I thought I would look at what teams that played Bama has averaged offensively for the year and what they gained vs Bama,

1.  Wis:  averages:  405.6  vs Bama 268 = negative 137.6
2.  ULM:  averages:  328   vs Bama  92 =  negative 236
3.  A&M:  averages:  453  vs Bama  316  = negative 137  They also got 5 additional offensive possessions because of the picks and fumble on the punt.
4.  Ark:  averages:  433.3 vs Bama 220  = negative  213.3
5.  UGa:  averages:  429 vs Bama  299  = negative  130
6.  MTU:  averages 443.9  vs Bama 275  = negative  168.9
7. OM:  averages 521 vs Bama 433  = negative 88.  They also had two fluke plays that went for 139 yards plus they had 3 extra possessions because of ints.

Coach Pat Murphy has to be licking his chops with his team this year. The six incoming freshmen did not play like freshmen whether in the field or at bat. These kids are getting some major league development in these travel teams and when they get to college they're ready to play. Don't get me wrong, they weren't playing Florida or Tennessee but I think if they were they would have represented themselves very well. When the players come out of high school you think they have a growing up period their freshman year but not anymore, they are ready to play.

The one freshman that might need an adjustment this   year might be Madi Moore, the freshman pitcher. She pitched three innings yesterday and really struggled with her control. She missed most of her senior year in high school with a leg injury abd that might have hinder her growing process as far as her pitching is concerned. I have a feeling that CPM might bring in some help during the winter months to help with her development. It was good to see Sydney Littlejohn back to her old self pitching again. Her off season surgery seems to have gone well on her left foot. She seemed to have more velocity with her pitches and a lot more spin on the ball. This is very encouraging as Osorio seemed to have picked up where she left off from last year. She is Miss Cool when she's in there pitching, nothing seems to excite her, good or bad.

Their bats look very improved from last year, not so many swinging for the fence. The team will have more speed this year as well. CPM has 19 on the roster so bench strength should be better as well this year. As a whole, I think there's a lot of promise for this group but nothings a guarantee in sports but I sure like what I see.

