Game notes: Bama vs MSU

[hscoach]

First:   Congrats to the Bama players and Coaches on the win vs MSU.  It was a tough battle, but Bama came thru.

Offense:  The offense started the game facing tough field position and wasn’t really able to get out.  The offense had five 3 and out and 1 four and out.  The four and out was when they were working clock at the end of the game. MSU loaded the box and forced Bama to try and throw the ball early and was successful.   I only have Bama for 7 plays of 10+ yards.  This was 3 runs and 4 passes.  They only got to the red zone twice in the game and both of them came in the 4th quarter.  Too me this is something to worry about.  Also, no points came from here.  I know they had the big plays but it didn’t seem like there was a very good rhythm/consistency with the offense the whole game. As far as negative plays this was one of Bama’s better games.  They had 1 sack and 5 tackles for losses; one was slip by the running back.  Bama only had 379 total yards, 144 passing and 235 rushing.

QB:  I thought Coker played a good game, not a great game.  The reason I say this is he missed on a couple of throws.  He was not helped by the drops.  There were a couple of instances where he missed open recs that would have moved the chains and kept drives alive.  The int seemed to be miscommunication between the rec and QB.

RB:   Henry was Henry.  He ran hard and helped secure the game for Bama with his long TD runs.  Prayers go out for Drake on his injury.  Now one of the other two, Harris or Scarbrough is going to have to pick up the slack.

REC:  They didn’t seem to get a lot of separation in the routes, but I couldn’t see everything.  There were at least 3 drops by Ridley and not all were great throws.  Ridley did have the big catch and run for the TD and was aided by the blocks of Drake and Stewart. 

OL:    MSU made it tough on these guys.  I will say again that I think Kelly is too easy to read on his shotgun snaps.  MSU also used the delayed blitz a few time.  There were 7+ in the box many times when Bama tried to run the ball.  The safety was also filling in a hurry. I know Kelly got beat as did Taylor.  Kelly caused Coker to be flushed out of the pocket early once.  Taylor missed a couple of blocks and was beat off the ball a couple of times.

Defense:  This is where the game was one even though they game up more yards than normal. They made stops in the red zone that could have easily changed the outcome of this game.  The defense also had to defend the short field in the early goings.  They gave up 393 yards which was made up of 304 rushing and 89 rushing.  MSU had 4 plays of runs for 10+ yards and 10 passing plays for 10+ yards.   The defense did have 9 sacks and 5 tackles for losses.  They also forced 2 fumbles and recovered one of them.  They also intercepted a pass, but dropped at least 4 other possible interceptions.  As far as three and outs, Bama only had 2, but they had one two and out because of the fumble recovery.   It looked like MSU was willing to spread the field and work the middle where the LB’s had vacated and did this with success. 

DL:  This is where the pressure on DP came from.  Bama rarely had to use blitzes to put pressure on the QB.  All nine sacks came from the DL/OB on the LOS.  The only negative I saw here was they did allow the QB and others to break contain a couple of times. 

LB:  They had to play the whole field with the spread, especially the empty sets.  This is extremely tough when you have a mobile/running QB like DP. 

DB:  They did a very good job on not getting cut by the rec from MSU on the wide rec screens.  MSU made some plays and the DB’s made some plays.  The troubling part is that MSU averaged over 13 yards per completion.   

Penalties:  Bama only had 4 penalties that affected them.  The false start on the punt pushed them back even farther into their territory.  The PI to me was questionable on Jones and here is why.  He had position.  I know he didn’t look for the ball, but did he try and make a play for the ball, or the rec? Another penalty cost Bama valuable field position on the fair caught punt.  Instead of starting at midfield they were back at their own 35.  And then there was a holding call on Taylor. 

Special teams:   Kick coverage was very good all day.  The long field goal probably could have been good from another 10 back.  The blocked FG was a good job coming of the edge and time well.  The punt return was huge because up until that point Bama had done nothing offensively.  Yes, Bama did get away with a block in the back on that play.  Short punts gave MSU good field positon which the D did not let them take advantage of. 

Finally:  This game will raise questions about how good Bama is.  If MSU had a running game besides DP what would happen.  This is what will be compared when you play a Ohio State or even an Oklahoma if it gets to this point. Also, there were a few more missed tackles this game that needs to be cleaned up.

Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll 
15 and counting

[lstephen]

Thanks, coach.  Your notes always make my football season Sundays!

Hopefully CNS will be able to rest and recuperate our first line players next weekend and we'll get a win over Charleston Southern with no injuries!

I hate all injuries but feel especially bad for Drake.  He'd just begun to play well again.  Maybe we'll get him back for the SEC championship.  If, of course, we beat Auburn!

[KoKoPuf]

Good win but not much of a confidence builder going into the final stretch. Bama was never able to sustain a drive and that is troubling. Henry is a beast but need to give him some rest, I suspect Scarborough and Harris have trouble with pass protection and Saban doesn't want to risk an injury to Coker. OL has to step it up! AU can rush the passer although I'm not sure they will be able to stop the run, but Florida in the championship game may be able to do both.

[carl childers]

I kind of expected a down game after last week. The score was not as close as I was expecting, which I thought would be about 10 points. I would hope that CNS would see that he needs to not have game-changers on the kick teams - Drake's injury is a tough one to overcome. For me, I am glad Bama went into Starkvegas and come out with a W.

[Chechem]

Good job, hscoach.

Looked at first like we thought we could sleep walk through the game, but fortunately MSU couldn't push us.  The defense really crushed Dak's offense.  He basically thought he'd play like Tebow, and we didn't take the fakes.  Excellent defensive play. 

