Crimson Red Sports

The QB play and the kicking game has me concerned. None of the QB's looked ready to be the starter on opening day.

We missed a chip shot FT, a 40 yarder was blocked and missed a PAT. We did make two FG's. One was a 41Yd that would have been good from 50 plus. Adam Griffin did all the place kicking and was very inconsistent. I hope the guy coming in this summer is the real deal.

We must not have a punter on the team. Back up QB Alec Morris did all the punting. He kicked better in the 2nd half but had two for less than 30 yds in the first half.

The first team defense looked very good. The D-line and LB's look to be the strength of the team. If we can get some decent play out of the corners this D could be special even with our high standards.

The offense struggled. We only ran a couple of plays. We passed more than we ran. Obvious to me we were wanting to work on the passing game. Yeldon looked good. Henry never got going. On 2nd Tean Drake looked good but had a fumble on our 5 that lead to a quick/easy TD. Receivers looked good when the QB's got them the ball but we had several drops. Neither offense even got into a good flow. I can only remember about 5 explosive plays for the entire game. The late TD to Black was nice.

Turnovers! There was 30 points total scored. 14 of the 30 was scored by the defense. An INT returned for a TD and a fumble recovery on the 5 yd line led to a two play easy score.

I saw where the announced crowd was 73,000. What do you think? I thought it was above 60,000 but I thought 73,000 is a bit exaggerated.

Pretty good assessment.  The WR's did show some good hands a time or two.  I think the QB's timing with the WRs' was a bit off and will have to improve or when we get into the SEC games this fall our INTs could outnumber positive catches.  I was really impressed with the "push" that the DL was getting on the OL.  Hopefully that means that our DL are the best in the business and not a sign that our OL are sub-par... It will definitely be interesting to see the qb battle this summer when Coker arrives on campus.  I really believe that Coach Saban has given Sims a chance to step up and be the #1 qb, just hope for his sake that he didn't squander that opportunity away...

There might have been 73K if they were counting exponentially.  I didn't think there were 60K there myself.  Definitely 55-60K though...

The official report is all that matters.   ;)

Glad that CRS was well represented.  Last time I went I had to sit in the upper deck/endzone.  Hopefully nobody was there yesterday!

The lower bowl seats a little on 60,000. It was mostly full. There were a lot of people in the West upper deck. I think they sat there knowing they would be in the shade. We forgot sun screen and all got burnt arms and legs.  :lol2:

Funny thing happened to us on the way home. We stopped at a gas station in Gardendale to use the bathroom and get something to drink. As we were checking out a man and his wife asked us if we had been to the game since we were all decked out in Alabama gear. It turned out to be the man who did the half time dog show. They were from Indiana and headed home. Nice people.

Well, Jamos, 2Stater and my kids and I sat underneath the upper deck on the west side so I couldn't tell how many were above us...That could account for the extra few thousand that I didn't estimate...  ;)  Course, my count is far from official... :-[

We sat on the West side in the lower bowl about half way up. The East and end zone upper decks were almost empty but the West side was 3/4 full.

I thought QB play was worst at Bama in years. Bateman showed a good arm and I'm guessing he is the leader at this point. Sims just can't throw and unless Kiffen runs the Wishbone I don't see Sims as a starter.  Ardarius Stewart looked good at WR.  Tony Brown at CB played well even with the blackshirt. I thought the crowd might hit 75,000 but I thought the lower bowl would seat at least 70,000 so I could be wrong. Great weather! Terrible traffic leaving, a wreck on I-59 at McFarland didn't help.

Pmull and KoKoPuf, pretty much summed up the day. I was very impressed with Ardarius Stewart, Tony Brown, Reggie Ragland, DJ Pettway and really, most of the defense. It was disheartening watching the QB play and dropped passes by the receivers, but the offense has never really looked sharp in the spring. I did keep telling J and NALT. though, that Coker can't get here soon enough.

The only thing I would add is that Morris' kicks improved as the game progressed, particularly the kicks he stuck inside the 10 yd line. Those were things of beauty.

QB is a real problem. Coker can't get to campus soon enough. The Dline has potential, but some of that could be to the replacements on the OLiine.

Overall there were positives. Defense and some of the DBs. They showed promise. Our WRs will be tough to stop.

Ha, small world isn't it. Those dogs were really good entertainment. :clap:

I bet you pulled off on Fieldstown Road in Gardendale. That's where everything is at, Wal-Mart, Ryans, KFC, Taco Bell, plus several gas stations.


 :wave:

There is a lot of work to be done and that is good I think. After the A-Day game last year, all everyone was saying was that Bama would 3 peat this past year and look at what happened to that team. Yesterday the team walked off the field knowing there is a lot of work to be done before September and I think there will be a lot more accomplished in the off season than the past season.

I'm thinking the team next year will probably start a little slow and progressively get better each game, which I think is good.