First: Congrats to the Bama players and coaches on the victory.  I thought both sides of the ball had great game plans going into the game.
Offense:  Bama had 396 yards of total offense which included 138 passing yards and 258 rushing yards.  This would have been much more if not for the 14 negative plays.  I have Bama for 12 tackles for losses and 2 sacks to take away from the offensive totals.  I have Bama for 5 three and outs many of which resulted from penalties on first down or one of the negative plays that put them in a hole.  As far as plays of over 10 yards Bama had 10 runs and 5 pass plays.  They got into the red zone 4 times and scored 1 touchdown and 2 field goals.  The other was when Bama was running the clock out and was in victory formation.  They scored one touchdown from outside the red zone, not counting the 3 picks from the defensive side of the ball.  He OL looked very good early on, and struggled some when Kelly went out in the drive right before the half.  Also, understand Bama lost 4 offensive possessions with the three pick sixes and the fumble on the punt.  They also lost a lot of positive territory when the targeting call was made.  Again, 3rd down efficiency was not good as Bama goes 4 for 16. 
QB:  I thought Coker played a very good game.  He made decisive throws.  I know he missed a couple, but he didn’t really force the ball except on one throw.  He did a great job on the scramble and didn’t throw off balance with a defender in his face.  The big miss was when he underthrew the rec for what looked like would be a touchdown.
RB:  Congrats to Henry for an outstanding day.  He had monster game which was aided by the OL blocking early.  I thought he hit the hole harder this game and finished the runs.  He took many hits and still kept running.  Henry actually punished tacklers at the end of many of his runs.  Drake ran tough but was hit many times before he got a chance to get started.  He did get away with a trip on the play the announcers were commenting on he didn’t know what the play was.  They say it is a deep thigh bruise, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t a hip pointer.
REC:  Bama made catches when given the opportunity.  This was a hard hitting game in the secondary and many times the rec could have been looking for contact instead of focusing on the ball. 
OL:  They started out great.  Then they missed many assignments in crucial situations.  I did think A&M got away with and offside on one play.  On the goal line the OS player, TE I think, went for the wrong guy and left the rusher by himself against a defender.  I will also say, and this is all my opinion, there were bust on chip blocks or they are asking these OL to make some very difficult reach blocks.  On the 55 yard run for a touchdown, it was a clinic on how to combo block and get to the next level.   It wasn’t just the new center that got beat at times.  Both Robinson and Taylors missed and/or misread the defense which led to the missed blocks.
Defense:  Another outstanding job by this unit.  They gave up 316 yards of offense.  There was 248 yards passing and 32 rushing.  I have the defense with 7 sacks and 6 tackles for losses.  And 4 interceptions 3 of which were returned for TD’s.  I honestly think MH had an interception because I thought he got 1 foot down before going out of bounds.  Harrison also had one go right thru his hands which could have been a huge way to start the game.  I have 4 three and outs as well as a 3 and out because of a no play with a penalty.  I have a 1 and out because of an interception and a 2 and out because of an interception.  I have A&M with 2 runs of 10+ yards and 12 passes for 10+ yards.  I also want everyone to realize how the defensive unit had to keep coming back on the field because of the pick 6’s and also a fumbled punt.  This means the defense had to play extra series.  I have about 14 instances where the QB had to make decisions because of the pass rush or coverage.   Most of these came out in favor of Bama.   Bama did get caught with 12 men on the field but overall they did a great job getting their subs in on plays when A&M didn’t sub.  Bama also did a very good job tackling this game.
DL:  They played a very solid game.  They stopped the run and still were able to get after the QB on pass plays.  I will say it is amazing A&M throws the ball 40 times, plus the scrambles, and doesn’t get called for holding once.  I know I saw Devall get tackled at least once.  You keep hearing Allen and Reed’s names called and they can rush the passer and play the run.  They did lose contain a couple of times and it did allow the QB to scramble for a 1st down once on what would have been another 3 and out.
LB:  I don’t know how many tackles Ragland had but he played another great game.  I have said this before but he plays side line to side line and plays both the pass and the run.  In my opinion he is having an All-American season.  The LB unit as a whole did a great job.
DB:  What can you say here except they played great?  As much man coverage as they play they are going to get beat at times.  I think they may have busted coverage at least twice.  One hurt on the TD drive.  I didn’t count but between the DB’s and LB there were 6 or 7 PBU’s.  They may not have made all the plays, but they made most of them.  They did a good job making the tackle after the catch.
Penalties:  I had Bama for 9 penalties but a couple were declined.  They were declined because A&M took the play instead.  The big one was the targeting call on the punt.  This took Bama from the 43 to the 17 yard line, 26 yards of field position.  After this there were some false starts that put Bama in a deeper hole.   I am still not sure what the unsportsman like call was on the interception returned for the TD.  With the targeting call the players are just going to have to be more disciplined.  I know they have a kill shot, but the outcome is not worth the yardage to the offense.  It is also strange to me A&M had one penalty for 5 yards.
Special Teams:  This is what kept A&M in the game.  The blocked punt ended up not hurting Bama.  It was a low snap and a bad block on the edge.  The punt return for the touchdown which was aided because it was such a good kick and the fumble on the punt led to 14 points.  The other bad decision was when Harris decided to bring the ball out when he didn’t have to since the momentum carried the ball into the end zone. 
Finally:  Bama has a tough test coming up this week.  I say this because it will be their 8th straight week of playing.  Of course UT has a bye like A&M.  They have got to clean up the offensive line.  They proved early they can do the job.  This game was a game of big plays and many were made by the defense.  They made a huge stop after the blocked punt.  After this the O went on a 13 play drive that led to a FG.  In my opinion this team has the potential to win it all.
Please feel free to comment.
Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll
15 and counting

Over 102,000 fans were in the stands yesterday and millions more were watching it on television and what a big game and a huge win for the Crimson Tide. No one got cheated of not seeing a very exciting and tough played game.For the Bama fans, I think that was a big touche from them to TA&M for the Johnny Football years but for the Aggie fans I think they were just wanting some payback for the 59-0 loss last year.

