Game notes: AU / Bama

[hscoach]

                                                                                                                AU vs Bama

First, congrats to the Bama players and coaches on the big win today.  I thought both sides of the ball played well.  Also, Sarkisian did a good job running the team in Saban’s absence.  By the way, what a great day to have Sr. day.

OFFFENSE:  The offense put together 445 yards of total offense which included 302 passing and 143 rushing.  For negative plays, I have Bama with 2 tackles for losses, 2 sacks, and 1 fumble.  Bama also had 2 three and outs.  One of the three and outs was with Young in at QB and it was three straight plays with what I would call busted plays.  On the first play of that drive, D Brown went to block the wrong guy and left the AU player there to make the play.  If that block is made it could have been a very nice gain.  Play 2 looked like a RPO where the QB should have pulled the ball and dumped to the short receiver or the receiver should have blocked that guy who made the play.  On play three, Leatherwood allowed the AU player to come inside which is a short path to the QB, the other option was the RB could have been supposed to help.  For plays that covered 10+ yard, I have Bama with 8 passing plays and 5 running plays.  Bama only got into the red zone twice.  They scored a touchdown on the first trip and fumbled on the 2nd trip after the defense set them up after an interception.  Bama scored 5 touchdowns from outside the red zone, 4 on passing plays and 1 on a run by Harris.  Bama left points on the field as they fumbled in the red zone and lost a great opportunity on the first drive where a penalty brought back a first down throw.  There was also a missed open receiver that would have given Bama a first down, but Jones tried to force the ball to the deep receiver.  I will say, I thought Bama missed a great opportunity before half by just running the ball until they actually had to.  The made a couple of good runs, and probably could have thrown off of play-action.  I thought getting points right before half and then getting the ball back the 2nd half could have really put AU into know a deeper hole.

QB:  Jones played well again.  He completed 18 of 26 passes for a percentage of 69 percent.  I also thought there was one ball that was dropped that should have been caught.  That would have put him at 73%.  Also, on the first drive he tried to force one deep when it looked like Metchie was open in the middle which would have given Bama a first down and kept the drive alive.   People keep talking about what a great route Smith ran for the 66 yard touchdown, but it was the pump fake by Jones that actually made the safety step up on his move and enabled Smith to get over the top. Jones did a good job and the scramble where he got a first down by not trying to continue outside and turn up and got the necessary yards for a first down.  Young didn’t have much of a chance as you saw what I posted above about his series.

RB:  Harris played well as he ran the ball well, caught the ball and blocked well.  With his rushing and receiving he combined for 130 yards on 13 touches which means he averaged 10 yards per touch.  Robinson ran well and his only bad play was his fumble in the red zone.  McCellan didn’t have much of a chance as I stated above with the blown block.

Rec: This is becoming repetitive as it was the Smith show again.  He keeps adding to his SEC record for touchdowns.  Billingsley added a couple of catches and got his first touchdown. Metchie had a good game as he had 6 catches for 55 yards and 2 touchdowns.  Also, Forristall added a catch for 9 yards.  The only knock I have on the receivers is that a couple of times it looked like the route separation wasn’t very good and it led to incomplete passes. 

OL:  The OL had a good game especially if you look at the total negative plays Bama had in the game. They started opening holes for the running back and getting to the 2nd level with the combo blocks.  Also, most of the day the pass protection was very good.  On one of the sacks it looked like Jones may not have seen an open receiver.  That being said AU did get a good push at the LOS. 

Def:  The defense played very well especially in the first 3 quarters of the game.  In the first 3 quarters I thought that was Bama’s best job of tackling for the year.  Later on they missed a few tackles.  I think part of the reason they were expecting more passing plays and they got running plays. They gave up a total of 347 yards which included 227 passing and 120 rushing. Out of the 347 yards 96 came on one drive which was aided by a questionable PI call.  For negative plays I have Bama with 5 tackles for losses, 5 sacks, 1 fumble, and 2 interceptions.  I also have AU with 2 three and outs for the day.  For plays that covered 10+ yards, I have AU with 8 passing plays and 2 running plays.   On the passing plays, their QB completed 23 passes and if my notes are correct only 4 of those completions traveled further than 10 yards pass the LOS.  AU got into the red zone once and scored a touchdown.  Their other scores came on field goals from outside the red zone.

DL: I thought they had a great game.  It seemed all the players made big plays during the game.  It seems to me, Mathis is getting better every game.   Again, the job they did allowed the LB’s and safeties to come up and make plays.

LB: The LB’s played well as they had to sort out the motions and shifts that AU like to do.  They had to be responsible for both passing and running as well as the QB runs at various times. 

DB: They played well and as I stated above, AU only completed 4 passes that traveled over 10 yards pass the LOS.  Their big “go to” receiver had 3 catches that totaled 17 yards.  Bama was aided by a couple of big drops by the AU receivers.  I really thought all the Bama safeties had a big game and made some plays, especially coming up and making tackles.  One big play they made was when the AU receiver was jammed on the wide receiver screen and not allowed to get to the ball which was intercepted. 

