Game notes: OM vs Bama

[hscoach]

First:   This is a game of shoulda, coulda, and woulda.  They should have won.  They coulda won if OM hadn’t gotten such a fluke touch down.  They woulda won if they didn’t commit 5 turnovers where 4 led to points. 

Offense:  The offense had to fight an uphill battle all night. Bama had 503 yards of offense which included 288 passing yards and 215 rushing yards.  Crucial times in the game they just couldn’t get that first down that would keep the drives alive.  As far as negative offensive plays Bama had 3 interceptions, 2 of which were turned into touchdowns.  They gave up 1 sack and had 7 tackles for losses.  As far as 10+ plays, Bama had 18 pass plays for 10 yards plus and 5 running plays for 10 yards plus.  They put 37 points on the board and had scoring drives for TD’s for 75, 69, 46, 75, and 30 yards.  They also had a 69 yard drive for a field goal.  They got into the red zone 6 times and scored touchdowns on all but one.  They had two 3 and outs and one 2 and out because of an int. 

QB:   It was a surprise to see Bateman starting.  I don’t think he did a horrible job except for the interception that was thrown.  After the play, on the sidelines, it looks like the rec was expected to do something else.  A couple of times on the sideline it looked like they were expecting something else from the recs.  Bateman did lead them on a scoring drive for a field goal.    I don’t want to sound like I am blaming Bateman, but they didn’t get in the end zone.  He did have a long way to go on 2 out of his four drives.  His drives started at the 25, 28, 7 and 10.  Coker came up and gave Bama a lift.  He also was not perfect.  He made some bad choices but he also made some good decisions with his arm and legs.  The problem I see is that sometimes it looks like he can’t understand the signals and gets confused.  He does try to force the ball and stares at his recs sometimes.  What I consider deep balls have not been hit this year and at times the QBs try to force the ball. 

RB:  Henry had another 100+ game.  He also blocked well in pass protection.  He seems to get better later in the game.  If turnovers had not put Bama in such a hole, I think he would have been even a bigger factor in the game.   Drake didn’t really seem to get much going.  I am not saying he played bad, just didn’t really seem to be a factor in this game like people thought.

REC:  The ball was spread around.  You have players with 8 (Stewart), 7 (Mullaney), 6 (Ridley), 5 (Henry), and 4 (Howard).  Also, Foster had 2 before he was hurt.  There were some drops this game. Again the problem here is there looked to be some confusion by some recs on the routes they were running.   One other problem and this isn’t the first time it has happened, the rec in motion didn’t block the DB over the rec on the wide rec screen.

OL:   They allowed Bama to put up 503 yards of offense.  The major problem I saw was when they were trying to block Nkemdiche.  At least once, the guard came off the double team too quick and the center couldn’t get enough on him to stop him. Another time, it seemed like the center was supposed to reach him by himself, not going to happen very often with a player snapping the ball.  Also, Robinson allowed him to come inside on a play run always.  He could have stepped flatter or cut him, but he made the play from the backside and I think it was a tackle for a loss.

Defense:  The defense did give up 433 yard, but they didn’t play that bad.  Here is why I say this.  One they had to protect short fields a couple of times and two, they had the fluke 66 yard pass play for a touchdown.  Next they had the play where the QB threw the ball right before going over the LOS.  This could have been eliminated if the officials had called the lineman downfield.  You take those two plays out and OM only has only 294 yards of total offense.  What are the chances of that football, the way it is shaped, taking a bounce like that and popping up in the air for another rec to haul it in for a touchdown.  I do think Bama tackled better this game than they did last.  As far as negative plays, the defense had 6 tackles for loss and 2 sacks.  OM had 9 pass plays for 10+ yards and 5 running plays for 10+ yards.

DL:  They played pretty well last night.  They clogged the middle up most of the night on running plays.  I think they had at least 4 passes that were batted down.  They may not have always gotten to the QB, but he was uncomfortable a lot of the night. 

LB:   I thought they played pretty well.  They did get hurt on a reception by the big tight end where it looked like the coverage was not there.  They had to play sideline to sideline because of the running attack of the Rebels. 

DB:  I don’t think they played that poorly.  The two fluke plays gave OM 139 yards of passing offense.  I will address this more later.  They were in position most of the night and OM didn’t hit all those back shoulder throws like they did last year.  The PI on Fitzpatrick hurt, but I have also seen that as a no call in game. 

Penalties: Bama had 5 penalties last night, but one was declined.  The two big ones were the interference and the face mask when Bama was trying to get the ball back for the last drive.  This cost them 15 yards of field positon. 

Special teams:  This was a disaster and put Bama in the hole from the beginning.  Two fumble kickoffs which let to 10 points.  On the first fumble, Drake got blown up and knocked into the return man.  The other was he just put the ball on the ground from the hit.  Punting was good and all the PAT/FG’s were good.  The kickoff coverage was good except for one.

