UM vs Bama
First, congrats to the Bama players and coaches for the victory over Southern Miss. This was a highly anticipated game because of all the expected offensive fireworks.
OFFFENSE: First, the offense had the perfect game plan for the defense presented by Ole Miss. The 3-2-6 is just begging you to run the ball. The offense put together 451 yards of total offense which included 241 passing and 210 rushing. Bama scored touchdowns on 4 out of their first 5 drives. I will be honest here and say Lane helped them by going for first downs on 4th down and gave Bama good field position. For negative plays, I have Bama with 4 tackles for losses, 3 sacks, 1 fumble, they recovered, and 1 interception. I may be wrong, but I think all the negative plays came in the 2nd half except for 1. Bama had no three and outs in this game. For plays that covered 10+ yards, I have Bama with 12 passing plays and 6 running plays. Bama got into the red zone 7 times and scored 6 touchdowns. The other time, Young threw the interception. Bama actually had not touchdowns outside the red zone.
QB: Young played a good game hand still does a good job finding secondary receivers as well as stepping up in the pocket to create time and passing lanes. He was 20 for 26 for 241 yards which equates for 77% competition rate. I think the interception could have been prevented if the receiver had worked back towards the QB and to the sideline. I don’t put all the blame on the receiver as it looked to me that the ball was thrown a little behind him. One of his most impressive throws was when Bama was on the left-hash and he threw a pass that probably traveled 35 yards on a rope. He did miss a wide-open receiver on a third down and 3. This was on the only drive Bama didn’t score on in the first half. I think he has an open receiver on a shorter route, but if he hits the big ball it would have probably been a touchdown.
RB: The running backs had a big day. Combined they averaged about 4.8 yards per carry as they had 214 yards on 45 carries. Robinson was the workhorse with 36 carries for 171 yards. I really thought he showed his vision and footwork in this game. We already know he is a tough/hard runner, but I noticed his agility more than once in the game. With McClellan out for a while, it seems, Sanders should get a chance to show what he can do.
Rec: Again, this game, there were 7 separate receivers with catches in the game, 8 if you count running backs. The main targets were the seems to be coming to be the main 4 were Williams (5), Bolden (4), Billingsley (4), and Metchie (3). I think 3 of Boldens 4 catches were for 1st downs.
OL: I thought they played well, especially in the first half. I do know that 1 2 of the negative plays were on the TE’s. Once they missed the block on the sack and another time, they missed the block on a running play. What I also saw was some great combo block that were worked to perfection. This also should have been a game they excelled in because of the defensive front they were playing. The major problem in this game was the errant snaps throughout the game. The other major negative, was the inability to gain 1 yard on the 4th and 1 which probably would have allowed Bama to run out the clock and maybe keep that last OM touchdown off the scoreboard.
Def: Last year, the defense gave up 647 yards of total offense. This year they gave up a total of 291 yards which included 213 passing yards and 78 rushing yards. For negative plays, I have Bama with 6 tackles for losses, 2 sacks, and a caused fumble which was recovered. I have OM with only 1 three and out. For plays that covered 10+ yards, I have 10 passing plays and 2 running plays. Both running plays came in the 2nd half. OM got into the red zone 4 times scoring 3 touchdowns and turning it over on downs once. On the stop in the red zone, Battle came up big as he actually stops the running backs momentum which allowed the DL to finish the tackle pushing him back instead to falling forward for the 1s down. I don’t know if this is true, but it looked like the defense was simplified and allowed the athletes to play and make plays, which they did.
DL: I thought this was the most active and best game they have played. Mathis seems to be getting better every game and becoming a force. Again, and I know this is repetitive, but they are occupying the OL and allowed the tackles to be made by the LB’s and safeties. I do think one thing they could learn is, instead of running full speed at a skilled player in front of you, break down a little and not allow them to make one move and get by you.
LB: With the complexity of this offense with regards to LB responsibilities, I thought they played well. In this offense with concern to the passing game, they have to cover RBs, TE’s, and getting in passing lanes per the RPO’s. Along with this, they have to be aware of the running game which includes running backs and QB’s.
DB: There was one competition for 42 yards where the TE got lost on a short QB scramble. Most of the passing plays were thrown underneath and yards were made after the catch. I will give OM some credit they made a couple of outstanding catches and 1 counted. Many times, they CB’s are in position and just need to make the play. I have noticed a couple of time, and I think it is more safety, if they get beat they are looking back at the qb instead of the receiver. You can’t run as fast looking back as you can looking at the target you need to cover.
Special teams: The only glitches in the special teams was when the return man didn’t get back and catch the ball when signaling fair catch and the kick off out of bounds. Everything else was pretty solid.
Penalties: I have Bama with 7 penalties, but one was declined. So, for the 6 penalties, I have on special teams a kick out of bounds and a targeting call. On offense I have a false start. On defense, there were 2 very questionable pass interference calls. I call them questionable because I don’t think any of the balls were catchable. There was also 12 men on the field call. I think this is the lowest total penalties of any game this year.
Finally, I thought this may have been Bama’s best 1st half. But I still see defenders not running all the way to the ball carrier and reaching too soon. Saying that, I don’t think there were as many missed tackles as there were in prior games.
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