I pretty much concur with every one else's thought. Blake Sims can make plays, but he misses too many over all. I just hope Coker is all we hope he is. As far as a kicker is concerned the kid coming in does both Punt & Place kick very well!! If Adam can Concentrate on Kick offs then he may excel at that. We are stacked again at Wide Receiver and running back. Amari & Christan are a very good tandem. Add in Chris Black, Stewart, and D White when he is back full speed. Have Mercy!!! Then at running back you could have what might be the leading rushing duo in the country. If our offensive line can makes some room they can do some damage in the middle. Keynon Drake is one of the quickest elusive guys out there. That run yesterday was spectacular. I Love ya my brother but I swear I am going to buy you a 55 gal drum of stickum!!!!!! Bottom line is I saw a lot of good things happen yesterday. I saw a lot of not so good things as well. But I have to say CNS nailed it on the head in what he said about experience. How do you get it? By making mistakes and learning from them. If we can improve on what happened today then we will be in good shape.

I don't think there is going to be any sense of entitlement this year. The "D" looked very hungry yesterday and I think that will carry over into the season.

The "O" will be a work in progress, however. Particularly the "O" line. They were beat like 1939 Poland yesterday.

I'm not disappointed in what I saw yesterday. The defense is normally ahead of the offense at this point. Plus, this defense is good. We have plenty to work and as Jamos said they that could be a good thing. There is a lot of talent on this team and no coaching staff in the nation can coach them up like ours.

Two guys coming in this summer could take care of my concern with the QB and kicking positions.

Pretty much agree with what everyone else has said.

The defense looked good.  Tony Brown was fun to watch; we'll see him on the field next year.

I hope that Coker is as good as advertised, because QB play was completely ineffective.  Bama won't see a 10-win season without a QB who can move the ball down the field in a sustained drive.  Personally, I don't think Sims is that QB.  He didn't look much different than last year's A-Day Game.  Still very much a "work in progress."  I don't think he starts next year.  I'm guessing that he's been named "starter" to motivate everyone else to work harder.

Kicking game could easily contribute to a couple of losses next year without substantial improvement or the infusion of new blood.

Saban was onto the O-line, give the QB more time, plus the push up the middle leading to the blocked FG.  Not a dominant unit yet.  Could be that the D-line played that well.  But I thought the QBs mostly had adequate time to make reads and get passes away.  Sims made some poor throws, off-target, into coverage, or both.  There were some dropped passes as well, though more with the second unit.

Anyway, defense looked good, offense looked terrible.  One of the worst offensive/QB performances I've ever seen at A-day. 

1.  I am not sure if the D line is that good or the O line is that bad.  The DL did look more athletic than it has in the past.   I thought they got off the ball well, but part of that may have been listening to the same QB cadence during the spring. 

2.  RB each looked good at times.  I do think they all had their shining moments.  I did see some will have to improve their pass blocking if they want to get on the field.  KD ran hard again, but fumbled again. 

3.  Rec's are deep.  There were some drops that should have been caught.  I don't think they utilized the TE's enough.

4.  QB's.  The most concern here unless the new guy can come in and take the job.  I thought CB looked the best of all QB's.  BS's doesn't move his feet when checking from rec to rec.  He should have had more picks but the ball was dropped by the secondary.

5.  The OL is a concern at this point.  I am not sure the big freshman is ready to start at left tackle.  At time they did a good job, but was very inconsistent against a vanilla defense. 

6.  Special teams;  I don't know what has happened to AG.  I wonder if a lot of it is psychological because of what happened in the AU game.  Some one is going to have to be a punter that can change the field.

I know some are young and only had a few practices.  I definitely think the D is ahead of the O. 

Good asessment, hscoach.   :worship: :worship: :worship:

We have some pretty smart guys on CRS. Seems most everybody saw the same things on the field and the assessments were spot on.  :worship:

I hope we all have more positive things to say about the "O" in the fall.

I thought TJ Yeldon had a good game. He does not look ready to give the starting position to Henry, Drake or anyone else. He had 95 yds on 11 carries with a long of 36 yds. He also had one reception for 9 yds.

I watched the replay last night.  I agree, Yeldon is still a stud at RB.  He is a special threat as a receiver, especially on screens.  I don't see the other RBs as important in that aspect of our offense. 

If Kiffin holds true to his past play-calling, we'll throw to the TE more and increase the short passing games.  I heard a discussion of that on the radio this weekend.

Hey Fellows,

   All good observations and insights. I'll add just a couple things.

   As some have pointed out, they dropped too many balls, and not Norwood-spectacular-catch balls, but easy catches. In particular, Chris Black dropped 3.

   Though we look to this game for answers and reassurance, it really provides neither. The offense was so vanilla the defense had little to do in the way of adjustments or thinking on their feet. And then the offense wasn't really gone show their hand, so they ran 100 plays around the end. Hard extrapolate from this to real game performance.

    To me, the most intriguing thing we saw, and I believe CNS showed it on purpose, was Morris punting. If he is out to punt on 4th and short, or 4th and whatever on the opponent's side of the 50, the other coach has to guard against a fake. That means better punt coverage, better field position, and the occasional spirit-breaking new set of downs for our O. That's an interesting wrinkle.

   I was dead on the 50 on the East side in the bowl. A gorgeous day to watch football. May plans were uncertain and I didn't get a chance to get to the tailgate, which I regret.

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Ruh-Roh!

I'm confused. What is that warning thing?

I agree with most. My 2 worries are simple: O-Line passing and running. I thought the Defense was great everywhere. Still our kicking game was not impressive to me. Missing a field goal and and the kicks need to be higher on Kick Offs, so we have more cover time. JMHO of some of what I saw. RTR!