Game notes Bama vs Ark

[Peewee from Grand Bay]

First:   First congrats to the Bama team for the victory.  They overcame many self-inflicted mistakes to win the game.  Bama’s defense won this game.

Offense:   This was the worse Bama offensive performance, 227 total yards, I have seen since the loss to LSU.  Bama had 7 three and outs.  They had 5 tackles for losses and 2 sacks.   The good news is the Bama offense did not turn the ball over.  They saved this for the special teams.  They only had 1 run of over 10 yards and 5 passes for over 10 yards.  They got into the red zone once and missed a field goal.  The scored their two TD’s from outside the red zone.  I don’t know why Bama kept running the ball to the right, but most of the runs were to that side.  In both halves they opened with 2 straight 3 and outs.  The bad part is Ark is ranked 51st in total D and averaged giving up 140 yards rushing a game. 

QB:  Blake Sims was a Jekyll and Hyde in this game.  He made some very poor choices on throws, but he made two good plays on the TD throws.  He tried to force the ball into AC a couple of time and fortunately Ark dropped the ints.  He overthrew some balls and I think he should have run the ball and gained a few yards instead of throwing.  On a third down play the Ark defense had 3 v 2 on the recs to AC side.  He had CJ crossing on a LB who may have had a chance to outrun him for a first down if the ball had been completed.  This is one play where he tried to force the ball to AC and was almost picked.     I would give this performance a C-.

RB:   The running backs were hit pretty quickly in the running game.  The big play that stood out to me was when TJY missed the block in the red zone on #86 and Sims was sacked.  He didn’t even have time to check the backside routes.  DH looked like he went the wrong way on a running play in the red zone which ended up being a loss or no gain. 

REC:  The recs looked like they couldn’t get away from coverage very often.  OJH missed the block on the first wide rec screen.   Other recs are going to have to get involved or the defenses are going to double AC and load up on the run.   

OL:  Worse game of the year so far.  At the beginning I wasn’t sure the RG was going to block anyone.  They did not dominant and get the push they did against what was supposed to be a better defensive front OM.   They did not sustain their blocks and when they did get to the 2nd level they didn’t block people. I am going to start calling AK, FSK because he gets at least one false start a game.  The tilted nose gave the G and C trouble.  He easily crossed the guards face when the center did not help. 

Defense:  I thought the defense played well.  They played 27 snaps in the first quarter alone while having to play 80 snaps the whole game because of the ineffective offense.  They had 7 tackles for loss, 4 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 1 int, and a blocked extra point which turned out to be the game winner.  They had six 3 and outs.  Three of these came after Bama took the lead.  They did have 1 one and out as they caused a fumble on the first play of the drive.  They did lose contain on the QB a couple of times and I will talk about this later.   They gave up 3 runs for over 10 yards and 9 passes for over 10 yards.   I will say Ark had a good game plan with all the play action throws, but also the roll throw back scheme they used.  The only complaint was the few missed tackles.  The big missed tackles was right before half when they allowed the RB to gain a first down on 3rd and long when Bama had called their timeouts to get a chance to score and get the ball back at the start of the 2nd half.

DL:  I though they played well.  Ark was averaging 278 yards a game rushing and Bama held them to 89.  This was against an OL that is heavier than any in the NFL by average.   I thought Robinson, Anderson, and Dickson played especially well. 

LB:  Ragland had a very good game.  Probably one of his best plays was the pass interference.  Here is why. This was a misdirection pass.  The TE lined up on the left side and RR was on the right side.  The QB rolls to his left and the TE releases without much of a jam.  The TE runs across the formation and turns up the field.   Because of the action Ragland’ s read took him away from the play, but he caught up and had the PI call but it could have been a touchdown.  Dillon Lee would look good on a play and lost on another.   There was once where he rushed from the backside and came around and was almost on the tackle on a short pass play. 

DB:  Overall they played pretty good.  The problem was a couple of bust.   On one long completion C Jones was in zone and everyone else was in man.  His man crossed the field and made the catch.    There were times when they blitzed they are the ones who lost contain on the QB.  Early in the game Jackson does not jam and throw off the timing of the slant.  He had no other threat coming so he could have stayed with him.  They did a better job later in the game.  On the pass for the TD, Jackson took a bad angle and allowed the rec to get into the end zone.

Penalties: They only had 4 penalties for 30 yards.  One the PI saved a TD. Another big one was a short down situation and Bama breaks the huddle with 12 and this was after a timeout.  The false start put them in a long 3rd down situation.  I do think the refs made a mistake here.  I don’t think the clock was supposed to start after this penalty.  If so, then what is to keep a team from running the clock out with numerous false starts. 

Special teams:   What can I say here except Bama saved the game from the mistakes created by the special teams.  There were 4 special team fumbles and Bama recovered 2 as well as Ark recovering two.   Griffin missed another field goal and again it looked like an alignment problem because of how he finished.  Look where he is facing.  All but one punt was downed inside the 20 yard line. The kickoff coverage was very good.  I don’t know if you noticed, but Rueben Foster blew the Ark player up on the kickoff once.  I know Bobby Williams is a longtime friend of CNS, but they have got to do a better job on special team.  He is also the TE coach and they have been a weakness blocking this year.

