Crimson Red Sports

The first game is here and gone and we all know who the starting QB is now so it's time to give all of our highly regarded opinions of last nights game. I'm not going to pick out every aspect of the game to mention but some of the plays or players that I thought were worth mentioning.

To me it was a typical first game with a lot of mistakes but yet with a lot of drama as to some of the big plays made and some big plays almost made. It didn't take long for Derrick Henry to remind all of us fans as to how good he really is. His running was at it's finest last night but there was one thing that he did that really caught my attention, his blocking. I thought he did a really good job picking up the blitzes and on one particular play he must have hit the rushing LB 5-6 times in protecting the QB.

The highly publicized QB battle for the starting job went off okay. Coker got the start and he showed to have a few jitters but I think he settled in as the game progressed and did a decent job. Sure he made some mistakes but the more he plays the better he should get. Bateman came in and gave a contrasting difference in how he plays the position. He is very mobile and I think he will give Coker a run for the QB job as the season progresses which can be really good for the team. I'm not counting out Morris either, it will be good to see him get a chance for some extended play. I know I feel better about the QB position right now than I did at this time last year. I'm not knocking Sims, I thought he did an amazing job last year and he was really the only QB that we had.

The running game seems to be as good as last year before Drake was injured. I'm hoping that they can stay healthy and continue where they left off last night. To me they are the key to Bama getting into the championship picture again.

The offensive line had some good moments but had way too many penalties. Holding is usually the result of the lineman getting beat on the play and Bama had their share of holding calls. I'm sure the coaches will get that corrected.

Bama has a stable full of receivers and we got to see some of them last night. We all hated to see Cooper graduate but it has now given all of the other receivers that were standing in his shadow the chance to show their game. The QBs should count their blessings in having so much talent to throw to.

Defensively I thought Bama had a lot of ups and downs in the game. In the first half I thought the defense played somewhat cautious and it made them look soft. There was no push coming from the line and Wisconsin was winning the battle on the line of scrimmage. The defensive backfield was playing soft as well and giving up a lot of receptions. In the second half I thought the defense did something that we haven't seen in a long time, They came out and played with a lot of aggression and it changed the whole game for Bama. They were stopping them on third down and had the Wisconsin QB running for his life.

And now the kicking game. It sure was a contrasting difference in what we saw last year and what we saw last night. The place kicking seems to be where it left off at the end of last season, very unpredictable. I know Griffith has a back issue but he may be the weak link in the chain again this year. Scott on the other had had a tremendous year last year and was up for the Ray Guy Award. If you remember I posted in the scrimmage thread earlier this year that he had only one good punt all day. I left there thing he just had a bad day but I'm not so sure now. Has he injured himself or has he changed his way of punting to try and better himself from last year. If he's trying to better himself, I think he made a bad decission because it would be very hard to top what he did last year. If you weant to blame it on coaching them we would have to go outside of Saban's staff as these kickers go to kicking clinics or have their own private coach to help them. This isn't to say that the Bama coaches don't try and help them some but Bama does not have a kicking coach to my knowledge, only a special teams coach.

I might add too that there were way too many penalties and I'm sure CNS and staff will take care of that.

Well there it is, my version of what I saw and I'm sure that most of you have much better opinions of what you saw and will share your opinions. I can't wait for next Saturday to get here and see where and how much we improve. RTR!!!

Good observations.   :clap:

QB.  Last year Bama had an athlete playing QB, who did a great job with his skill set.  This year, Bama has at least two QBs.  Bateman is a work in progress, but he is the future, and I agree he will push Coker for the starting job.

WR.  Calvin Ridley.  Kiffin is right, this guy is going to be special.  What hands!  Nice to see OJ, Foster, Mullaney, and others give the QBs several options.

Running game.  Unleash the beast!  (Tasmanian Devil?)  Last year, Bama struggled to control the line of scrimmage in some games, and relied more on Sims to Cooper than the running game.  Saban said he wanted to get back to doing those things that won Championships.  It looked to me that Bama has made a big step in that direction.  I'm not sure I saw Bama control the line of scrimmage last year like they did last night.

