Crimson Red Sports

MSU vs Bama

First, congrats to the Bama players and coaches on the win.   The was a hell of a game for Bama to win.  They had to fight back with a banged-up defense and a well-disciplined, tough MSU team that had a very good game plan with they executed.  Part of this game plan was to slow the game down and work the clock to keep the ball away from Bama’s offense.  They did it and it shows since they had a 17:52 minute advantage with time of possession.
OFFFENSE:   The offense put together crucial drives when needed. There were some problems with the overloaded blitzes that MSU was bringing.  Even though MSU had the large advantage, over a full quarter, Bama still led with total offense.  The offense put together 446 yards of total offense which included 242 passing yards and 202 rushing yards.  The negatives were Bama had 5 sacks and 2 tackles for losses.  They also had 3 three and outs.  For the positives, they had 7 pass plays that covered 10+ yards and 10 running plays that covered 10+ yards.  The important part here is most of these were in the 2nd half.  Bama got into the red zone 5 times. They scored 3 touchdowns and kicked a field goal.  The other time they were sacked and missed the field goal from right outside the red zone.  They also scored from outside the red zone with the touchdown that won the game.  I hate to say this because it sounds negative, but Bama’s first couple of scoring drives happened so quickly they put the defense back on the field.  Three of Bama’s scoring drives, not counting the last one, were 1:54, 1:13, and2:19.  Bama’s offense was hindered a few times with the poor field position early in the game.  At this point of the season Bama is perfect going for it on 4th down.  I think they are 10 for 10 or 11 for 11.

QB:   I thought Hurts played very well.  I do think he made a couple of mistakes on the zone read but he protected the football and made big throws on scrambles
which means he kept his eyes downfield.  He made some big plays especially in the 2nd half with the game on the line.  He averaged 24.2 yards per completion, and completed over 50 percent of his passes.

RB:  They all had good games running the ball.  Bo and Jacobs both averaged over 6 yards a carry while Harris averaged over 11.  Jacobs also had 2 receptions.  I do have a missed block, and don’t remember which back, on one of the sacks.   One thing I really want to point out was the hustle Bo displayed on the long reception to Ridley.  He did a heck of a job getting downfield to get a block on the play.

Rec:  Ridley had a hell of a game.  Even the catch that didn’t count was a very good play.  He had 5 catches and averaged over 34 yards per catch and part of this was the adjustment he made on the scramble by Hurts. The one catch by Smith was huge and made a good run after the catch.

OL:  The OL created holes for the running backs.  As far as pass protection they did well when they didn’t have the overloaded blitz.  I do know the left guard was beat once for a sack.  Also, the right tackle was beat on a tackle for loss.  With all the noise in the stadium they did a pretty good job not creating false starts.  In the running game they pretty much controlled the LOS except for a couple of plays. They will have to clean up the overload blitz. 

Defense:  They made mistakes, along with missed tackles, that allowed MSU to continue drives.  I will say MSU’s game plan was excellent, but also as I said helped by Bama.  The defense was on the field for 73 plays. They did give up 330 yards of total offense.  MSU had 158 passing yards and 172 rushing yards.   Bama’s defense is credited with 1 sack and 4 tackles for losses.  Bama is only credited with 1 three and out and it came in the 4th quarter at a crucial time.  They could have had 2 more but penalties prolonged the drives.  For plays over 10+ yards, MSU had 5 passes and 5 runs that covered that distance.  They got into the red zone 4 times and scored 3 touchdowns and kicked a field goal.  Bama was fortunate that MSU missed on a couple of pass plays that could have gone for big plays even touchdowns.  MSU even converted on 8 out of 15 third downs. 

DL:   They had a tough game.  The biggest point here was the lost edge by the edge players.  I notice Jennings and Buggs both closing on the running back and the QB keeping the ball therefore Bama loses the edge.  I also notice on a stunt where the inside down linemen went outside, and the outside player went inside that the player going outside didn’t get there which means they lost the edge again.  Many times, the running back wasn’t brought down with the initial contact.  The OL also got by the DL and got to the second level.

LB:  They missed tackles and the OL got to them several times.  Watching Evans, he didn’t seem to be full speed.  I just didn’t see that burst he seems to have at time.  I know he hurt an ankle last game and maybe it was bothering him.  Holcombe played ok, but also missed tackles and one time was cut by an OL that ran a fold block.  You can tell the team was different without Hamilton and Wilson.

DB:  They were beat a couple of times.   Most of the completions were short and turned into big plays. They were caught peaking in the backfield a couple of times and then beat by receivers. That is what the running game does and makes the play action better.  On the first play of the game Bama was lucky not to have had a big play or touchdown because of the overthrow.

Special Teams:  The 2 big problems here was the fumble on the punt which fortunately was recovered by Bama and the penalty that kept the first drive alive.  There was another time when the kickoff return player was told to take a knee and the decided to return the ball.  This play cost Bama 8 yards of field position.

Penalties:  The two big penalties were the leaping call on the first punt and the holding call on a 3rd down pass play.  Both of these allowed MSU to continue drives which could have been three and out.  Another penalty of notice was the unsportsman like conduct call on Leatherwood who left the bench with his helmet off to celebrate the tying touchdown.  I will say, I could see the leaping penalty not being called because he jumped up and the MSU player blocked him which made it look a little worse than it was.

Finally, this was a tough physical game that can be learned from.  Bama sees they can come from behind.  The DL edge players can see how they hurt the team by not taking care of their assignment.  Tackling needs to improve and the team needs to get healthier.  Hopefully this next game Bama can improve in these areas.

Feel free to comment:

16 and Counting

Might be your best work yet, Coach. Apparently, you started putting this together right after the game and worked through the night.  :lol2:

Just kidding. Chech and I were clowning around about how long it would take you this time, with everything that happened last night. Great job.

Coach, every time we got rolling on a drive, an MSU player would get "injured". It stopped our momentum all night long. By design or were we just conspiracy theorizing?

I thought the same.  I really don't know.  However, they did say one player had, I believe, 3 ACL surgeries. 

A lot of those guys were trying to tackle Jalen.  :lol2:

 :lol2: He prolly did break a few ankles.

Great analysis Coach!  Hope we get through Mercer with no more injuries!

Great job Coach.  I was hesitant to open this thread because I felt like you were probably going to rip our team a new butt-hole.  I was wrong...  Anyways, I think the RB that missed a block that allowed the sack was Damien Harris.  I almost blew a mental fuse when that happened.  :-[  My youngest asked Mrs. Nalt, "Why is Dad so mad?"   :-[  Anyways, in retrospect, I feel that our team needed a game like this.  With Auburn coming up in two weeks and as good as they are playing right now, our team needs to know what it feels like to experience some adversity and this game definitely provided that.  I just kind of feel sorry for Mercer coming in this week...

I really hope Bama scores early and gets the backup in.  With RP out it will be important for him along with the starting linebackers to get some work.  I wish Moses and Holcombe could play and rest Evans.  Also keep MF off the field as much as possible.

Thanks, coach; great job (as always).   :worship:

You pointed out that Jalen Hurts "averaged 24.2 yards per completion, and completed over 50 percent of his passes."  Wow.  Had the feeling he was still throwing those dink and lateral passes of last year.  He's getting better every week.

Holcombe had a tough night at LB.  Hopefully he was just overwhelmed with the new duties, rather than outmanned.  He's apparently all we have at that position.  The reviews of Moses were not positive.  Good article by Rainer Sabin about their play ("Four takeaways...").

Love the way we're using crossing routes to rip teams when they play man against us.  Ridley had fun.  Mullen was gaga about him in the presser.

Thanks again.  As said, 2 and I thought you'd be writing all week (or hiding under the bed).  :lol2:

The sad part is that the mistakes continued thru a lot of the games.  Also, many  of them are correctable.  I hope Moses and Holcombe improve, I like others, didn't rate Holcombe very high.  I was watching again, as they are replaying the game on SEC network, and I still question the leaping call.  Finally, he averaged a lot per reception because of the yards after catch.  A few Honey Jacks allowed me to sleep pretty well. As I watched the game again Sunday morning, I really didn't have a lot of notes to add to the ones I took during the game.

Thanks again, coach.

For those who haven't found it, YouTube has the entire game in abbreviated form (minus commercials and between-play action):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaMhZmTPiFU

Thanks for the great analysis.   #+


I agree with Mullen, Ridley had a great game.  Ran great routes, a lot of yards after catch, found the open spots when Hurts was scrambling.