Finally:  Bama’s mistakes should have cost them a game this time, but the D bailed them out.  We are still waiting for that clean game that we know Bama can play.

Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll 
15 and counting

Again another great write up of the game from hscoach. He makes a lot of valid points in this, so just let add a few as well.

The defense did win this game for us. With out their play we lose this one easily.

Offense: The offense never got into any type of rhythm at all. No push from the O-Line on the run plays & pass protection was not all that great either. They did put together two decent drives and the one in the second half when we had to go down the field and score to take the lead we got the job done. That does not excuse their lack of meaningful play for the game but we did what we had to do to win and as ugly as it was I will take the W every day.

QB: As hscoach said it was kinda on & off day for Blake. He made several very poor decisions that if Arky had caught them for Int's I don't think we would have pulled this one out. He did some good things as well but the last pass to D White for the go ahead score was although it was back across the middle late and against his body was a great throw.

RB: For the biggest of the day they had absolutely no room to run. The defense was in the backfield or made us try bounce it outside but they strung us out to the side line almost every time. hard to blame them for the lack of running yards when they pretty much had no chance.

Rec: Not the greatest day for them, they had Amari doubled covered all day and while their was some others open we seemed to concentrate on trying to force the ball to Amari. I am not sure if this is a Blake thing not coming off Amari soon enough and looking for the others or what but the couple of times he did that we hit plays to OJ Howard, Cam Sims and the TD to D White.

OL: As everyone knows these are my guys and they just flat out did not play well at all. Virtually no push in the running game could not get to the second level of the defense to make a block in turn causes what we saw!!! NO running attack at all!!! At one point mid way into the third quarter we only had 1 rushing yard!!! 1!! Totally unacceptable!! To me this group has been totally different since Ryan Kelly went down. If they do not get their act together it will be a rough time trying to win from here on out!!

Defense: They were the hero's and star's of the game. Arky came in with the #1 rushing attack in the nation. We played in our Base defense almost the entire game which is something of a rarity now a days with all the spread we see. Our Big ugly's held their vaunted rushing attack to just 89 total yds with an average of 2.3 yds per rush!! And if that was not enough Arkansas had only 5 count them 5 rushing yards in the second half!! While we were able to get them into third and 8, 9 10 or more at times they were able to convert when we blitzed them on third down by hitting some crossing routes and short passes that allowed them to convert early in the game. But after we started just rushing four on third down and played coverage that came to a halt!! Then in the fourth qtr when we had to have it the most the did not allow a single third down conversion!! Four three and outs!! Great job guys!!

DL: These guys came up big time. A'Shawn, Ryan Anderson, Jarren Reed, Xavier Dickson, Pettway and everyone else all had a great game.

LB & DB hscoach pretty much nailed it. Nothing to add.

Penalties: While we only had four it was when they came and at the time in the game they happened!!! After a time out we get a substitution infraction, Third and one to put the game away we get a false start!! I don't have the answer to this question but just how many false starts have been charged against Arie & Leon Brown?? 100!!!! I know it not close to that but sure does seem that way!!!!

Special Teams: OMG!!!!! I literally thought CNS was going to blow a gasket Saturday!! I don't think you can put blame on CBW for their play strictly due to the lack of Normal decision making with this group. It's not on the coach when the ball bounces on the ground in front of the return man and surrounded by the coverage team and you just go dive at the ball?? What in your thought process tells you to do that?? When the punt is short and the returner is waving everyone away you just kind of happy go lucky continue down the field with ever once trying to find where the ball is and move away from it?? Cyrus Jones after replacing CR Jones starts running with the ball after he fields it and then just drops it!!!! All of these things are mental errors and bad decisions that should never happen. You know how this is supposed to be done!! I have seen you do it a hundred times!! Why is it different now?? OK Rant over.

Final thought: We should have lost this game with all the mistakes that we made. But the biggest thing that I noticed through out the game is that no one ever gave up or quit!! They had each others back from the very beginning and was right there when a mistake was made encouraging that player to forget it and move on to the next play. That in it self is probably the one of biggest reasons we won this game. I would love to see how well this team can play when we do not have all of these mistake and mental errors. Just give me one clean game!!! No mistakes, bad decisions, Bone head plays or moves. Just sharp clean execution!!

Let me know what yall think Roll Tide!!   

 

[Bamaphile]

I hope it's okay to post this link.  Huskypup, a poster on BOL, provided a very in-depth analysis of just a few of our plays on offense and how Arkansas's defense reacted.  It's quite a lengthy read, but I found it fascinating.  Here is just part of what he said in conclusion:

"- Absolutely no one could block Flowers (86). He blew things up over and over and over. We also really struggled with Philon (91).
- Teams are cheating to stop the screen game, and we have no counter in the passing game.
- Downfield throws and hard cutting routes (outs, posts, corners, digs) are completely non-existent.
- We have no idea if deep passes were called for, and if so if they were covered, because the camera never shows the routes.

