for little or no gain, when Waddle was wide open, and it would have been a TD had he seen him.

The D is closing the gap between the number of good plays vs bad plays, which is good. They still are occasionally missing assignments on pass coverage. They'll need to clean that up more by the LSU game.

Thanks again for a great assessment.

[Chechem]

Thanks much, coach.  Wish you could have joined us in Tuscaloosa.

I think LaBryan Ray played on the D-line.  I'm pretty sure I saw #89 in there, and that was his number.  It'd be great if he were up to 100% against LSU.

 

[ricky023]

Well done hscoach. I didn't get to see the game but Eli was a happy radio announcer. RTR!

[carl childers]

hscoach, what do you see as far as matchups against LSU - favorable, not favorable, strength vs strength?

[hscoach]

hscoach, what do you see as far as matchups against LSU - favorable, not favorable, strength vs strength?

Too me it is going to be which defense is able to step up and contain the other's offense.  Which OL will be able to protect the QB and establish some running game.  Too me they are pretty evenly matched.

[Old Tider]

If Bama's young defense can handle LSU's Burrow, they will have come of age in a big way.

[N.AL-Tider]

Thanks for the analysis Coach.  Since I didn't get to watch the game this week I was looking forward to this breakdown.  Question for you, do you attribute the improvements in all phases to coaching/practice or is that just what you get when playing an inferior opponent?  Or both?

[2Stater]

Thanks for the analysis Coach.  Since I didn't get to watch the game this week I was looking forward to this breakdown.  Question for you, do you attribute the improvements in all phases to coaching/practice or is that just what you get when playing an inferior opponent?  Or both?

Yes. 

[lstephen]

Thanks for the analysis coach.  Always appreciated.

[N.AL-Tider]

Thanks for the analysis Coach.  Since I didn't get to watch the game this week I was looking forward to this breakdown.  Question for you, do you attribute the improvements in all phases to coaching/practice or is that just what you get when playing an inferior opponent?  Or both?

Yes. 

Lol...I'm actually looking for a more "specific" answer and less generic...

 

[2Stater]

Thanks for the analysis Coach.  Since I didn't get to watch the game this week I was looking forward to this breakdown.  Question for you, do you attribute the improvements in all phases to coaching/practice or is that just what you get when playing an inferior opponent?  Or both?

Yes. 

Lol...I'm actually looking for a more "specific" answer and less generic...

 

'Yes' is a pretty specific answer, NALT. 

[N.AL-Tider]

Thanks for the analysis Coach.  Since I didn't get to watch the game this week I was looking forward to this breakdown.  Question for you, do you attribute the improvements in all phases to coaching/practice or is that just what you get when playing an inferior opponent?  Or both?

Yes. 

Lol...I'm actually looking for a more "specific" answer and less generic...

 

'Yes' is a pretty specific answer, NALT. 

[hscoach]

Thanks for the analysis Coach.  Since I didn't get to watch the game this week I was looking forward to this breakdown.  Question for you, do you attribute the improvements in all phases to coaching/practice or is that just what you get when playing an inferior opponent?  Or both?

I think a lot of it has to do with practice and film study.   The film show them the mistakes.  It is extremely difficult to get these young men out of doing things they could get away with in high school.   I do think I have seen better assignment football.

[hscoach]

Thanks for the analysis Coach.  Since I didn't get to watch the game this week I was looking forward to this breakdown.  Question for you, do you attribute the improvements in all phases to coaching/practice or is that just what you get when playing an inferior opponent?  Or both?

I think a lot of it has to do with practice and film study.   The film show them the mistakes.  It is extremely difficult to get these young men out of doing things they could get away with in high school.   I do think I have seen better assignment football.

Something I left off.  I think these young players want to make an impact so bad they forget the importance of assignment football.

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