TO COMMENT ON THIS POST, PLEASE CLICK ON THE ABOVE LINK.
That was a lot of fun. It was a nice day for nearly everything, including serving up some barbequed hog. I agree with these grades. Criticisms of Saturday’s effort feel like so much nit picking. But why not?
Special teams usually go near the end of these reports, but I think they should get higher billing this week. ST play was very good and Maze’s masterful run definitely took a lot of fight out of the piggies. Our punts are short, but very high and we mostly cover them well, so I’m not as concerned there. I have a feeling we may have made a conscious choice to kick higher rather than further (though why we are put to that election is a matter I am trying not to think about). Kickoffs are another story. It seems to me that our kickoffs are too short and the coverage isn’t very good . One may be leading to the other. I just think we are going to eventually get into trouble letting opposing kick returners field the ball on the run at the 10 yard line (and that’s generous). I’m not smart enough to know what the issue is, but I do know the fact that we can occasionally kick off the football into the end zone means that we have the potential to do that more often. I understand if we just don’t have anyone on campus who can kick it that far, but we do, because sometimes he does it. Again, nit picking after Saturday, but the contrast to Arkansas’ placekicker was painfully clear.
On offense even the plays that didn’t work, such as the attempted screen pass to EL that hit a defensive lineman in his weakest spot, the hands, was well-designed and going to go a long way if AJ could have gotten him the ball. Of course, the offense didn’t score all of those points, it had help, though I can’t quite credit “special teams” with the first touchdown -- I mean, the starting quarterback threw the ball to the starting tight end….
The offensive line had come in for some justifiable criticism from even the head coach. It was not flawless on Saturday, but it was at least much improved, and played a game capable of beating most, maybe all, of the teams on our schedule given how the defense is playing. Not pushing it in from the one so that even the extraordinarily near sighted officials in our league could see it again, wasn’t good, but I told you I was nitpicking. Oh, and #3 picks up blitzes better than #42, but neither one is bad, it’s just that Richardson sometimes stands up blitzing linebackers like he is an offensive lineman, not some silly cut block.
I can’t really think of anything to nitpick about the defensive performance. Bottom line, they beat the ever living you-know-what out of Arkansas. Make no mistake; Arkansas is a very good offensive football team. It will win a lot of games this year, just by running up the score on people. Their top two receivers could start for just about any team in this league, including ours. Their second touchdown was just an outstanding play on both ends and had not an inch to spare. By the start of the fourth quarter, you had the sense that they just wanted to get back to the other side of the Mississippi River. We did not appear to miss a beat after the loss of the very talented CJ Mosely, though I hope he will be back for the Florida game.
Dre Kirkpatrick is just an outstanding football player who is also an outstanding leader on this team. It takes a lot to lead by example on a team with this kind of talent. To his further credit, he appears to be in control of those issues that kept in endlessly in the Coach’s doghouse a couple of seasons ago.
The game plan was just excellent. We had some busted assignments and I hate have the ball inside the one and going backwards to the five to hand it off, but these nits are too small even for me. Simply put, our team was well-coached and the opposing sideline was outcoached.
The Commissioner has already taken Hubert Owens’ normally flag-happy officiating crew to task. The fact that they rated the assignment of the CBS game of the week between two teams ranked in the top 15 shows how low we have fallen. I will be in the front row of those who say that Barrett Jones may have taken a beginning acting course as one of his electives. But what he could not act out was the fact that an opposing player shoved his hand under Jones’s facemask and pushed his head back. This happens from time to time, but almost never is not penalized. Hubert’s crew chose to ignore it. The only question is usually what to call it – hands to the face, facemask, unnecessary roughness, or just garden variety personal foul – and whether the offending player should just be penalized or whether he should be ejected. Jones was correctly upset and so was his head coach, who did the right thing in taking up for his player. Perhaps the official was just unwilling to add the insult of a flag to the injury of the beating Arkansas was being handed. The problem, of course, is that if the players believe such behavior will be tolerated they will continue to engage in it. Worse, players who are hit after the whistle will eventually take matters into their own hands (no pun intended). Football is a violent game played by powerful individuals. The rules are there to keep things from getting out of hand. Those rules need to be enforced, and enforced evenhandedly. You’d think the officials would understand that. And it’s not nitpicking.
On to Gainesville. Despite Saturday’s dominant performance the scenario is uncomfortably similar to last year’s dominating performance against Florida, followed by a trip to play South Carolina, which we will not further dwell upon because we’ve just eaten. But if those of us down by the hydraulic lift have noticed the parallel, we expect Messers Saban, Smart, McIlwain, Cochran, et al. have noticed and mentioned it. More importantly, we read in this morning’s fishwrapper that after the interception return for a touchdown Mr. Kirkpatrick remarked to Mr. Menzie: “Stay focused. That’s what happened last year. We got complacent. I’m not about to let that happen this year.” And you thought I was nitpicky.
Your correspondent From The Tire Store
Monday, September 26, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Arkansas Grades
TO COMMENT ON THIS POST, PLEASE CLICK ON THE ABOVE LINK.