Passing game.  A few missed passes, but not bad decisions.  Interceptions killed Bama last year, so it was good to see none of that this year.  One concern is the left tackle's ability to protect the passer -- he was beat a few times, and called for holding a couple of times as well.  He couldn't handle Wisconsin's speed rusher, a former running back.  

Defense. I agree with the experts, this is the best defensive line of the Saban era.  More versatile than the Cody era, but still able to stuff the run.  I still have questions about the secondary.  Eddie Jackson played well at safety, but corner play remains a concern.  MH was beat a few times, Bama called for pass interference.  

Kicking game.  It is what it is.  Bama is in trouble if it has to rely on kicking to win a game.

Well done, Jamos.

I liked a lot of what I saw.

Henry - nuff said.

I didn't like Coker running 30 yes the wrong way.

I also didn't like the somewhat cynical/fatalist strategy of pass defense, which is "give them the 15 PI yards each time - at least it's not a touchdown".

I think we are going to need to work on blocking schemes for Drake. It appeared that we did Henry blocking when Drake was in there, but that does not maximize Drakes talents. The flair passes and screens really showed him at his best. We are doing to need stuff like zone blocking plans, or counter plays to get him in space. He doesn't have the size or muscle to reach open space through the line.

Well I am not a coach but.....  Well said J.  Think you hit it.

It's been said a team makes the most progress from game 1 to game 2 so next week should be interesting in that regard.

I really want to see Coop B working with the first team.  To me he looks like a 'real' QB which makes me think there is a lot of upside with him.  But until we see him with the first team while the game is still undecided we can't tell.

24  hour rule still in effect.  RTR!!!

I don't disagree with any of the previous posts.  But I would add that we probably didn't see everything there is to see on either side of the ball.  Probably won't before Ole' Miss.

ROLL TIDE!!!

Or not even then. He will show only what he has to to get the W.

Good stuff gentlemen.

I really liked Henry's effort in pass blocking too.  I wonder if he should just try to stay engaged with the guy though instead of smashing him 5 or 6 times.  There was an earlier play when he hit the guy pretty good one time, but then missed on the second lick and the defender got away and sacked the QB.

:dunno:

On the other hand, if Henry knocks him silly 5 or 6 times every time he gets past the line of scrimmage, after a few plays of that he might decide to just get stuck on one of the lineman.

:lol2:

Well said guys. I will say this enjoy Derrick Henry while you can because this will be the last year we get to see him on a Crimson Tide team. He will be gone to the next level.
I thought Kenyan Drake didn't do as well as i had hoped. We got to find a way against the SEC to use his speed.
We also need to find an arm on the QB to get the ball out in front of the WR. We had to many reaching back catches or trying to catch and they was short. Our WR's have the speed to get behind anybody, but we need to get the ball out there so they can run under it.
Guys I am worried! Our kicking game is going to have to improve to help us change the field in the SEC. I also thought we had a young player that is a Freshman that came on the team this year that was kicking from a way downtown. Am I wrong? Also if so, where was he last night?
I believe the coaches again this year need to get the plays in there faster. Give the QB time at the line to look the field over and audible if necessary. Just what I saw through the tears of joy of football being back. RTR!

It was a very good win over a quality team. We did not play great but we played pretty good for an opening game and we will only get better.

There was a lot of good. I like being able to run the ball. We ran for 238 yards against a team built to stop the run. Coker, Henry, OL and all receivers played well. Drake had a few good plays. We were able to get a lot of players in the game. The front 7 on defense is dominate and the secondary is improved. We never got beat deep and had a better pass rush.

They were mistakes. Coker missed a few long balls that were open. The defense gave up 228 passing yds. We were flagged 11 times for 120 yds. That is terrible and will get you beat in a close game. Poor punting and field goal kicking was very noticeable and must improve.

Much more good than bad. We are the best team I have seen yet this year. I see no reason not to expect a SEC championship and playoff invitation for this team.

The kicking game MUST improve. FG misses &/or poor punting will definitely result in us losing a game.