The game started with Bama hitting on all cylinders and jumping out to a good lead but before the half could end, the Aggies had wrestled the momentum from Bama and closed the gap of the score. Ole momentum played a big role in this game as it was swapped back and forth until the second half of the fourth quarter and Bama took control of the game with their defense shutting the door on the Aggies. There were some huge plays by the secondary in this game that Bama fans have been waiting on for a long time, interceptions for touchdowns. It was the big difference maker in the game.

This game was a complete victory for the Tide as both the offense and the defense played big roles in the win. Coker, Henry, and the receivers gave the defense of TA&M all they wanted but the secondary played a major role in the scoring as well with four interceptions for touchdowns. It's been a long time since a Bama team shared the scoring as they did yesterday. Also, I think a lot of maturity was gained by some of the players such as Coker and the secondary. A coach can only teach them so much and I don't think there is a better coach in the game than game experience. The Xs and Os will get them on the field but the execution of those Xs and Os in the game is what teaches them to become good players as every team they play is different and you have to learn to adjust to each team played.

There were some mistakes by the team that were costly and there was an injury that affected the team as it did last year. The biggest mistake was the long punt return and I know everyone is going after Bobby Williams. I wish everyone that is after Bobby Williams would just check the number on the jerseys of the players on the special teams. These are not bench warmers, they are the starting players on the offensive and defensive teams. On the long punt return, look at the player that missed his tackle as the player turned up field to go untouched to the endzone, it was Derrick Henry. Derrick has played on the special teams since he arrived and is considered one of the better players on that unit but he missed a touchdown saving tackle. That's the point I'm trying to make when us fans are   criticizing the coaches. Sure the coaches make mistakes but they aren't the blame for everything that happens on the field and the players aren't either, it's called team play and that is who the blame is on, not a single player or coach. We all like to blame Lane Kiffen for the plays that don't work but I can promise you there is not a play in the playbook that won't work if the players execute it as designed. Now there will be some times when I might question a coach on a certain play that is called but I'm sure he knows more about that than I do.

On the injury that hurt the team yesterday it's about the same thing that happened last year at Ole Miss. At that time Bama's offense was playing well, especially the running game with Kenyon Drake being the running back that was having the most success. Bama was having a lot of success that day until two players went down, Drake and Ryan. After they went down, Bama had a lead, the running game died and Bama lost the game. Yesterday it wasn't Drake that had the hot hand it was Henry but Ryan was the common denominator in both cases, he was the boss of the offensive line. The offensive line became a picture of disarray after Ryan left the game with penalties, players lined up wrong, and the blocking of the line was very different as Henry really had to struggle for 2-3 yards where he had been running for 7-8 yards per carry. It changed the game as Bama almost lost the lead when the ability to run the ball left the game. Those are the times when I question the coaches on the type of plays that are being called. Hopefully the replacements for Ryan will have some good practice this week but experience is hard to replace because it has to be earned on the field and not out of a book.  

Anyway there are more challenges ahead for the team in the coming weeks and it won't be easy. Tennessee and LSU are the next two games with an open date before LSU which should give the team a few days for healing purposes and after that we go to Starkville to play Miss State which is usually a tough physical game. Tennessee will come in here next Saturday with a vengeance on their minds, They don't like Alabama and Alabama doesn't like them. It will be important that Bama is mentally ready because they historically don't play as well after a big game. Tennessee is a better team than their record shows and again, they don't like Alabama. Bama's road for a national championship isn't an easy one so it's going to take all of the players to do this, not just the starters each week. Those players on the scout team that provide the practice competition for the starters are just as important and needed. That's why I say it's a team effort and not a player or coach effort, it takes them all, 125 players and the coaching staff, and the blame for things that go wrong falls in the team category.

Hopefully some of you will be in the stands next Saturday making a lot of noise for the team. We got a good example yesterday of how noise can really affect a team's play. RTR!!

Coach Murphy reminds me of CNS as his recruiting ranks right up there in the sport of softball. Bama has 6 freshmen on the roster this year and I thought they were very impressive today, especially Reagan Dykes, a new catcher from Collins, Mississippi.

