Crimson Red Sports

First:   Congrats to Bama for opening up with a win.  Let’s be honest here, Bama’s 2nd team could have given them a tougher game.

Offense:   Again, I think CLK called a good game.  Many times FAU had 7 to 8 in the box and he exploited them by the quick hitch/screen game to the outside.  They put up 620 yards of offense.  There were only 4 negative plays and no 3 and outs..  Two of them cost Bama points since the sack was at the end of half time and the fumble was in the red zone.  Bama had at least 13 catches that went for more than 10 yards.  Most were caught under 10 yards but there were plenty of yards after the catch.  They had 4 runs of over 10 yards.  They had TD drives of 74, 74, 78, 84, and 84(after penalty). They settled for two FG and I say this because they had great field position at the start of these drives.  Hey probably left at least 9 points on the field.

QB:  Both QB’s played pretty well considering the competition.  I do think they gave Coker more downfield throws than they did to Sims.  It looks to me that Coker tries to guide the ball on some of the short throws, especially the wide out hitches/screens.  I am going to share my opinion on the many replays and Ward’s description of the same play Sims completed that Coker didn’t.  In Coker’s situation the deep rec was even with the defenders and their body position dictated he was open.  A good throw was a TD.  In Sims case the underneath rec was open and the deep rec still had a guy over the top of the deep route.  Coker did have a rec open underneath and probably could have taken an easier throw.  However, if he had thrown a better ball, then Ward would have been talking about how the rec had the defenders beat by positioning.  The only knock on both QB’s is they are going to have to do a better job with clock management.  Also, looking the fumble in the red zone, I see two rec’s releasing for a pass and TJY was not expecting the ball.  . 

RB:   With limited carries all backs ran hard.  It seems most of the runs were just to keep the D honest. I really haven’t seen Bama attack the edge in the running game. 

REC:  I could have just left what I said here last week.  It is obvious Cooper is going to be the main focus of the passing attack.   Again the rec are blocking well for each other and the running backs.  It is hard to believe that Bama has played 2 games and OJH does not have a catch.  Nine different rec’s had catches, but half of Bama’s completions went to Cooper.  Also, it looked like some of those receptions should be classified as running plays as the ball looked to be thrown behind the QB.  I could have been the TV angle. 

OL:   Again I thought they did a good job with communication.  There were good combo blocks and sustaining the blocks on the field.  Bama actually substituted some players in the OL in the first half.  Near the end of the 1st quarter, it looked as like the starting OL was out and the back-ups got some quality reps.   

Defense:  The defense looked better in the sense of lining up this week.  They only gave up 145 yards against an undermanned team.  They had 4 tackles for losses, 4 sacks, caused 3 fumbles and recovered one.   They played pretty base here and only brought more than four about 10 times.  They did give up 1 run of over 10 yards and 4 pass plays.  The major issues were they did lose contain a couple of times, there were some missed tackles when players were not wrapping up and the DB’s and LB’s were getting cut.

DL:    They were much more athletic than the FAU team.  The good news here was they played, by my count, at least 11 different DL/OB here.  Some of the biggest plays were made by the youngsters.

LB:  TD helped coming back.  They also rotated LB’s in here and got quality reps with many. 

DB: Bama looked better in the secondary, but you have to look at the competition.  It did look like EJ is not scared to come out and play.  In other words he didn’t look tentative.   I thought a couple of the penalties on the secondary were questionable.  They did seem to be in better position in this game. 

Penalties:  There were a few penalties.  The one where they called the chop block looked to me like he just fell down.  I could be wrong, but it didn’t look like he was throwing at an engaged player. 

Special teams:   So far this year, the kicking game looks pretty strong.  AG kicked off 8 times and the two worse ones were the line drive which they got to the 26 yard line.  The other came down at the 2 which they got to the 21 yard line.  I noticed some new numbers on the left side of the Bama kick cover team.  Also, CJ had a very good punt return and probably would have scored if he hadn’t taken his blocker out. 

Finally:  This was not a great test.  It was an opportunity for Bama to work on techniques, alignments, and make sure they are on the same page on offense and defense.  They will need to continue to improve. 

Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll 
15 and counting

Good analysis, Coach! My only comment is that I would like to see another WR receiver emerge to take the load off Cooper. Ardarius Stewart may be the one, he seems to have a knack for making plays.

I agree, C Jones has not been utilized as much this year.  I think Black has some potential also.

Well done coach. I thank you for your work. The one question I have is, are DB's going to be able to hold up against the likes of TA&M or auburn? I sure hope we can improve more. I think Tony Brown may be a good one. RTR!

Wasn't it C Jones who threw the BIG block when Cooper scored?

Has good stuff. My thoughts are Sims is going to have to throw the ball down the field. Teams are going to start rotating a safety over to Cooper to double him. That said can Sims go through his progressions to find other receivers. Just my 2 cents.

He may have.  I also have him credited for a drop.  I know Black threw some good blocks also.

I think it will depend on the pass rush.  A great pass rush is the best thing to help DB's.

Thanks Coach. I think Ardarius Stewart is going to be that guy. I really liked what I saw from him in the A Day game, and he looked very good yesterday.

I agree.  That may be part of the early plan to make teams so aware of Cooper you can get better 1 v 1 match ups.  It also keeps a safety out of the box for the run game.

Agree, I think Bama is loaded with deep in the skilled areas.

Thanks coach.  Always look forward to spending part of my Sundays with you!

Here is a 2 minute clip off you tube that shows 2 of those blocks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNzkbZfXAbM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNzkbZfXAbM

With Sims having problems calling the plays in a huddle and Coker too, could this be the beginning of Bama's HUNH offense. I know he will have to get better with his defense reads but it seems to me that the man that can run this style of offense and do it well. 

It can speed up the play calling process.  You don't have to be in a hurry up.  It is also easy to check plays according to defensive alignments.

There seem to be communication issues between the sideline & the players on both O and D.  Maybe 'hurry up' can solve some of the O issues but isn't that limiting?

That said, there is a look to the O under Kiff that is different to me.  More imaginative and less predictable.  Hopefully harder to defend.

Back to the D, what do you do?  After fall camp and two games it's still hard for guys to get lined up properly.  This is a worry to me.

They talk about some new termanology.  I don't know if this is part of the problem.  The lining up may be, in the last game, part due to the number of different players they were using.  I do think CLK has called 2 very good game. 

Thanks hscoach. I really saw some separation with Sims and Coker against FAU. Familiarity with the Tide O really helps Sims. My only concern is with throws longer than 15 yds. I think this week against USM that needs to be worked on with Sims. Also, although it was a brief glimpse, Robert Foster will be a beast when he gets reps and catches. Stewart looked good as well.

I do think Sims has looked better, but he has benefited from the pass plays called.  JC was given more downfield throws.    Foster, Black, Stewart and even Jones are going to be great options down the road.