First, let me send congrats to the Bama players and coaches on the win. The team completely dominated the game on both sides of the ball.  The negative plays provide by Arky help put Bama in a very good position where they could do what they wanted.
 
Offense:  The offense played well.  I only have them down for 4 negative plays and I think 2 of those were when the backups were in.  The other two was when EL was tackled for a loss, but there was no way DJF could reach that LB and he shot the gap.  The other was a fumble snap near the goal line, however it didn’t hurt and Bama scored anyway.  When I first watched the game, I thought the OL didn’t play very well in the first quarter.  However, they did not cause the dropped pass which stopped a drive.  They did have the 5 yard penalty that took away a first down and Bama did not overcome it.  They just didn’t have to drive far and get going.  The first play of the game, Arky ran a run blitz and stopped Bama for a short gain.  They also had 8 in the box, I would have love to have seen a check to a pass here.  The team also got to play some backups.  PE came in with a little over 4 minutes left in the third quarter and played with the first OL. In the 4th quarter the backup OL played.

QB: AJ had a pretty good game.  I have him 11for 16.  But what I really watched was his play action stats.  Here I have him 7 for 8.  On the 11 for 16, two balls were thrown away on purpose and 1 was dropped.  He could have easily have been 14 for 16.  He also accounted for no sacks, meaning he didn’t hold the ball too long.  He also made a couple of good checks at the LOS.  PE and BS got some good work in.  I thought PE got rid of the ball quickly and knew where to go with it.  BS made a very good fake on the zone read and ran for a TD. 

RB:  They all ran the ball well.  I think the only thing that stopped EL sometimes was he was in the end zone.  He made some good cuts and blocked well which makes you think he is close to being well.  TJY also ran hard and did well. He again caught the ball and made a big play.  The RB I really want to mention here is K Drake.  I think this guy is pushing for that 3 back spot.  He has a burst and the cut he made on the goal line was exceptional.

REC:   Including backs there were 9 different players catching the ball.  I will also say they blocked pretty well.  CJ made a great block on the TD by AC.  Two other fresh MS and DW made catches in the game.  The only real negative was the drop which cost a first down and stopped a drive.  The camera angle did not show what happened when AJ threw the ball away.

OL:   The OL played pretty well.  There were a couple of times when they got beat, but the ball was gone or AJ created space to get a throw off.  They rushed for 225 and averaged 5 yards a carry.  This may have been more if as I stated earlier the end zone stopped EL. 

Defense:   The D played well.  I have Arky with 15 negative plays.  Now all of them were caused by Bama, but they were there to finish the play.  There was a lot of gang tackling.  The D also had 6 three and outs or less.  Along with the negative plays I have Bama pressuring the QB 6 times.  I thought Bama coaches did a good job getting their defensive packages in according to the personnel coming onto the field.  There were still some missed tackles and a couple of busted assignments.  I will address these in the positions.  One drive Bama had 30 yards of penalties.  This was a big negative on a very positive day.   

DL:  They played well here.  The major breakdown came when #92 went for the dive and allowed the QB to run the option.  It is not his responsibility to make tackles on the dive.  He may assist, but option, cutbacks are his first responsibility.  I know I should talk about AH with the LB, but he is on the LOS so much I am going to mention him and ES here.  In my opinion, these two make plays each week.  They seem to get better each game. 

LB:  These guys also played well.  They had to play coverage and made many solo tackles when needed.  They all seem to have the ability to play run and pass.  It is really hard to tell, unless you are really checking numbers which guy is in.  Here I am talking 33, 35, and 32. 

DB:    Even though this group made some big plays, 2 ints which led to points, they also missed tackles.  Both #13 and #3 missed tackles because they did not wrap up.  This seem to be something you see every week with VS.  I know he has made some big hits, but both of them could have prevented 1st downs by making tackles by wrapping up.  Now if you noticed on VS int how he communicated the inside route it was great.  Not only did he yell, but he pointed to the guy crossing out of his zone.

Penalties:  Bama had some big penalties in this game.  The ones on D and the ones on O can hurt in close games.  Not being able to come back and get a first down after the O penalty stops a drive.  D penalties help keep drives going.    Over all I think Arky gained 137 total yards, they gained 74 more from penalties.  This needs to be cleaned up. 

Special teams:  Cade Foster kicked the ball deep all but once. That didn’t hurt because Arky fumbled the ball and Bama got it.  He proved he has the leg to make the 50+ yard field goal.  I thought he hit the missed better than the one he made.  This was also good because of the weather conditions.  CJ made a mistake and was saved by the officials.  He must fair catch the ball sometimes.  Also, after that he looked scared to field the ball. 
 
Finally,
Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll 
14 and counting

Anytime that guy gets knocked down a notch, I am all for it.

Several ex Bama players on the field tonight.

Don't see him getting a press pass at Bama.