 :wall: :wall:

Not football related but CAJ was at the game. He is the polar opposite of Anthony Grant. Our basketball program needs all the attention and exposure they can get.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/COMKOh8UEAARN2U.jpg)

Plus, he played in Dallas. I wonder if he's allowed to recruit now?


 ???

The kicking game perplexes me. I had heard that Scott had been struggling in camp. I just can't understand what happened to him from last year until now. We can't win the tough games when we can't flip the field like we did last year, or make field goals. Some attention definitely needs to be paid to our kicking game. We can improve on the penalties and the other minor mistakes, but Griffith and Scott have got to get it together.

I think one of the commentators mentioned that he saw Scott staring at the scoreboard.  Wonder if hitting it got into his head?  Kicking worries me, too.  But, on the good side, I thought Griffith did a good job on the kickoffs and our coverage seemed very good.

Poor guy, taking one for the team.   :lol2:


I like this coach -- he knows how to have fun. 

I have a couple of questions that maybe some of you may have the answers to concerning a kickoff and pass interferewnce.

Why did Chris Black field a kickoff in the end zone and run it out to the 10 yard line and take a knee? ???

I'm not sure I understand the rule on pass interference. Is there a rule now that you must turn your head toward the ball when defending the pass?

My guess, it was late in the game & Black did not want a turnover if hit.

The assumption is if you are looking only at the receiver then maybe touch him some as the ball arrives, then you are playing the receiver, not the ball. That's my understanding.


 :clap: :clap: :clap:

I bet Chris Black is getting a stern talking to about bringing that ball out of the end zone. Take the knee in the end zone and get the ball at the 25 or fully commit to the return. You should never bring the ball out if you think you will not get it past the 25.

If you touch, bump or hinder the receiver without finding the ball the ref is more likely to throw a flag. It is an unwritten rule which is sometimes referred to as "face guarding".

I was very pleased with the team's performance yesterday. Nothing flashy, but solid play on both sides of the ball.  35-17 doesn't really indicate the way that Bama unspectacularly dominated the game.

Coker looked better than Sims did in game 1 last year. I assume he will be the starter until he proves he can't handle it, but after yesterday I have few doubts that he's going to do extremely well.

The young receivers looked great. As Coker and the receivers get more comfortable with the level of play and each other I think we're going to see a dangerous passing attack.  I thought Coker did a great job of getting the ball to different receivers. 

The ground game looked great.  Being potent on the ground and in the air is going to make Bama a hard team to defend.

O-line has a little work to do, but I think it's more mental than physical.  I trust the coaches will get things fixed.

As we've seen many times before, the defense was a little shaky early in the game, but once they figured out what Wisconsin was trying to do they locked it down.  Wisconsin doesn't have the type of offense that Bama has struggled with over the last couple of years, but they didn't give up many big plays and got a lot of pressure on the QB.  I think the defense is finally back to the caliber of the 2011-12 defenses that were so dominant.

The kicking game is the big concern. I don't know if Griffith's problems are physical or mental.  Same with Scott, who looked nothing like the amazing punter we saw last year.

All in all, a very solid performance for the opening game at a neutral site against a quality opponent. We have a tough schedule and injuries can derail a great team, but this team has championship potential. It should be a fun year.

There were a couple of times that I thought the receiver pushed off of the defender and the defender never really reached to guard the receiver, was just running close to him but never looked back.

I get the feeling that the pass interference rule is going to be like the rule of tackeling someone high but in the tackling rule they review the play. I don't remember the pass interference rule being enforced as much as it was last night. This scares me with the SEC refs.

No.  The penalties we received were all for contacting the receivers while the ball was in the air.  Obviously, at least one was nonsense (CNS agreed). 

TV folks seemed to have started this 'turn-your-head requirement' by simplifying the position of DB.  "Why didn't he turn around for the ball?", they ask, as if the DB never thought of such a concept.  They ignore the fact that DBs may be playing multiple schemes, not always man coverage, and must chase the receiver all over the field (a task impossible if facing the QB).  And if the receiver has beaten you, it's always better to face the receiver to make a tackle than turn back for the ball (which slows you and gives the receiver a chance to separate from you further).

Football would be very easy if played by armchair QBs.  Just ask them!