She put on a clinic today behind the plate as she has been coached very well in her high school days. The real beauty of her performance today though was her bat as she had a home run and 2 doubles in 4 at bats. She is very athletic with a cannon for an arm.

I think the team looked better at the plate today than they did last year. There wasn't that much swinging for the fence but just putting the bat on the ball. Defensively it will be interesting as to who will play shortstop this year as Denae Hays graduated. This is a huge void to fill and Chandler Dare played there the first game and did a pretty good job. She's a little quicker than Denae was but I don't think her arm is as strong.

CPM really does the girls a favor as he switches them all around at different positions in the fall games to find their weaknesses in their defensive skills. Bama has 19 on the roster this year, the most I have ever seen. This should help next season if the injury bug pops up like it has in recent years.

Sidney Littlejohn started the game as the pitcher today and looked like pitcher she was before her injury last year. She had foot surgery in the off season and she showed no post surgery complications today. She gave up 2 hits and one run in the 4 innings she pitched. Madi Moore, the left handed freshman from Winfield, pitched the last three innings and I can see a lot of promise for her. She throws a little harder than Littlejohn does and spins the ball well. It will be interesting to see how much improvement she will have between now and next spring. She has a little bit of a control problem but I think that is mostly from her trying to do too much too quick.

Tomorrow is a new day and it will be interesting to see how they play on back to back days.   

Mrs. J and I attended a short basketball scrimmage this afternoon and I have to agree with what CAG said, you are going for a fast ride with this team so you better buckle up.The CAJ brand of basketball is something that the Bama fans have never seen before, it is very fast.

They opened the scrimmage with some 3,4, and 5 man weaves and I thought it was a good way to loosen the players up but little did I know that would be their pace of play. They practice with a 20 second time clock and then they practiced with a 10 second time clock and I only heard the time clock expire twice during the practice.

This team is loaded with shooters but they really attacked the goal on missed shots, something we aren't used to seeing. Cag is really coaching as he was right in the middle of everything and stopping plays when players were out of position showing them what they did wrong. My favorite correction that he made was with Jimmie Taylor. Taylor got the ball underneath, faked to his left and then moved to his right toward the baseline and forced up a shot that missed badly, something that we saw more than once last year. Coach stopped played and then demonstrated to him what he had done wrong in forcing up a low percentage shot when he could have moved back to his left and put up a higher percentage shot with his right hand. Taylor looked like a different player today, lots of energy and he even had two free throws and made them both.

I really liked the way the coaches worked with the players, many times they stopped play to get the players where they should be. The one player that stood out to me was Donta Hall, a 6'9" freshman forward from Luverne, Alabama. He really makes his presence known under the basket plus he is very quick breaking toward the basket. He could be that big man that's been needed so badly to help out Kessens and Taylor.

CAG spoke to us after the scrimmage and wanted to clear the air about one subject that has been floating around for a while. In a very strong voice he told the crowd that CAJ is here to stay for as long as Bama will keep him. He is building a new home here in T-town and his wife is now located in Tuscaloosa waiting for the home to be finished. By the way, AJ Jr. is called Little A by the players.

Today got their season off to a good start with the fans. There was between 400-500 there and everyone was really excited. I went to the ticket office last week to select my new seats for this year, due to the new seating arrangement for the students, and I asked the lady in Tide Pride how well ticket sales were going. She said it's been fantastic, almost unbelievable compared to past years. I asked her what did she have available that I could maybe upgrade my seats to and she said she had nothing. Folks, that is unbelievable for this short period of time that CAJ has been here. It only proves how hungry the fans are for some good basketball again

Anyway, CAJ has made some very big promises for this year and from what I saw today, I think he will fulfill those promises. He told the crowd that the team's goal is make the Big Dance every year and go all the way to the Final Four. With what he has recruited already and the recruits he is now chasing for the years ahead, I feel very good about his goals but I also understand that Rome wasn't built overnight either.

I hope some of you get a chance to see a game at Coleman or the one in Birmingham this year, it really feels good to have hope for something special in basketball again. RTR!! 