Finally:   Bama just gave away too much last night.  Two fumbles on the kickoffs cost Bama 10 points.  Two of the three interceptions were turned into 14 points.  The fluke play, what can you say, I can’t even consider the odds of that happening if one tried to do it on purpose..  Every bounce went OM’s way. I also think the “committee” is going to have to look at the OL downfield rule.  We use to teach our safeties to come downhill when the OL showed run.  This is being exploited by the spread teams.   I was impressed with the way the Bama team didn’t give up.  I was disappointed when Coker threw the last interception.  I thought they would try to work the ball down the field and use more of the clock since they had the time.  I think LSU will beat OM and it can come down to who wins the Bama/LSU game.  This will only happened if Bama eliminates the turnovers and penalties the rest of the way.

Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll 
15 and counting

[ALTideUp]

Well done coach. The offensive statistics were particularly revealing. Left me with a better impression than I had walking away last night, frothing at the mouth.

[lstephen]

Great analysis as always coach.  On the tipped passes, is that just coaching or is there something in the way that Kelly delivers that allowed so many tips?

ROLL TIDE!!!  And, I agree about the BAMA-LSU game deciding the west.

[hscoach]

Great analysis as always coach.  On the tipped passes, is that just coaching or is there something in the way that Kelly delivers that allowed so many tips?

ROLL TIDE!!!  And, I agree about the BAMA-LSU game deciding the west.

Are you talking about the batted passes?  Not sure I understanding what you mean.

[KoKoPuf]

Good write up, coach. I also was upset with Coker's last INT, but to be fair, why in hell did Kiffen call for a long pass at that point? Same thing happened against OSU last year, Bama gets the ball late trailing by 6 and Kiffen calls for a deep pass and Sims threw the INT. IMO, Kiffen did a terrible job of play calling and had a terrible game plan. Thought the DBs played awful, lots of potential but not much performance.

[hscoach]

Good write up, coach. I also was upset with Coker's last INT, but to be fair, why in hell did Kiffen call for a long pass at that point? Same thing happened against OSU last year, Bama gets the ball late trailing by 6 and Kiffen calls for a deep pass and Sims threw the INT. IMO, Kiffen did a terrible job of play calling and had a terrible game plan. Thought the DBs played awful, lots of potential but not much performance.

Not sure he is calling a long pass.  The deep route may be built in to open up something underneath. Now if the deep ball is open you take it, however, you don't force it what the QB's have been doing.

[N.AL-Tider]

Thanks for the writeup hscoach. Really good observations. I keep wondering why in games like this we don't play to our strengths more. By that I mean, as you said, Henry seems to get better as the game goes on so why not give him the opportunity to wear down and punish the defense more. Another benefit to that would be that it keeps our defence fresher.

[SUPERCOACH]

Great write up and thanks for the notes coach.

I am at a loss as to what we need to do in order to get things going in the right direction.  Obviously we need to eliminate the turnovers, but I don't know what more the coaching staff could do about that.  They have stressed ball security for a couple of years now and even have CSC trying to punch the ball out all during practice.

I think we need better play from the QB position, but to be honest I'm not sure if that is the primary issue.  Imagine if we had not turned the ball over and gotten ourselves in such a big hole right from the beginning.  Then we would have had a much more balanced offensive game plan and that really makes it a lot easier for the QB.  It is difficult to throw the ball when you are down by 20 points in the 2nd half and the whole world knows you are going to throw it.  Couple that with the fact that we had to put 3 guys on #5, which meant they could pressure with 3 guys and have the other 8 guarding the receivers.  That is not a recipe for success, yet we almost pulled it off anyway.

I honestly think that if we played that game 10 more times we would win 9 out of 10.  And I'm not saying eliminate the turnovers or other mistakes we made, leave those in there.  I'm just talking about all of the lucky bounces that went their way.  I think we whipped them on both sides of the ball, we just couldn't overcome all of the adversity caused by our own mistakes AND the bad luck this time.

I would have loved to have seen more dump off passes to Henry.  Run the deep routes, keep Henry back in protection, and as soon as we see they are only rushing 3 guys and they are all handled, slip Henry out of the backfield and make an easy throw to him.  See how far downfield he can get before they can tackle him.

We had plenty of time left once we got it to within 6 points at the end, plus I think we had all of our timeouts still.  We should have switched over to our normal balanced offensive attack for what would have been the final drive when we got the ball back with 4 or 5 minutes to go.  But we stayed in 2 minute throwing the ball all over the place and ended up getting another interception.

[hscoach]

Great write up and thanks for the notes coach.

I am at a loss as to what we need to do in order to get things going in the right direction.  Obviously we need to eliminate the turnovers, but I don't know what more the coaching staff could do about that.  They have stressed ball security for a couple of years now and even have CSC trying to punch the ball out all during practice.

