Fun Fact:

Alabama has a very young team this year and had to overcome a lot obviously. The youth showed against Georgia, and Coach Kirby took full advantage of that, just as Coach Saban would have.

The best part about this year?

The last 3 games, Alabama played a total of 27 Freshman!
Game experience is everything for the Crimson Tide, and this is a great head start on next year!

These young men did give it their best shot last night, without a doubt, I’m sure this experience will fuel them in the upcoming season.

This upcoming season, is looking center-mass for another run at a National Championship!

#RollTide

By the way, how many screen passes did Bama successfully throw to the RB this year?  Many teams use this to slow down a pass rush.

Next year, Bama looks like they will have to replace 3 starting receivers.  Good news there is talent there.  The OL will have to be to be reshuffled and looking at the roster, there is some size, but doesn't seem to be a lot of experience.  The problem I saw was the technique many times or line calls for blocking schemes.  With players leaving in the portal, it could hinder the depth.  RB should have depth if they all come back healthy.  Again, with the chance of coaches leaving, with at least one already gone, players will have to get use to a new style of coaching.  I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but some coaches relate to players better than others.  I would like to see Bama get back to using the motion game more like they did when Sark and others were there.  Motion just doesn't help in man coverage, or determine the coverage, but it allows you to move a receiver and make a less talented cover guy play a superior player in zone.  The 1st job I see for Bama is shoring up the offensive line. 

Something I left of the notes was the poor blocking by the TE's in the NC game.

                                             UG vs Bama

First, congrats to the Bama players and coaches on a great year.  I know people are disappointed, however, the circumstances were not in Bama favor to repeat.  There were too many mistakes and points left on the field coupled with injures that caused Bama to depend on younger players who didn’t have the experience at this time to come thru.

OFFFENSE:  The offense outgained UG but didn’t put the ball in the endzone often enough when they got in the red zone.  Bama had a total of 399 yards with 369 passing and 30 rushing. The sack yards, in college, comes off the rushing yards which made this look worse than it was.  For negative plays, I have Bama with5 tackles for losses, 4 sacks and 2 interceptions.  Most of the negative plays came when Bama got behind and was trying to make a comeback.  I credit Bama with 2 three and outs and 1 two and out because of an interception.  Plays that covered 10+ yards, I have Bama with 14 passing plays and 1 running play.  The bad news is Bama got into the red zone 4 times and scored 1 touchdown.  They were stopped at the 19, 10, and 5-yard line.  If Bama scores touchdowns, instead of field goals, they have and additional 12 points.  Outside the red zone they kicked 1 field goal and had one blocked.  Here are three more points left on the field.

QB:  Young threw the ball 57 times and completed 35 of them which equates to 61 percent.  Out of these 57 attempts he was pressured at least 20 times and hit on many of those.  With these pressures he was also sacked 4 times and completed on 8 of these passes.  Now all of that was not on him as some of the throws were catchable, but the plays were not made.  He did miss a couple of receivers, but most misses were because of pressures or missed play opportunities.

RB: Robinson played well in my opinion. The running yards were tough yards and he picked up the blitz several times.  Early in the game they ran the edge getting 4 to 4 yards an attempt and I thought they should have done it a little more.  Sanders, had 2 carries for 5 yards and made a good catch to get a first down.

Rec:  Williams was having a good game before his injury.  He had 4 catches for 65 yards.  On the play he got hurt on, I think if the ball had been deeper, he probably would have scored.  Also, it may have prevented him from his injury.  Latu had 5 catches for 102 yards and the only touchdown.  Latu was also one of the receivers that could have made a catch and scored a touchdown instead of kicking a field goal.  Hall had 2 catches, Brooks had 7 catches, Holden had 6 and Bolden that 7.  The ball was spread between the many receivers, however, they also missed chances to make plays.  For instance, Hall had, what I thought was a chance for a catch to get a first down or even a touchdown but didn’t complete the play.  I counted at least 6 balls that were catchable, but the plays weren’t made.

OL:  The OL is where this game was won or lost.  They didn’t have the game they did like they did in the SEC championship game.  As you see above, they allowed a lot of pressure on the QB.  They would pick up a stunt and then miss a stunt or just get beat 1 on 1.  I will speak on this later.

Def: The defense played well except for a couple of series in the 2nd half.  Bama gave up a total of 364 yards which included 224 passing yards and 140 rushing yards.  For negative plays, I have Bama with 3 tackles for losses, 5 sacks, and 2 fumbles 1 which they recovered.  I have them with 5 three and outs one of which was because of their fumble recoveries.  For plays that covered 10+ yards, I have UG with 11 passing plays and 5 running plays.  UG got into the red zone 3 times and scored 2 touchdowns and kicked 1 field goal.  They scored 1 touchdown from outside the red zone and kicked 1 field goal.  The other touchdown came from the interception return near the end of the game. I really thought Mathis, Harris, To’oTo’o and Anderson played well in the game.  It did look that on one of the long runs, the LB To’oto’o and the DL went in the same gap and left the opening for the big run.  No one was there to fill the gap and make the play.  The defense came up with a couple of big stops, like in the red zone and after the first interception which gave UG field position. 

