Game notes: WKU vs Bama

[hscoach]

First, let me send congrats to the Bama players and coaches on the win.  I have to say it looked as if Bama played uninspired and with little emotion.  I saw more emotion during the A day game when I watched on YouTube.

Offense:  The offense needs to improve.  I know Bama scored quickly a few times, but I really didn’t see the ability to sustain a drive during the day for a complete game.  I do wonder if Bama wanted to play very conservative and not show the ability to check out of bad plays or they just thought they could run them against an undersized team.  My count has Bama having 8 negative plays on offense.  Six of those were sacks.

QB:  AJ had a good day and it could have been better if it hadn’t been for some drops on catchable balls.  I do think he held on to the ball a couple of times which led to sacks.  This makes me wonder about his ability to check down or how long he stays on the primary rec.  He did scramble effectively and found a couple of recs on the run at times.  I would love to see him check out of some of the plays that were called.  An example of this was when he was sacked when running the boot with a couple of players outside unaccounted for to the boot side.  I will say he threw the deep ball well this game.   AJ also hit the hot off of the blitzing cornerback on the short side of the field.

RB:   I only have Bama running the ball 22 times, not counting scrambles.   I thought EL looked better.  TJY missed the block on the play action pass for a touchdown which allowed AJ to get hit.  The real concern here is the severity of the injury to JF.  Hopefully, he will be fine.

REC:   They caught the ball most of the time.  A couple of more catches could have been made.  I have 7 different rec catching the ball with 3 of those being rb’s.  There were plenty of opportunities to make yards after the catch.  CJ got the benefit of the doubt on the TD, personally I thought he was out and the ball should have been caught easily.  However, CJ’s first catch for a TD was a good one as it was a little high.

OL:   Here is where I really thing Bama digressed.  The QB was sacked 6 times and hit at least7.  Some were AJ’s fault, but 4 of the sacks were on the OL.  Both tackles got beat at least once.  Also, I did not see the abundance of combo blocks by the OL that I did in the Mich game.  There were also a couple of tackle for losses here where the back was hit before he could even get to the LOS.  There must be mass improvement with a greater consistency for Bama to get better in this area.  They didn’t look like the best Oline in college football.

Defense:  The defense played ok.  I know the stats for WKU weren’t great, but many times they hurt themselves with turnovers.  The D came up with 9 negative plays for the day.  They caused 3 fumbles and had 1 int.  They had 2 sacks and 3 tackles for losses.  I guess my expectations have grown so high I thought there should have been more.  Maybe here again, Bama was playing conservative not showing too much. I will say there were more missed tackles and some missed assignments.  The good thing is Bama had the better athletes where these mistakes didn’t cost them too much.  There were a few times I saw the D players discussing what looked like who had what assignment on some pass plays.  The biggest stat of mine was that Bama had NO 3 and outs this game. 

DL:  The D line played ok.  JP and BI got a lot of playing time.  Nothing really stood out here.  DS and XD both caused fumbles which Bama recovered.

LB:  These guys played ok.  The WKU offense took advantage of where the LB vacated to throw the ball.  I would say over half of the completions were underneath the LB.  Both NJ and CJM overran plays and allowed some gains.  Again, fortunately the Bama athletes were good enough for it not to be a huge gain. NJ did have a big hit which caused a fumble.

DB:    Basically they had to come up and support the front 7. There were very few opportunities for them to make plays because of where the ball was thrown.  They did come up and get in on tackles which is good run support.

Penalties:  No real problem here.

Special teams:  Pretty good job here.  CM made a play on the fumble snap and ran for a first down.  The only concern was the one punt that was not fielded and put Bama on offense inside the 20.
 
Finally, many of you are not going to like these comments.  First, Bama did not look like a NC team yesterday.  Two, after watching LSU, and based on Bama’s performance, I would not have a problem with them moving ahead of Bama in the polls.

Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll 
14 and counting

[Chechem]

Excellent as always, coach.  

I think you're spot-on.  They didn't look like a championship team, and they didn't play like they wanted to be a championship team.  They were fortunate to keep AJ healthy.

Now I don't know if we'll know anything more about the quality of this team after next week either!

[Merk]

I think your analysis is right on.

The only thing that perplexes me is CNS experimenting with OL schemes that resulted in 4 of 6 sacks on the QB. If AJ gets hurt, we are in a world of hurt. I just don't see Saban taking those kinds of risks that could get his QB hurt. He is to good a coach for that.

[SUPERCOACH]

I think your analysis is right on.

The only thing that perplexes me is CNS experimenting with OL schemes that resulted in 4 of 6 sacks on the QB. If AJ gets hurt, we are in a world of hurt. I just don't see Saban taking those kinds of risks that could get his QB hurt. He is to good a coach for that.

That is a good point.

[SUPERCOACH]

I will probably put LSU ahead of us this week on my ballot.

[Chechem]

I will probably put LSU ahead of us this week on my ballot.

 
"CAT will claw your eyes out, you Anti-Bamite Turncoat."   

[XBAMA]

good recap Coach     thanks !

maybe they should rank the corn dogs ahead if for no
other reason , to bring back down any big heads 

[Merk]

I will probably put LSU ahead of us this week on my ballot.

 
"CAT will claw your eyes out, you Anti-Bamite Turncoat."   

At least you didn't call him a bastid!  

[SUPERCOACH]

I will probably put LSU ahead of us this week on my ballot.

 
"CAT will claw your eyes out, you Anti-Bamite Turncoat."   

[Chechem]

I will probably put LSU ahead of us this week on my ballot.

"CAT will claw your eyes out, you Anti-Bamite Turncoat."   

At least you didn't call him a bastid!  

I thought it might be funnier that way!

[Old Tider]

I will probably put LSU ahead of us this week on my ballot.

And I would rather go into Baton Rouge with them #1 and our coming out at the top.

[BAMAWV]

Defense:  The defense played ok......  The biggest stat of mine was that Bama had NO 3 and outs this game.

It couldn't have been that WKU has the best "O' in the country?

[ricky023]

I am in total agreement on moving LSU ahead of us. We let all the media go to our heads this week. CNS warned us about that and then JF got hurt. We either get our little Tiders in order or we will lose 2 games. RTR!

[hscoach]

Defense:  The defense played ok......  The biggest stat of mine was that Bama had NO 3 and outs this game.

It couldn't have been that WKU has the best "O' in the country?

I really don't see them as having the best O in the country.

[bama87]

HS spot on. There was no inspired football outside of the first offensive drive. The JF injury while sad that he will be out is just a tough football injury. I think the attention to detail will be high. The O line did not grade out well, Stoutlnd will have their undivided attention this week. I think we go back to pounding the rock to keep Arky O off the field, whether Wison plays or not.

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