 

The weather last night was much better than last weeks game against Georgia but the opponent was about as nasty as the weather was last week against Georgia. The game wasn't for the lighthearted for most of it as the two heavyweights seemed to be sparring with each other waiting for the knockout punch to happen which didn't come though until the fourth quarter. Needless to say, I thought the play that changed the outcome of the game came out of nowhere, Les Miles style, and surprised everyone watching, a fake punt. The element of surprise can be very rewarding sometimes but it can be a heartbreaking experience as well, just ask Arkansas.

I think most folks thought Bama would come out swinging last night after the big win in Athens last weekend. Surely us Bama fans have learned by now about their games after a big win usually aren't so pretty. It isn't very often that the team looks sharp after a big win and last night was no exception but let's give Arkansas some credit, they came here to win the game as Bama did and played that way.

Offensively the team was a total opposite of how well they played against Georgia. Henry, running the ball, looked very average for most of the game as the offensive line wasn't doing much to help his chances of making a big run. The receivers weren't making their catches and the quarterback made a few bad decisions as well with one of them being very costly that led to a touchdown by Arkansas that put Bama behind in the game. Let's also add in the missed field goals and we're pretty much talking about how the team had looked prior to the Georgia game. The one bright spot last night though was the resurgence of our punter. Scott looked the best he has looked all season and hopefully he's made the turn and there are brighter days ahead for him.

Defensively, the team played very tough, something that has improved with each game. To me the defense will be the reason of Bama making the playoffs or not because of the up and down play of the offense.

Arkansas made the big gamble last night and it pretty much cost them the game but Bama did something after the stop of the fake punt that we haven't seen them do in a long time, they took control of the game and I mean in a big way. Bama was not the same team after the big stop as they played with so much more intensity on both sides of the ball which we led to the touchdowns that sealed the victory for them. They played like they did against Georgia, to win the game rather than not to lose the game.

It wasn't easy last night but how many conference games are easy in the SEC and it only gets tougher for Bama in their games ahead. Going to Texas A&M next Saturday will be much tougher than the game last night. Johnny Manziel laid the ground work in his days at A&M that has turned this game into a pretty big rivalry between the two and I'm sure A&M has had this game circled on their schedule. The history of Bear Bryant and Gene Stallings at Bama only adds to the reason for each team to win next Saturday.

The remaining schedule looks very tough for the team and with Florida improving so much, it only adds to the difficulty of winning the SEC to make it to the playoffs. Bama is going to need more big plays as they did with the fake punt and a lot of luck to make it to the playoffs. The sad part about playing Texas A&M though is we have LSU following them.

No one said it would ever be easy in the Southeastern Conference and I think that is exactly right. RTR!!!  

First:   Congrats to the Bama players and coaches on the victory.  It was a hard game to watch from an offensive stand point, but they did come out victorious.

Offense:  The Bama offense put up 396 yards of total offense, 262 passing and 134 rushing.  As far a negative plays they had 2 sacks, 6 tackles for losses and 2 interceptions.  You can also put the tipped punt as a negative play even though it didn’t really hurt Bama.  As far as big negative plays one of the interceptions led to the first touchdown for Ark.  Bama had 4 three and outs and one was the result of an interception.  They only had 3 runs of 10+ yards and 7 pass plays for 10+ yards.  Bama did do a better job converting on 3rd down as they were 7 for 16.  In the red zone they got there at least 5 times.  They had 2 touchdowns and 2 field goals but also missed a field goal.  They scored 1 touchdown outside the red zone.  There just wasn’t consistent play by the offense a lot of the day.  They had 2 good opening drives and then sputtered before getting started late in the 3rd quarter.  I know field position wasn’t great, but Bama needs to do a better job in these situations.  With the late field position they had and the 2 early drives they left too many points on the field.  One of my big questions is why can’t Bama run the ball with authority on the first drive with some consistency?  On the first drive they ran the ball 6 times with one a scramble by the QB.  On the other 5 runs Bama went:  no gain, 1 yard, no gain, 5 yards, -2 yards.