The offense was up against a stacked line, but like you said, we'll see better against better teams.  We'll need more imagination.  It seems like we played vanilla against MSU, and could use much more imagination in receiver patterns.  Hopefully we have those patterns when needed.

Drake had a great, crushing block on the Ridley TD run, and Stewart helped too.  Love to see that.

Any ideas, coach, on how to get our receivers better separation when we face a defense like MSU's?  Seems there should have been MUCHO space out there since they were crowding the line.

[ricky023]

I wonder if CNS is using our best players on Special Teams because we or some of us question the special teams coaches at times? RTR!

[Chechem]

I wonder if CNS is using our best players on Special Teams because we or some of us question the special teams coaches at times? RTR!

It would worry me, Ricky, if CNS ever read this forum!!

No, he's said before that he likes to use the best players on special teams.  Plus, they'll play special teams in the NFL, so they might as well learn how.

 

[hscoach]

Good job, hscoach.

Looked at first like we thought we could sleep walk through the game, but fortunately MSU couldn't push us.  The defense really crushed Dak's offense.  He basically thought he'd play like Tebow, and we didn't take the fakes.  Excellent defensive play. 

The offense was up against a stacked line, but like you said, we'll see better against better teams.  We'll need more imagination.  It seems like we played vanilla against MSU, and could use much more imagination in receiver patterns.  Hopefully we have those patterns when needed.

Drake had a great, crushing block on the Ridley TD run, and Stewart helped too.  Love to see that.

Any ideas, coach, on how to get our receivers better separation when we face a defense like MSU's?  Seems there should have been MUCHO space out there since they were crowding the line.

I really don't know how they are trained to run/read routes.  For me personally I don't like a lot of read routes on deep routes. I like them where you either go inside or outside according to the leverage of the  coverage.  On the route in question with the interception could you not get the same result with  a flag cut by the inside rec and a post by the outside rec and then read the coverage?

[2Stater]

Thanks again for the assessment, Coach. Great job!

It seemed like our O line was lost until the big plays came through. The execution for those plays seemed flawless. It seemed like we were able to exploit a few of their schemes, which resulted in the big plays. Other than those plays, it looked like they were owned by Miss St for the most part.

I'm guessing Drake will be out for the season again. That looked like it was probably a nasty break. I hope Harris and Bo can step in and not miss a step. We will need production from them so Henry can get a rest every now and then. Also a tough injury for Minkah. I hope he recovers soon. We need him on defense.

Coach, in your opinion, why were our receivers running such poor routes on many of the plays yesterday?

[hscoach]

Something I left off was what a good job Brown did when he came in after MF went down.

[Chechem]

...

I really don't know how they are trained to run/read routes.  For me personally I don't like a lot of read routes on deep routes. I like them where you either go inside or outside according to the leverage of the  coverage.  On the route in question with the interception could you not get the same result with  a flag cut by the inside rec and a post by the outside rec and then read the coverage?

I don't have the replay, but it looked like Coker had the post open, but threw to the flag (and double coverage).  That's from memory, based on what they showed after the play.

[hscoach]

...

I really don't know how they are trained to run/read routes.  For me personally I don't like a lot of read routes on deep routes. I like them where you either go inside or outside according to the leverage of the  coverage.  On the route in question with the interception could you not get the same result with  a flag cut by the inside rec and a post by the outside rec and then read the coverage?

I don't have the replay, but it looked like Coker had the post open, but threw to the flag (and double coverage).  That's from memory, based on what they showed after the play.

That is what it looked like.  But it also looks to me that there was some hesitation on who was going where.

[hscoach]

Thanks again for the assessment, Coach. Great job!

It seemed like our O line was lost until the big plays came through. The execution for those plays seemed flawless. It seemed like we were able to exploit a few of their schemes, which resulted in the big plays. Other than those plays, it looked like they were owned by Miss St for the most part.

I'm guessing Drake will be out for the season again. That looked like it was probably a nasty break. I hope Harris and Bo can step in and not miss a step. We will need production from them so Henry can get a rest every now and then. Also a tough injury for Minkah. I hope he recovers soon. We need him on defense.

Coach, in your opinion, why were our receivers running such poor routes on many of the plays yesterday?

Without the wide view of the game it is hard to say.  I don't know if the coverage was confusing the read routes.  Maybe they were open, and I know they were a couple of times because of the angle, and Coker was looking too much at the pass rush that pressured him early.

[Chechem]

...

I really don't know how they are trained to run/read routes.  For me personally I don't like a lot of read routes on deep routes. I like them where you either go inside or outside according to the leverage of the  coverage.  On the route in question with the interception could you not get the same result with  a flag cut by the inside rec and a post by the outside rec and then read the coverage?

I don't have the replay, but it looked like Coker had the post open, but threw to the flag (and double coverage).  That's from memory, based on what they showed after the play.

That is what it looked like.  But it also looks to me that there was some hesitation on who was going where.

Now I see what you meant by commenting on read routes.  Yeah, sounds like the receivers screwed up if there was hesitation.  We throw deep so seldom (as everyone else, including the NFL), we prolly should just run set routes deep. 

Those deep back-shoulder throws can be jewels when a rec-QB combo practices them lots.  But we've never had such a scenario on our team.

[Old Tider]

I wonder if CNS is using our best players on Special Teams because we or some of us question the special teams coaches at times? RTR!

Well, Bama's had 6 non-offensive TDs this year compared to 1 last year.

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