Crimson Red Sports

First: Congrats to the Bama players and coaches on the victory.  This was a hard fought victory which is representative of a great rival game.   
Offense:  Bama quietly put up 465 yards of total offense (179 passing and 286 rushing), however this game was kept close because of Bama’s inability to finish drives in the red zone.  Bama, cut back on the negative plays this game and only had 3 tackles for losses.  As far as 3 and outs they only had one, but this only happened because of the pass interference call against Stewart.  For plays of 10 plus yards, Bama had 6 runs and 5 passes that covered that distance.  Scoring touchdowns was the problem.  Both touchdowns came from outside the red zone.  They only go into the red zone twice and settled for field goals both times.  This is extremely bad since they had the ball on the 1 yard line and it was second down.  They had 3 field goals from outside the red zone. 
QB:  Coker made some great plays and he made some not so good plays.  The scramble for the touchdown was a great job keeping his eyes down field and finding the open rec.  Also the throw deep to Ridley was thrown where the rec was the only one to make the play.  He has a tendency to guide the ball when throwing the wide rec screen to the right.  Some of his misses were way off the mark and was fortunate one of those throws wasn’t carried back to the house for the TD.  Defensives have started giving up backside pursuit on the boot unless they are completely sure the running back has the ball and taken this play away.  There was also a time where I thought he could have checked the ball down to Henry, but I am not sure because of the angle of the tv shot.
RB:  Henry had a great game. Even when there was contact in the backfield he generally gained positive yards.  Pass blocking was ok, but could be better. I am going to say here another running back is going to have to step up and take some of the pressure off of Henry.
REC:  Ridley and Stewart were the main targets for the day.  Most of the passes were short.  I guess Bama doesn’t trust the pass blocking of the OL.  They made some big catches on balls that were not on the money.  I do think they need to do a better job blocking on the wide rec screens.  They were also beat on the toss down in the red zone.
OL:  They did a pretty good job especially when running the ball right at them.  There were no sacks, but some of this had to do with Coker’s scrambling.   They got to the second level several times and made some very good combo block.  They did miss one combo blocks that was crucial when Jackson looked inside and the threat was outside.  The TE got blown up on the goal line where Bama had a 2nd and 1 from the 1.  This is an area where Bama has to improve, the blocking TE’s.
Defense:  The defense play a solid game.  They gave up 260 yards of total offense, 91 rushing and 169 passing.  We all know 77 of that passing came on 1 play.  The bad part is that it was on a 3rd and 12.  Bama had 3 three and outs, but one was given another play because of the roughing the kicker penalty.  They had a four and out at the end of the game when AU had to go for it.  AU tried to attack wide and take a few yards inside to keep them honest.  As far as plays over 10 yards, AU had 1 run and 4 passes.  I think Bama played a better second half than they did the first.  For negative plays I have Bama getting 3 sacks, 4 tackles for losses, and 2 fumbles, one was recovered.  This recovery was probably unnoticed since it was on the last play of the game when AU was trying to lateral all over the place.
DL:  They played well and all of them contributed. This was a mosh pit and bodies were everywhere. 
LB:  They were forced to play sideline to sideline and still be a force in the middle.  I thought Foster had a very good game. 
DB:  I thought they played pretty well here.  They did give the one deep ball, which should have been knocked down or the rec tackled.  It looked like one safety thought the ball was going to be overthrown and was looking to make a diving interception and the other was looking not to run into his own player. 
Penalties:  Bama had an offensive pass interference call which took away a first down and eventually led to their only three and out.  The roughing the kicker was not really a problem.  Most of the penalties were overcome by Bama and a couple could have been avoided completely.
Special Teams:  They were great all day.  I was especially happy for AG on his kicking for the day.  He only had one kick off returned the whole day and it was at the end of the game.  The 5 field goals were perfect.  I just wish he had one more to give a new meaning to kick 6.  Scott actually punted too well as he didn’t pin AU inside the 20. 
Finally:  Bama is going to have to get better in the red zone and throwing the ball.  With this performance I would not be surprised if the drop a spot in the rankings.  If they had finished the red zone appearances there would be no problem. 
Please feel free to comment.
Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll
15 and counting

Good stuff coach.  As great as Henry was, I was really proud for Griffith.  That young man has battled difficulty on and off the field all his life and deserves the recognition he's starting to get!  On to Atlanta and ROLL TIDE!!!

Great hscoach. I noticed that Joey guy on College Football Final didn't drop them. They are still 2nd on his board which blew my mind as bad as he hates us. RTR!