DL: The DL played pretty well except for a few plays.  However, it wasn’t all their fault because plays were not made by the safeties at the 2nd level.  They occupied all the OL which kept them off the 2nd level tacklers.

LB: Harris had a big game with 7 tackles which include 3 sacks and a tackle for a loss.  To’oto’o made some big plays where he was blitzing and then made the play down field after a short completion. 

DB: Bama goes into the NC game with 2 back up corners which included the 2nd start for one of them.  Again, they had two pass interference call on touchdown drives.   Jackson was in good position on the touchdown pass but just didn’t make the play.  It looked like on the touchdown throw McKinstry gave up he was expecting help on the inside from the safety.   I will also speak about this later.

Special teams: The special teams had 3 problems. One was the big kick off return which was called back for a holding call.  So, it really didn’t hurt.  The second was the kickoff out of bounds which gave UG great field position.  Third and the biggest one, was the missed/blocked field goal which looked to be a result of low trajectory.  Finally, there was a fumble on a punt which Bama got back on.

Penalties:  By the official stats Bama had 7 penalties for 57 yards.  First, there was a delay of game on the defense when they were called for clapping.  On the replay, I didn’t see a clap, but To’oto’o pounded his fist together making the call.  Second, a big one, was a false start on a 3rd and 1 on Owens which turned into a 3rd and 6 in the red zone.  Third, the kickoff was out of bounds giving UG better field position.  Fourth, a face mask call in the red zone which moved to ball closer to the goal line since UG had gotten a first down on the play. Fifth, PI on the touchdown drive.  This took place after Bama had regained the lead from UG.  Six, offsides was declined.  Seventh, PI on the next touchdown drive. Eight, roughing the passer on Battle on the touchdown that was declined. Ninth, grounding by Young in the last drive of the game.   Since 2 were declined, they had a total of 7 penalties.

Finally, Bama had a chance, but it was a difficult road with the injuries this year.  They did an outstanding job with a lot of inexperienced players.  Allen goes down at the beginning of the year, Sanders replaces and he goes down.   However, that put Turner in who played well enough to keep the starting job when Sander could return.  Both corners went down.  Plus, there were offensive linemen who were injured during the year.  That being said with the great recruiting Bama should be able to replace these players.   In the upcoming year there are people who are going to have to be replace because of some players entering the portal.  Also, coaches are going to have to be replaced as I have heard to this date Bama has lost 2.  They need to be better in several areas next year.  First, they have to do a better job on the offensive line.  I read/heard they have given up 39 sacks this year.  I think Mac Jones was sacked 10 times last year.  You take away New Mexico State, Mercer, and Southern Miss.  Most of the sacks came against SEC opponents.  So really the sacks came in 12 of the 15 games.  Second, since the DB coach left, they need to go out and get a top DB coach.  Third, they need to cut down on penalties.  If I heard correctly, there we at least 17 PI calls this year.  Many of those were on touchdown drives.  Fourth, they have to improve their red zone efficiency.  I won’t be surprised if Bama loses more coaches and players.  With all that being said Bama still had a very good year.
Feel free to comment:

18 and Counting

Bama missed many rim shots, especially early that could have changed the game.  They were pretty cold outside the 3 pt arc in the 2nd half.  Defense didn't seem to get to the spot quick enough/

I hope I have this correct:
Waddle 102 receptions for a NFL rookie record
Smith records yards for a year for a rookie Philly rec
Harris breaks Franco Harris's record for rushing yards by a rookie for Pittsburg

Bama vs Missouri on SEC network. Starting real sloppy, down 7-0

Best night of offensive rebounding I have seen in a while.  Didn't count, but it seems we turned the ball over a lot less in the 2nd half.

I think the center change has been good.  What I can't understand is the inconsistency.  How can they do so well against a talented UG team and get so much pressure from UC.  The missed stunts by UC  that they picked up against UG,
Also, Owens got injured late.  He also accounted for most of the offensive penalties.  Robinson looked very good and I am happy for him, a true Crimson Tider.  He looked as healthy as he has all year.  The OL help him looked this good with the great run blocking.

I agree.  it will be a game of who can execute and come up with a big play. 

                                             UC vs Bama

First, congrats to the Bama players and coaches the victory and advancing to the National Championship game once again. 