I would tell the OC, if I ever see that again you are fired.

Best wishes and prayers go out to this young man.  He has been a huge part of the past two games and will be missed.  However, it will give other players a chance to step up.  BC should now get an opportunity to contribute more.  Hopefully, he will take advantage of this.

Why would they want him out, they are running the place anyway.

He had to get him because #20 thought they were playing touch.

I agree part of it is technique.  However you must put yourself in the proper position, which deals with assignments, in order to not just be able to get an arm on them.

The letdown after a big win is what CNS preaches about all the time.  You are correct there were a lot of subs in, especially on D.  However, that does not excuse the best OL in the nation to play so uninspired.    Also, no three and outs all day, part was caused by missed tackles and broken assignments.

From what little I saw early on, TR will be lucky to make it thru the season with that OL.

I really don't see them as having the best O in the country.

First, let me send congrats to the Bama players and coaches on the win.  I have to say it looked as if Bama played uninspired and with little emotion.  I saw more emotion during the A day game when I watched on YouTube.

Offense:  The offense needs to improve.  I know Bama scored quickly a few times, but I really didn’t see the ability to sustain a drive during the day for a complete game.  I do wonder if Bama wanted to play very conservative and not show the ability to check out of bad plays or they just thought they could run them against an undersized team.  My count has Bama having 8 negative plays on offense.  Six of those were sacks.

QB:  AJ had a good day and it could have been better if it hadn’t been for some drops on catchable balls.  I do think he held on to the ball a couple of times which led to sacks.  This makes me wonder about his ability to check down or how long he stays on the primary rec.  He did scramble effectively and found a couple of recs on the run at times.  I would love to see him check out of some of the plays that were called.  An example of this was when he was sacked when running the boot with a couple of players outside unaccounted for to the boot side.  I will say he threw the deep ball well this game.   AJ also hit the hot off of the blitzing cornerback on the short side of the field.

RB:   I only have Bama running the ball 22 times, not counting scrambles.   I thought EL looked better.  TJY missed the block on the play action pass for a touchdown which allowed AJ to get hit.  The real concern here is the severity of the injury to JF.  Hopefully, he will be fine.

REC:   They caught the ball most of the time.  A couple of more catches could have been made.  I have 7 different rec catching the ball with 3 of those being rb’s.  There were plenty of opportunities to make yards after the catch.  CJ got the benefit of the doubt on the TD, personally I thought he was out and the ball should have been caught easily.  However, CJ’s first catch for a TD was a good one as it was a little high.

OL:   Here is where I really thing Bama digressed.  The QB was sacked 6 times and hit at least7.  Some were AJ’s fault, but 4 of the sacks were on the OL.  Both tackles got beat at least once.  Also, I did not see the abundance of combo blocks by the OL that I did in the Mich game.  There were also a couple of tackle for losses here where the back was hit before he could even get to the LOS.  There must be mass improvement with a greater consistency for Bama to get better in this area.  They didn’t look like the best Oline in college football.

Defense:  The defense played ok.  I know the stats for WKU weren’t great, but many times they hurt themselves with turnovers.  The D came up with 9 negative plays for the day.  They caused 3 fumbles and had 1 int.  They had 2 sacks and 3 tackles for losses.  I guess my expectations have grown so high I thought there should have been more.  Maybe here again, Bama was playing conservative not showing too much. I will say there were more missed tackles and some missed assignments.  The good thing is Bama had the better athletes where these mistakes didn’t cost them too much.  There were a few times I saw the D players discussing what looked like who had what assignment on some pass plays.  The biggest stat of mine was that Bama had NO 3 and outs this game. 

DL:  The D line played ok.  JP and BI got a lot of playing time.  Nothing really stood out here.  DS and XD both caused fumbles which Bama recovered.

LB:  These guys played ok.  The WKU offense took advantage of where the LB vacated to throw the ball.  I would say over half of the completions were underneath the LB.  Both NJ and CJM overran plays and allowed some gains.  Again, fortunately the Bama athletes were good enough for it not to be a huge gain. NJ did have a big hit which caused a fumble.

DB:    Basically they had to come up and support the front 7. There were very few opportunities for them to make plays because of where the ball was thrown.  They did come up and get in on tackles which is good run support.

Penalties:  No real problem here.

Special teams:  Pretty good job here.  CM made a play on the fumble snap and ran for a first down.  The only concern was the one punt that was not fielded and put Bama on offense inside the 20.
 
Finally, many of you are not going to like these comments.  First, Bama did not look like a NC team yesterday.  Two, after watching LSU, and based on Bama’s performance, I would not have a problem with them moving ahead of Bama in the polls.

Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll 
14 and counting

Cooper Bateman, Bama QB recruit playing on ESPN.

I understand the law and the needs for them and I  am not defending the young man.  However, some of these 15 year olds are going on 20 and they are the instigators in some situations.