A lot of the time, we couldn’t block. When we did block well, we couldn’t throw. That made Arkansas bring more people up. Which made it harder to block. It’s a vicious cycle with no clear out. Either we have to be able to spread the defense out vertically, or we have to block in the run game to make passing easier."

Here is the link: Click here for link

If anybody who knows more about the Xs and Os than I do takes the time to read the post, I'd like to hear your thoughts on what he said.

[Chechem]

I hope it's okay to post this link.  Huskypup, a poster on BOL, provided a very in-depth analysis of just a few of our plays on offense and how Arkansas's defense reacted.  It's quite a lengthy read, but I found it fascinating.  Here is just part of what he said in conclusion:

"- Absolutely no one could block Flowers (86). He blew things up over and over and over. We also really struggled with Philon (91).
- Teams are cheating to stop the screen game, and we have no counter in the passing game.
- Downfield throws and hard cutting routes (outs, posts, corners, digs) are completely non-existent.
- We have no idea if deep passes were called for, and if so if they were covered, because the camera never shows the routes.

A lot of the time, we couldn’t block. When we did block well, we couldn’t throw. That made Arkansas bring more people up. Which made it harder to block. It’s a vicious cycle with no clear out. Either we have to be able to spread the defense out vertically, or we have to block in the run game to make passing easier."

Here is the link: Click here for link

If anybody who knows more about the Xs and Os than I do takes the time to read the post, I'd like to hear your thoughts on what he said.

It's okay to link.  Just don't copy and paste the entire post of someone elsewhere, especially if it's copyrighted.

[ricky023]

Hey thanks Bamaphile. He made some good observations without a lot of rude words towards the players. You know he was really observant with his looks. RTR!

[hscoach]

Rec: Not the greatest day for them, they had Amari doubled covered all day and while their was some others open we seemed to concentrate on trying to force the ball to Amari. I am not sure if this is a Blake thing not coming off Amari soon enough and looking for the others or what but the couple of times he did that we hit plays to OJ Howard, Cam Sims and the TD to D White.


At this point in the season. I think the QB should be able to see from coverage stand point, at the beginning of the play, that he needs to check down or change the play.  Heck, Ark was not really hiding the coverage when you look over there and the is 2 on 2 with a safety over the top.

[Peewee from Grand Bay]

Rec: Not the greatest day for them, they had Amari doubled covered all day and while their was some others open we seemed to concentrate on trying to force the ball to Amari. I am not sure if this is a Blake thing not coming off Amari soon enough and looking for the others or what but the couple of times he did that we hit plays to OJ Howard, Cam Sims and the TD to D White.


At this point in the season. I think the QB should be able to see from coverage stand point, at the beginning of the play, that he needs to check down or change the play.  Heck, Ark was not really hiding the coverage when you look over there and the is 2 on 2 with a safety over the top.

Yes sir I do agree with you on that!!

[carl childers]

hscoach, I think things are breaking down offensively from the middle. New center makes a huge difference - line calls are getting out late it seems. Our guard play is horrible. Missed blocks, penalties...it is bad. Also, blocks on the edge are not being made by our TEs. It is bad when your best OLineman is a true freshman.

[N.AL-Tider]

hscoach, I think things are breaking down offensively from the middle. New center makes a huge difference - line calls are getting out late it seems. Our guard play is horrible. Missed blocks, penalties...it is bad. Also, blocks on the edge are not being made by our TEs. It is bad when your best OLineman is a true freshman.

The new center has nothing to do with false start penalties by our senior offensive lineman, AK. For that matter, Brown is also becoming a false start fixture when we have 3rd and short...

[Chechem]

Click here for link

Christion Jones' decision to field the punt was because it also fell short, among 3 Alabama players.  Watch the video (above).  Apparently he thought it might hit a player, so he attempted to field it.  Bad decision, but he was trying to avoid a bad play.  You can see him tell CNS that on the sidelines.

It's a football.  It bounces oddly, and squirts when wet.   

[SUPERCOACH]

Click here for link

Christion Jones' decision to field the punt was because it also fell short, among 3 Alabama players.  Watch the video (above).  Apparently he thought it might hit a player, so he attempted to field it.  Bad decision, but he was trying to avoid a bad play.  You can see him tell CNS that on the sidelines.

It's a football.  It bounces oddly, and squirts when wet.   

I assumed that was what he was trying to do.  The very next punt proved that he was right about it probably hitting a player.

I am not too concerned about those 2 particular miscues.  They have already been corrected, no doubt.

[hscoach]

Click here for link

Christion Jones' decision to field the punt was because it also fell short, among 3 Alabama players.  Watch the video (above).  Apparently he thought it might hit a player, so he attempted to field it.  Bad decision, but he was trying to avoid a bad play.  You can see him tell CNS that on the sidelines.

It's a football.  It bounces oddly, and squirts when wet.   

I had that thought while watching the game, but wasn't sure. 

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