Game notes: Ark vs Bama

Ark vs Bama

First, congrats to the Bama players and coaches on the big win today. This is the first time a team from the SEC won 10 SEC games in a season. This was also a game where Bama got to get a lot of game experience for the backups in the 2nd half. One question I do have is why was there so much slipping? Wasn’t this something that could have been seen in pregame warmups therefore allowing them to change shoes?

OFFFENSE: The offense put together 443 yards of total offense which included 227 passing and 216 rushing. For negative plays I have Bama with 2 tackles for losses and 1 fumble lost. The first tackle for loss was when Harris slipped on a cut and the second was not until the 4th quarter on a wide receiver screen where the other wideout missed the block. Bama only had 2 three and outs and both of those came in the 2nd half with the backups in. For plays that covered 10+ yards, Bama had 9 passing plays and 2 running plays. Bama got into the red zone 6 times and scored 5 touchdowns while fumbling on the other possession. Two scores came from outside the red zone on a field goal and the long run by McClellan. The other score came from the special teams as Smith returned a punt for the touchdown. I know this game was a little different because of no passing touchdowns and the lack of long passes. However, there are benefits when you get to keep the defense off the field and keep the other teams defense on the field.

QB: Jones played a good game where he connected on 24 for 29 passes for 208 yards. He connected on 83% of his passes. Some people don’t know how frustrating it can be when you are used to throwing the ball down field on a regular basis. Ark did a good job taking the deep ball away. Even though I thought there were a couple of chances to throw a deeper ball Jones took the safe throw and kept the offense moving. The only mistake he made was negated by the targeting penalty. I really thought he had an early throw he didn’t take. Young came in and did a decent job. He really never threw the ball downfield, over 10 yards, and ended up with a total of 19 yards passing going 3 for 4.

RB: Bama played 4 different running backs. Harris and Robinson got most of the carries. They combined for 27 carries for 100 yards. McClelland and Williams go the other 10 carries for 114 yards. The biggest run of the day came from McClellan who ran for 80 and a touchdown.

Rec: Forristall led the receivers with 6 catches for 52 yards. He was followed by Metchie with 5 (72), Bolden 4 (43) and Smith 3 (22). The best part of this is that Smith didn’t pout by not being the main guy. As a matter of fact, he and Jones were some of the leading cheerleaders for the backups on the field later in the game. Overall, counting running backs 9 different players had catches.

OL: The OL had another great game. You can see there were a total of 3 negative plays and really none of them had to do with the play of the offensive line. The got a good push in the running game and gave the QB time to survey the field and go to the 2nd or 3rd receivers when necessary. The backup OL also played well when they got into the game.

Def: The defense played very well with all the different looks Ark gave them. Bama gave up a total of 188 yard with 108 passing and 80 rushing. For negative plays, I have Bama with 4 tackles for losses, 8 sacks, 4 fumbles (3 recovered), and 1 interception. Instead of 3 and out, I am going with quick outs, because Bama had 6 three and out and 1 one and outs because of a fumble. This happened on 7 consecutive drives after Ark had a little success on their first 2 drives. For plays that covered 10+ yards, Ark had 6 passing plays and 4 running plays. Again, all of these were on the first 2 drives in the game or the last 2 drives of the game. Ark got into the red zone once and settled for a field goal. Ark had 13 first downs and all of them came on the 1st two drives of the game and the last 3 drives of the game. The only bad thing on defense was a couple of times they lost contain and allowed the QB to escape outside. The frustrating thing about this is that they QB dropped short and the edge was lost quickly.

DL: They played one of their best games. I say this because many of them were among the leading tacklers when it is usually the safeties who fill these slots. They had the most negative plays of any game this year.

LB: The most glaring aspect here is how well Moody played when he replaced Harris in the game. He was the leading tackler in the game. Others didn’t have as many tackles as they were replaced with backups and the DL got the Ark players before they got to that level.

DB: They didn’t get tested much. As I have said in the past the best pass defense is a great pass rush. This is obvious since Ark had only 108 total passing yards.

Special teams: The highlight of the special team was Smith’s punt return for the TD. He was untouched 84 yards and seemed to pick up the Bama offense.

Penalties: Bama had 2 penalties for 23 yards. The first was a defensive holding on Anderson. Too be honest this was probably a good hold as Ark was running the rail out of the backfield and there was no one else there to pick him up. This may have saved a touchdown. The 2nd penalty was a roughing the kicker on a punt. This gave Ark one of their 13 first downs.

Finally, Bama showed they don’t have to throw deep to win the game. They controlled the ball and the lock. Bama got great game experience for backup as they played for a quarter and a half. Hopefully, they will finish punching their ticket to the playoff with a win over FL who will be very hungry after their loss last night.
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