QB:   This was a game of three quarterbacks.  First he was outstanding, then horrible, then pretty good.  I don’t think he made the best decisions at times during the game.  I know in the red zone, when Bama settled for the field goal, he tried to throw the ball to Howard.  Ridley was wide open in the middle and could have walked in for the score.  There were a couple of forced balls when I am not sure he couldn’t have come off to a different rec.  He did do a good job scrambling at times.  You can look at the stats and it shows he completed 73% of his passes, but probably 6 of those were the little pop pass/jet sweep type passes.

RB:  They didn’t have a lot of room to run.  Bama only had 3 runs of 10 plus yards and one of those was a scramble by the QB.  It did look like Drake was running with more confidence. 

REC:  Six different players caught passes.  Again, Ridley was the big target.  At times the blocking was very good on the wide rec screens and the pop pass.  However there were times they threw too early to cut the defender who had time to get up and be involved in the play.  On one play there was indecision on who was supposed to get the wide rec screen and it almost led to an interception.

OL:   Too me this was where there was the biggest problem.  They didn’t get the push necessary at times.  There were I don’t know how many missed blocks.  There were bad angles taken getting to the next level.  There for a while I thought #51 Ellis may make all conference just for this game.  The QB was getting pressure with only four rushers and it looked like they didn’t do much more than twist stunts.  This also goes to the question ask earlier, why can’t Bama run early in the game.  I will say there were many people in the box with the tight formations.  I also believe some of the blocking assignments were busted.

Defense:   They played outstanding.  The defense allowed Bama to stay in the game and come back and win.  I know they busted the coverage for the first TD, but they were put in a bad position by the offense.   They only gave up 220 total yards in the game.  They held the running back, which was averaging over 130 yards a game, to 26 yards on 12 carries.  They only rushed for 44 yards with was what supposed to be one of the most dominant OL in the country.  The defense only had 6 total negative plays, 3 sacks, 2 tackles for losses and 1 interception which was turned into points.  The only other big mistake was the loss of contain when they made the QB scramble and they threw the 54 yard TD pass.  They caused 5 three and outs, 1 four and out, and 1 two and out.  Arkansas could never really get anything going as they averaged only 3.8 yards per play.   They gave up 5 pass plays for 10 plus yard and no running plays for over 10 yards.  The longest run of the day was an 8 yard scramble by the QB. 

DL:  They dominated the LOS.  The Ark line couldn’t get a push and every yard gained by them was hard.  The biggest problem was the loss of contain a couple of times. 

LB:  I thought they played outstanding.  They made some of the biggest hits all day.  Also, RR got them lined up the way they were supposed to be. 

DB:  I thought they played very well.  Bama gave up 176 yards passing.  Now you look at this and say 54 of those yards came on 1 play.  This is true, but this is where they lost contain and then you have to ask those DB’s to cover for an extended period of time which is extremely hard.  I looked at something else and I guess I should call it coverage stats.  Good coverage caused 11 plays to be altered.  These led to 2 sacks, 2 throw ways, one of which I thought should have been grounding because I don’t think he was outside the tackle box, 5 scrambles, and a PBU.  Of course on one of the scramble he did break contain and throw the TD.  The first TD was a busted coverage by the secondary, I think C Jones. 

Penalties: Bama had 6 penalties and 3 of those were by C Robinson.  Probably the biggest was his unsportsman like conduct which put the ball on the 12 yard line for the first TD after the interception.  As far as Ridley’s penalty, I didn’t see anything he did that others haven’t done.  I don’t know if something happened that I didn’t see.

Special teams:  Pretty solid most of the night.  The missed field goals I still say looks like an alignment problem.  He is hitting the ball well.  Coverages were good as well as the returns.  The biggest mistake, but didn’t hurt Bama was the onside kick that wasn’t really attacked, but waited on.  I also notice Nvsewander always seems to be in the mix on the special teams.

Finally:  More than anything the offensive line play has to be cleaned up.  They showed at times they could get the job done.

Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll 
15 and counting

In all my years of being a Bama fan and following the team on their many travels, I had never been to Sanford Stadium in Athens, home of the Georgia Bulldogs. I had watched many of them though on television and listened to the broadcasters of the game talk about teams playing Georgia between the hedges and how the hedges seemed to have a factor on the outcome of the game. The stadium itself seemed antiquated to me but I guess I'm somewhat spoiled by the glamour and excitement that the new Bryant Denny offers us Bama fans. Even their stadium announcer seemed to be broadcasting the game as a play by play version, somewhat like they do in high school, rather than the short 1st and 10 or offsides Bama version that we hear most stadium announcers do. The other side of what I expected at the game was to see Georgia's team mascot, their bulldog Ugga. He seems to always get the cameraman's attention at some point in the game and gets lots of attention but if the cameraman got to see him last night he pretty much had to climb into his doghouse to see him because Ugga hardly came out of there.

It was a wet/soggy night as the hurricane offshore in the Atlantic came to pay us a visit with plenty of rain. There was no thunder or lightning with the rain and just a light breeze and it seemed to make no difference to the hearty Bama fans rooting their team on. As the game started it seemed that all of those around us were very cautious in what Bama team might show up and with it raining, it could be a long night in Athens. With Alabama scoring first, it seemed to set the tone with the fans in our area as they came alive and so did the Bama team. This, to me, was the first game this season that the team played up to their abilities. They started a little slow, as there was some confusion by the players as to where to line up in the play or silly penalties. In the second quarter though Bama looked like the championship teams of recent years as defense was playing solid and the offense began to execute in a championship way. This type of play would continue to the end of the game, something that the team hasn't experienced since the Auburn game of last year.

The question now is how does the team respond to such a big victory. Will they come out in practice Tuesday and pick up where they left off in last night or will they get caught up in watching ESPN and others talking about how good they are now and forget how hard they had to play to win last night. It will be a tough week for the coaches and the leaders of the team to keep the team in focus of last nights achievement and work to improve them even more this week. One game doesn't make a season, just ask Ole Miss.

I'm glad I finally got to go to Athens to finally watch a Georgia game between the hedges last night even though I was disappointed with a few things. Maybe if it had not been raining and we could have walked the campus it would have added to the trip. There's a lot of history behind some of these SEC schools and the only one That I have left now to see is the Swamp at Florida. At least we didn't get the water hoses turned on us last night like another school that we all know about in Alabama but maybe the rain had something to do with that not happening. No, just kidding about that. The Georgia fans were very nice to us and I actually got a hug from one of their fans as we were leaving the stadium. This lady was standing there waiting for her husband and she had this very sad look on her face. I stopped and told her that I hated to see her look so sad as us Bama fans have gone through some of the same recently and it is no fun. She hugged my neck and thanked me for caring and introduced me to her husband as he walked up. We shook hands and my night was then complete , I had made two new friends. RTR!!!

 

First:   Congrats to the Bama players and coaches on the victory.  This was a great game plan put together by both the offense and defense’s staffs and the players did an outstanding job executing.

Offense:  The Bama offensive had a very balanced attack and totaled 379 yards of offense.  The offense had 190 passing yards and 189 rushing yards.  The offense did have 7 three and outs and one of those was caused by a fumble on a short 3rd down play.  There were 5 runs for 10 plus yards and 6 passes for 10 plus yards.  In the red zone they scored a touchdown and a field goal.  I believe the field goal was a result of penalties and should have come away with a touchdown the way they were moving the ball.  Two touchdowns came from outside the red zone on the running play by Henry and the long TD pass to Ridley.  As far as negative plays, Bama had 5 tackles for losses and two fumbles lost.  To be honest this was not bad under the playing conditions with the rain.  One great thing I noticed about the offense is that they were able to run the ball effectively left or right in this game. The biggest concern for the offense was the 3rd down conversion rate where they were 1 for 12.

QB:   I thought this was Coker’s best game for a few reasons.  First, he finally threw the perfect deep ball.  I am not sure the other deep ball in the 4th quarter was not a bad adjustment by the rec instead of a bad throw.  Second, the check down and found the open rec.  Third he didn’t try to force the ball.  Now he may not have made all the best throws at times, but the right decisions were made by Coker. Fourth when on one of the few times he had to scramble he kept his eyes downfield and made the throw to an open rec.  He also showed other teams that he can run the ball just enough to keep you honest. 