Thanks for your notes coach from today and all season.

Bama still a solid #2 in the polls that came out today. (Sunday.)

O was out of sync all day yesterday. Was timing off due to OL breaking down? Gotta do better or season will have an unhappy ending down the road. 

Gary D said AU was playing safeties very deep which may explain why so many Bama passes were short.  But it seems to me that if safeties are that deep then some short/intermediate routes should be frequently open.

Still, any win over Barn is a great win.

I agree the short and intermediate routes should have been there with deep safeties,  Also why have they quit running the crossing routes? 

Another great assessment, Coach! Why do you think the field was so slippery? I know teams have deliberately altered their fields in the past, trying to neutralize their opponents. Do you think that might have been in play yesterday?

I really don't know why it was so slick.  I guess it could have been watered and AU using longer cleats.  However, if this was the case Bama should have noticed this during warm-up and changed cleats before the game.  i would think they would be prepared. 

I'm with you hscoach on the RB situation. For me, it's one of the most aggravating things about this season looking forward to next year. There's a real possibility we start the year with a QB with little to no experience and the top 2 RBs with the same problem.

Coach, we finally got CLK to do what we all have been begging for, run the football. ;)

Blake Barnett is an immense talent. Just needed some maturity. I totally expect him to be our starter next year. There will be no talent drop off at QB. We will have Harris and Bo at running back. Bo is built much like King Henry. I think we are in great shape for the future.

I think we see Bo and Harris considerably more in the playoffs...assuming we get by the Gators. It gives nearly a month to get them ready. Also...Drake will be back. If I'm not mistaken...isn't our OL still a little banged up?

Thanks, coach.  Well done.

Two issues:

1. Did you think Stewart should have gotten a pass interference call for that play??  I thought it was close, but certainly not a pick play.

2. WTH??  "Defensives have started giving up backside pursuit on the boot unless they are completely sure the running back has the ball and taken this play away."
PLEASE CLARIFY.

 :dunno:

I don't know if they are banged up.  They did a good job most of the day. However in crucial situations the TE got blown up and maybe even the right tackle.

When watching the game if the running back is running left on the fake the backside defensive player is not chasing him down from the backside as much.  This means he is going to the QB and therefore the QB now has someone in his face as soon as he turns around. Hope this clarifies.

Thanks.  Stewart question?

Backside pursuit is also playing deeper rather than playing closer to the LOS in pursuit. Makes it tougher on the waggle by Coker.

I thought the PI call was bogus. You see that going on quite frequently, and if it is not at the point of attack or affects the play it should be let go.

That was a call that could have gone either way.  He looked like he pushed the guy.  If he had just thrown up his hands there would have been a better chance of him not getting called.

It didn't look like a pick play or a rub.  Stewart just ran into the DB.  But I agree, Stewart could have made it look less like it was intentional. 

Watching the replay; just noticed:

8:32 left in Q2:

Henry runs to the 1-yard line.  The Aub player grabbed Henry's facemask, and turned Henry's head.  Obvious facemask, not called.  Henry likely would have scored otherwise (it slowed him).  Watch the play.

At a minimum it would have given us a 1st down at the 3.  Instead, we had 2nd down at the 1, and ended up with a field goal.  Ugh.

(http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg201/Chechem_2008/Football/000001aa_zpsrhvs8ajf.jpg)

(http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg201/Chechem_2008/Football/000001aa_zpsjzmkmyud.jpg)
I couldn't enlarge the pic and capture it, but here is the frame.  Henry's head turned as 96's hand pulled facemask.

I wonder where I could find more pictures from the game.  AU posted a lot of pictures that I saw on facebook where according to them holding should have been called.

The entire game is on YouTube.

There was a missed holding call on the play where CWM went nuts.

So at best you have a missed offsetting penalties and CWM salvaging some of his 'good natured demeanor'.  mmmk

They posted several pictures where there were possible holding calls missed.  I am sure the same thing was happening when they had the ball, but of course they didn't want to post them.

If it makes the booger eaters feel better to believe that they lost the game due to missed holding calls that were one-sided, they can go right on ahead.  :eyeroll:

What makes it really bad is that those #$%@ refs did it to them 6 times this year!

:lol2:

(http://i1.wp.com/armstrongeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Conspiracy.jpg)

You know we have at times questioned calls against us but one of the more informed guys/gals here usually goes and has pic or vid of what exactly they are talking about but I've never seen it cost us 6 games. RTR!

Well, it can't possibly be because the barn got beat for real.  :lol2: