"After being bashed, Tide's offensive line bashes back"

[Chechem]

If Alabama's offensive line was the hammer and Penn State's defense was the nail, it took many blows Saturday before the spike began to sink into the hard wood.

There even might have been a bash or two to the thumb early on, but the Crimson Tide kept banging and banging and banging away, and eventually persuasion resulted in submission.

If this wasn't dominance, a 27-11 victory was progress against a quality opponent in a vaunted venue. Many people bashed the offensive line after it struggled at times in a season-opening 48-7 victory over Kent State.

"Much better," Alabama coach Nick Saban said of the line's performance. "We played against a very good front."

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[SUPERCOACH]

This is a fantastic article.  Anybody who has concerns over the O-line play should read it.  I think we are in pretty good shape now.

[McBaman]

Vlachos says "we didn't run great but we ran well."  What the bleep does that mean?  To me, he's saying he thinks OL did OK...but just OK.  Unfortunately, just OK won't win a NC game.

The best I can take away from this article is that some of the OL leaders know they have to get better.  So...OK guys...now you've agreed on the problem, go work together on the solution.

We all thought OL was going to be good this year.  They aren't, at least not yet.  Something doesn't compute here.

[ricky023]

Well I had a concern about our running game, but it looked good after they got together. I'll be interested to see how our 2nd and 3rd team guys do against North Texas. RTR!

[SUPERCOACH]

The problem seems to be communication and confusion about who they are supposed to block, especially when the D is doing some kind of stunt or run blitz.  If that is the problem, it will be solved pretty soon with more practice.  Most of TR's yards came right up the gut.  Think about that.  He went for over 100 mostly running right up the middle against Penn State.  They knew it was coming, loaded the box, and still couldn't stop it.  Sure they slowed it down some early in the game, but they had nothing left in the 4th Qtr.  We ran at will against them on that last TD drive.  That is not to be taken lightly.  As a team, we had 196 yards rushing against a solid D who was committed to stopping the run.  I think the O will have all the pieces put together by the time Arkansas rolls into town.

I will say that the only SEC D I have seen that is better than Penn State would be us (who we don't have to play against) and LSU.  I have not seen all of the teams yet, but the ones I have seen are pretty bad.  This includes Miss State, Ole Miss, Auburn, and to a lessor extent Georgia and possibly USCe.  We won't know anything about the Arkansas D until we play them because they open against 3 cupcakes in a row, but historically Petrino teams have focused on offense and are mediocre on defense.

I think we are in good shape for this point in the season.  I expect the confusion to go away now that they are settled into a main position and aren't playing musical chairs as much.

[Catch Prothro]

I'm glad that the OL players aren't satisfied and want to improve.  Nothing destroys a season like complacency.

As for SEC defenses, I would keep any eye out for Florida.  In two games, teams have scored exactly 3 points against them.  Granted, we are talking about Florida Atlantic and UAB, but the Florida offense looks much improved this year, and no one has scored a TD against them yet.  Having a head coach who is defensive-minded can't hurt either. 

We'll know more after this weekend, and about Tennessee too.  But I think Florida is a potential trap game for Bama, and I'm keeping an eye on them. 

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