RB:  Henry had a good game.  Some people are not going to like this but it looks like he is waiting for the hole instead of attacking the point of attack sometimes.  Whatever the case he is a load when he goes downhill and forces the issue.  His pass protection has been outstanding this year.  At times Drake did well, but hurt the team trying to bounce plays.  I know he is trying to make something happen, plus he is playing against UG but sometimes you have to take the short gain. 

REC:  There were not as many recs utilized this game as others.  However, Ridley had a huge day.  He averaged 24 yards per catch.  Only 4 recs had catches, but I will say Drake was used as a decoy for others to have a couple of big receptions.  As I said earlier I am not sure that was a bad deep ball in the 4th quarter as much as it was a bad ball adjustment by the rec.  I would like to see the rec do a little better job blocking at times.  Howard did not have a catch this game, but he did do a better job blocking.  The one dropped ball was a tough catch since the ball was thrown a little behind and the wet conditions.  I still think he should have had it.  Also, the rec did a very good job catching the ball with their hands under the conditions.  Many times in this situation the players try to cradle the ball and let it get into their body for the catch.

OL:   I thought this was one of their best, if not their best game of the year.  They had a push from the opening drive.  They didn’t give up a sack and the QB had time to find secondary recs if needed. For most of the night the running backs were not hit until the other side of the LOS.  On the 30 yard td run by Henry, I don’t think anyone laid a hand on him. 

Defense:  I thought the defense played a great game.  Probably the greatest part of the day was when UG started the first three drives in great field position and went 3 and out each time.  They gave up 299 yards and we all know 83 came on the long run when the defense didn’t react properly.  By this time the game was out of hand but it will be a great teaching moment when film comes around.  The defense had 2 sacks, 6 tackles for losses, 3 interceptions one for a TD, a fumble recovery, and a blocked punt for a TD. As far as the interception returned for a touchdown you could see the defensive players pivot and start looking for people to block.   So, they accounted for 14 points in the game.  Overall UG had 9 three and outs and 1 one and out.  Saban talks about affecting the QB and the defense did.  I have at least 6 times where the QB had to scramble or throw the ball away.  This is also a combination of coverage affecting the QB where he had no place to go with the ball.  They did give up one throw when the QB was affected, but it had to be a heck of a catch and put them back in field goal range.  As far as plays over 10 yards, they had 3 runs and 4 passes that went for more than 10. 

DL:  They played a great game by neutralizing the OL of UG.  They put pressure on the QB and made the running back gain every yard except on 1 play.  Again they batted down passes.  The announcers said coming in they led the NCAA with 13 batted balls.  I added three more and I may have missed one. 

LB:  I thought they played well.  It was also a time where Hamilton got more of a role on the defense.  I also noticed, and they have done this before, they put Ragland down like they use to do with Hightower and used him as a rush end. 

DB:  I thought they played a very good game. Many people don’t understand the offense has the advantage in games like these because they know where they are going with their routes.   I noticed Bama was putting Cyrus Jones on Mitchell a lot which meant they had to flip their corners at times.  There were a couple of times the DB’s were beat, but UG didn’t get the ball to them.  One the first play of the game by UG they ran a double mover against MH but didn’t connect. 

Penalties: Bama had 8 penalties and the worst of them was when Bama was in the red zone and had to come away with a field goal.  The false starts need to be addressed especially by wide recs.  I do think the personal foul on hitting the center was a questionable call. 

Special teams:  With these conditions, the special teams played well all day.  First, kicking the ball is difficult in these games.  I thought Scott did a great job fielding the ball and punting it.  Coverage teams were solid all day. Cyrus Jones did a great job fielding the ball especially on the one where it bounced and he saved yards for Bama.  AG looks like he has regained his confidence and struck the ball well all day. 

Finally:  I thought this was the best game Bama has played this year.  Also, they out played, out classed and were tougher than UG.  Hopefully they will continue to improve and continue the run for the playoffs and National Championship.

Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll 
15 and counting