I think we need better play from the QB position, but to be honest I'm not sure if that is the primary issue.  Imagine if we had not turned the ball over and gotten ourselves in such a big hole right from the beginning.  Then we would have had a much more balanced offensive game plan and that really makes it a lot easier for the QB.  It is difficult to throw the ball when you are down by 20 points in the 2nd half and the whole world knows you are going to throw it.  Couple that with the fact that we had to put 3 guys on #5, which meant they could pressure with 3 guys and have the other 8 guarding the receivers.  That is not a recipe for success, yet we almost pulled it off anyway.

I honestly think that if we played that game 10 more times we would win 9 out of 10.  And I'm not saying eliminate the turnovers or other mistakes we made, leave those in there.  I'm just talking about all of the lucky bounces that went their way.  I think we whipped them on both sides of the ball, we just couldn't overcome all of the adversity caused by our own mistakes AND the bad luck this time.

I would have loved to have seen more dump off passes to Henry.  Run the deep routes, keep Henry back in protection, and as soon as we see they are only rushing 3 guys and they are all handled, slip Henry out of the backfield and make an easy throw to him.  See how far downfield he can get before they can tackle him.

We had plenty of time left once we got it to within 6 points at the end, plus I think we had all of our timeouts still.  We should have switched over to our normal balanced offensive attack for what would have been the final drive when we got the ball back with 4 or 5 minutes to go.  But we stayed in 2 minute throwing the ball all over the place and ended up getting another interception.

After Coker's run to get Bama in decent field position, I would have loved to see a draw or slip the back out.  The could have even done the play the started the game off with when they faked and just dumped the ball to the TE.  Something to allow Coker to settle down after the long run.  There was plenty of time.

[carl childers]

Great analysis. I am about to lose my mind with this sprint option pass where the OL aggressively run block and the QB throws the pass past the LOS with 2 or 3 OLinemen 5 or 6 yds downfield. It is not getting called and it is clearly illegal. This HAS to be addressed. With all the rules favoring offense, why in the world would they not call something that is flat out wrong against a defense? Yesterday one of Auburn's TDs was one of these plays and it looked like an OT was running a drag route behind the LBs. I understand how it is difficult for the officiating crew. We called an Andalusia game a few weeks back and they ran this type play several times. As an umpire, I have to read the OL to tell if it is run or pass. A time or two I am sure I missed an OL downfield because I was not stepping up. I talked to the wings at halftime and told them they were going to have to help me on the ineligible downfield because my keys were telling me run. It got to where I had to cheat and look through the linemen to the QB to see if I had to step toward the LOS. Not correct form, but I had to do something.

Also, Saban is going to have to bite the bullet and hire a TRUE special teams coach. This area is ridiculously bad for a team of Bama's caliber, and pawning it off on Bobby Williams has never worked. It is a wonder Bama has not lost multiple games over the past few years due to the kicking game.

[ricky023]

Also, Saban is going to have to bite the bullet and hire a TRUE special teams coach. This area is ridiculously bad for a team of Bama's caliber, and pawning it off on Bobby Williams has never worked. It is a wonder Bama has not lost multiple games over the past few years due to the kicking game.

This is a problem because CNS has needed to do this for years and he won't do it. So, I gotta tell ya I don't ever see this happening. RTR!

[SUPERCOACH]

Isn't there a limit on how many coaches they can hire?  I think that is why they don't have a dedicated special teams coach.  If true, then they would have to give up some other coach to have a dedicated coach.

[lstephen]

Great analysis as always coach.  On the tipped passes, is that just coaching or is there something in the way that Kelly delivers that allowed so many tips?

ROLL TIDE!!!  And, I agree about the BAMA-LSU game deciding the west.

Are you talking about the batted passes?  Not sure I understanding what you mean.

Yes, sorry, the batted passes.

[Catch Prothro]

Great analysis as always coach.  On the tipped passes, is that just coaching or is there something in the way that Kelly delivers that allowed so many tips?

ROLL TIDE!!!  And, I agree about the BAMA-LSU game deciding the west.

Are you talking about the batted passes?  Not sure I understanding what you mean.

Yes, sorry, the batted passes.

It looked to me that the DL was instructed to get penetration and then quickly raise their hands.  Kelly was getting the ball out pretty quick in other games, so the DL  (and coaches) had to know that they wouldn't always get to him.  So I'd have to guess that was Bama's coaching.

[hscoach]

Great analysis as always coach.  On the tipped passes, is that just coaching or is there something in the way that Kelly delivers that allowed so many tips?

ROLL TIDE!!!  And, I agree about the BAMA-LSU game deciding the west.

Are you talking about the batted passes?  Not sure I understanding what you mean.

Yes, sorry, the batted passes.

One I don't think he is as tall as everybody says.  The second factor is that he get rid of the ball quickly so the coaches worked on the DL getting their hands up if they know they are not going to get there.

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