Special teams:  The special teams were solid again.  They only allowed one kick return to get past the 25, however the kicks were not very deep.  Smith again did a good job on punts, both returns and fair catches. 

Penalties: Bama only had 4 penalties for 30 yards.  However, a couple were big.  First, they called an illegal formation on Leatherwood and it cost Bama a first down on the first drive when going into the scoring area.  They didn’t overcome it.  I thought this was questionable as I saw the AU tackle lined up deeper than Leatherwood with no call.  The 2nd penalty was an offside which instead of AU having a 2nd and 10 they had a first and 5.  This one didn’t really hurt as AU had to punt on that drive.  The 3rd penalty was a false start which put Bama into a 3rd and 3 to a 3rd and 8.  Bama overcame that penalty and scored a touchdown on that drive.  Finally, the PI on the 96 yard drive for a touchdown.  I really don’t think it was a penalty as the defensive player has a right to position as does the offensive player.  Also, the ball was thrown out of bounds.

Finally, Bama’s defense has continued to improve.  The offense missed some opportunities because they had good field position and missed some open receivers.  I think Jones, early in the game, tries to force the ball instead of taking what was open underneath.
Feel free to comment:

17 and Counting

[ricky023]

TY hscoach that is a well done job. I thought Mack tried to get rid of the ball quicker. There was some O-line pass blocking a couple of times Mack didn't have time for nothing.
Running game was fair but it seem when Najee ran the ball it was like the defense knew where he was going. There is a lot of this running sideways I disagree with. We need to be running north and south more.
I am so proud to say and hope I don't jinx him ,,BUT we now have a kicker. Will is doing a great job.
One thing I do know is if the REF's don't stay out of the game the way they do, they gave auburn their TD. Because we had been 11 quarters without giving up a TD.
God Bless and hope your around a long time hscoach. RTR!

[lstephen]

Thanks a lot, coach.  I was impressed with the play of Tim Smith, #50, in the middle of the d-line.  Had a few really good plays and he's a true freshman!  Has he played much this season?  I hadn't noticed him before this game.

Thanks again and ROLL TIDE!!!!

[carl childers]

Good job as always. Jones has really shown great pocket presence - he is not an overly elusive guy, but the way he moves up into the pocket is nice - was a key to the TD throw to Billingsley. Also the pump fake on the slug route that Smith caught the first TD on was sweet. Not too bad for a "game manager."

[hscoach]

TY hscoach that is a well done job. I thought Mack tried to get rid of the ball quicker. There was some O-line pass blocking a couple of times Mack didn't have time for nothing.
Running game was fair but it seem when Najee ran the ball it was like the defense knew where he was going. There is a lot of this running sideways I disagree with. We need to be running north and south more.
I am so proud to say and hope I don't jinx him ,,BUT we now have a kicker. Will is doing a great job.
One thing I do know is if the REF's don't stay out of the game the way they do, they gave auburn their TD. Because we had been 11 quarters without giving up a TD.
God Bless and hope your around a long time hscoach. RTR!

Thank you young man.

[hscoach]

Thanks a lot, coach.  I was impressed with the play of Tim Smith, #50, in the middle of the d-line.  Had a few really good plays and he's a true freshman!  Has he played much this season?  I hadn't noticed him before this game.

Thanks again and ROLL TIDE!!!!

I also thought Tim played well.  Yes he has played quiet a bit this year.  His stats have picked up the last 3 or 4 games,

[hscoach]

Good job as always. Jones has really shown great pocket presence - he is not an overly elusive guy, but the way he moves up into the pocket is nice - was a key to the TD throw to Billingsley. Also the pump fake on the slug route that Smith caught the first TD on was sweet. Not too bad for a "game manager."

Yea, those "game managers" make a few plays every once in a while.  He throws a heck of a deep ball most of the time.

[hscoach]

A couple of things I left off.  Even though the official stats show that Jones averaged 11. 6 yards per passing attempt, he averaged he averaged 16.77 per completion. On the other side of the ball, Bo averaged 5.97 per attempt and and 9.8 per completion.  AU also averaged 2.9 per rushing attempt. and averaged 4.3 yards per play.

[Marshal Dillon]

To me the linebacker play the last 2 years have been underwhelming. Last year it was injuries, so what’s going on this year or am I missing something? Dylan Moses looks above average at best to me. Help me out everyone.



 

[hscoach]

To me the linebacker play the last 2 years have been underwhelming. Last year it was injuries, so what’s going on this year or am I missing something? Dylan Moses looks above average at best to me. Help me out everyone.



 

Many teams are putting them in difficult situations. For instance covering backs out of the backfield.  If you check the total stats you will see they are among the team leaders in tackles.

[2Stater]

Thanks Coach. So, we beat Auburn, right? 

[ricky023]

To me the linebacker play the last 2 years have been underwhelming. Last year it was injuries, so what’s going on this year or am I missing something? Dylan Moses looks above average at best to me. Help me out everyone.



 

MD I am with you I noticed sometimes it seems our LB's are missing calls or they don't know where they are to be placed. They are looking around a lot. We use to have LB's that were the best in the business but our coaching is off the last couple of years. I would love to see Charlie Strong take over this group. RTR!

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