OFFFENSE:  The offense played the game they needed to play to win this game.  I have to give the UC defense some credit.  Their skilled defensive players made it tough for a deep passing game and they consistently put pressure on the QB.  The running game saved Bama.  Bama put together a total of 482 yards of total offense which included 181 yards passing and 301 rushing.  For negative plays, I have the offense with 4 tackles for losses, 2 sacks, and a interception.  I credit Bama with 2 three and outs, one of which was because of an interception.  For plays that covered 10+ yards, I have Bama with 7 passing plays and 11 running plays.  I can’t remember the last time Bama had more running plays for 10+ yards than they did passing plays.  Bama got into the red zone 3 times and scored 2 touchdowns and kicked a field goal.  There was a sack that led to the kicking of the field goal in the red zone.  They scored twice from outside the red zone with a touchdown pass and a field goal.  The offense converted on 5 of 13 3rd down situations and converted their only 4th down try.  They kept saying Bama opened the game with 10 straight runs, however one of these was a scramble because of the pressure on the pass play.

QB:  Young had a good day considering the pressure he was under.  He was 17 for 28 for 181 yards with an interception.  He was pressured on at least 10 of the passes and the interception happened on one of those pressure.  Since they were running the ball effectively, he was 5 for 7 on passing plays that involved play action.   

RB: Robinson played very well.  I do think they ran the ball a little less in the second half to probably save him a bit.  He made many yards after initial contact.  Robinson ended up with 204 yards on 26 carries.  The yards were a Bama record, and it is great to see this for him because he stuck it out and finally got his chance to play.  Sander had a very good game also as he had 67 yards on 14 carries.  I noticed they also left him in more on passing down when he was call upon to block. 

Rec:  Williams led the way with total number of receptions with 7 for 62 yards.  The yardage leader was 66 yards on 4 catches and a touchdown.  Bolden had 3 catches for 31 yards and a touchdown.  Billingsley and Latu both had a catch and Latu’s was for a touchdown.

OL:  The OL, when it came to run blocking, did a fantastic job.  However, when it came to pass protection, they left a lot to be desired.  The got a great push on running plays and even saw some of them downfield getting more than one block.  In the passing game, they missed simple stunts, the were beat on 1v1’s, and a missed block by the TE led to a sack in the red zone.  There were a few times when UC got pressure with 4 rushers vs 5 blockers.  Hopefully, they can clean up the mistakes before the next game.

Def: The defense played very well.  UC tried to attack Bama with the short passing game as they threw the ball 32 times and out of these 32 times, 23 were thrown under 10 yards.  UC was 3 for 9 for balls thrown over 10 yards.  Bama gave up a total of 218 total yards which included 144 passing yards and 74 rushing yards.  Out of these 218 yards, 116 came on the first drive of the game for UC (60 yards) and the opening drive for them in the second half (56 yards).  At the half they had 76 total yards, and probably late in the 3rd quarter it looked like Bama play a lot of 2 shell to keep everything underneath.  For negative plays, I have Bama with 2 tackles for losses and 6 sacks.  I credit Bama with 5 three and outs.  For plays that covered 10+ yards, I have UC with 6 passing plays, 3 in each half, and 2 running plays, both in the second half.  They got into the red zone twice and had to kick field goals both times.   Bama held UC to 2 of 12 3rd down conversions.  Those 2 came on the first drive of the game. 

DL: They played well and had several passes knocked down.  They kept pressure on the QB and didn’t give up a run of 10+ yards until the 2nd half.  I really thought Mathis played a very good game.

LB: They played well as they got off blocks and got to the running back.  That is if the blocks got to them.  They did a good job with timing their blitzes. 

DB: Since Bama is basically playing back-ups, I thought they played well.  As I stated above, UC only threw the ball past 10 yards 9 times and completed 3 of them.  Most of the short passes were defended by the safeties and LBs.  I thought they did a good job tackling and the only issue I really saw was when Armour-Davis couldn’t change direction on the pass completed against him. 

Special teams: The special teams had a couple of hiccups.  There was a fumble on a punt which Bama fortunately recovered, there was the missed field goal, and the kickoff to the kickers right side.  When he kicks to the right side, the other teams left, he does get the height or distance, it seems to me. 

Penalties:  I have Bama with 6 penalties.  They were all on the offense or special team.  First, Bama had an illegal forward pass, Second, there was a false start on the field goal.  Third, there was an illegal formation that took away an 8-yard run.   This was also a result of one of the wide receivers not stepping up when the TE and other rec shifted to the other side of the field.  Fourth, unsportman like conduct on 42 on the punt that was fumbled caused by pulling someone off the pile.  Fifth and sixth, holding and false start both by Owens.  He also had a holding that was declined right before these two.   

Finally, Bama has a chance to win another National Championship.  I don’t think the game will be as easy as last time they played UG.  Bama can’t afford to leave points on the field like missed field goals or not getting touchdowns when they get in the red zone.   

Feel free to comment:

18 and Counting

Ended badly 62-44.

UT pouring it on now, 56-42 with less than 3 to play.