It was just about a perfect day.
In Tuscaloosa, the first Saturday in the fall of 2011 was about as perfect a day as you could ask for. The weather was splendid; a blue sky, plenty of sunshine, a temperature in the low 80s at kick-off. The crowd on the Quad was large and lively. Friends gathered in the tent-city that occupies the central green-space of the Alabama campus on home game days to eat, drink, and enjoy the fellowship of like-minded people. Old friends were reunited. New friendships were made, and above all, it was great just to be an Alabama football fan.
Oh, and I almost forgot: on this splendid early fall day in West Alabama, the Crimson Tide beat the Hogs 38-14. It was just about a perfect game. Tie Tide scored touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams. The Hogs offense, considered by many to be the best in the SEC, which had averaged 47 points per game in compiling a 3-0 record, was held to 14 points, 14 first downs [half the Hog per game average] and 17 net yards rushing.
It wasn't a perfect game. Alabama was denied a touchdown on three snaps inside the Arkansas one yard line in the second quarter, and kickoffs were chronically short [40.7 yards net per kick]. Apart from that, Alabama dominated Arkansas. The Hogs managed only two drives of 40 or more yards. They couldn't run. They couldn't pass. They couldn't consistently stop Alabama.
In the second half, the Hogs allowed their frustration to manifest itself in some very chippy play, which the officiating crew, supplied by the Hellen Keller Institute, failed to correct. It got so bad, that at one point Dre Kirkpatrick had to intervene with his teammates and become the peace-maker. As one sage observer remarked: "Who saw THAT coming?"
There were several plays that will make the season highlight reel. Trent Richardson reaching between the hands of a defensive tackle to snag a screen pass from AJ, then turning up field and racing for the end zone is certainly one of them. But Marquis Maze's electrifying punt return should be added to the pre-game video with the tag word: "Undeniable." Maze fielded a 43 yard punt on Arkansas' first possession of the second half. From the Alabama 17, he cut left, broke a tackle, split a crease, cut right to the hash-marks, jukes another Hog, cut to his right, stopped, tied his shoe laces and ate a Snicker's bar while Tide blockers knocked Arkansas players to the ground, reached down, helped them up and knocked them down again. Rest, refueled and with his shoes securely tided, Maze shot to his left, got the the 10 yard line, waived more blockers over, and angled back to his right and crossed to goal line in front of the student section which, by this time, was exploding in a wave of sound that made your ears hurt. It is the best punt return I have ever seen in person. Period. Paragraph.
On a day that was just about perfect, Maze's House Call was perfection writ large. As outstanding as his effort was, he could not have scored without excellent and smart down field blocking.
Alabama kicked off after Maze's return. Arkansas ran three plays, lost there yards and punted. From that point, the game was over. The Hogs were never going to come back. The remainder of the game was a formality.
There were still nearly 11 minutes to play in the third quarter.
Here's how I grade the game:
Offense: A The failure to get a touchdown with first-and-goal at the 1 keeps the Offense from getting a +. The O Line played like it was mad, something that it has needed to do. The results are revealed in the rushing yards per quarter: 47, 49, 49, 52.
Bama held possession for nearly 33 minutes, compiled 397 yards of total offense, and converted 5 of 13 third downs.
AJ was a perfect 6 of 6 in the first quarter and finished the game 15 of 20 for 200 yards, 2 TDs and no interceptions. However, one incompletion could easily have been intercepted but was dropped by a DE who sniffed out a screen pass. AJ's first TD pass came on a trick, 4th down play. Having lined up in FG formation with AJ at holder, the Tide shifted into a two-tightend set with Cade Foster split to the left. The play was a pass all the way. Foster took a LB out of the play and Michael Williams ran a deep fly route with a defensive lineman trying to cover him. He was open by at least 10 yards when AJ laid a perfect pass into his hands.
Trent Richardson rushed for 126 yards on 17 runs. His longest was 31. Eddie Lacy scored Alabama's lone rushing touchdown and gained 61 yards on 13 carries. Jalston Fowler added 11 yards on 4 attempts.
Maze caught 3 passes for 40 yards. Richardson accounted for 85 yards receiving and Darius Hanks caught and ran for 13 yards on 2 receptions. In total, 8 Alabama players caught passes.
The Tide offense had 4 drives that gained 40 or more yards [80, 77, 64, 56] resulting in 3 TDs and 1 FG. The offense surrendered no turnovers. Trent Richardson gained 235 all-purpose yards.
Defense A+ Tyler Wilson, the Hogs' QB, was hurried and harassed all day and was limited to completing 22 of 35 pass attempts. He was intercepted once. The Hog QBs were hurried 4 times and intercepted twice while 5 passes were broken up. Arkansas' offense posed the ball 13 times during the game. These opportunities resulted in 2 TDs, 2 Interceptions, a turnover on downs and 8 punts.
Dre Kirkpatrick had an outstanding game [perhaps a break out game]. He was credited with 6 tackles, all solo, and he broke up 3 passes. But what was really obvious was the velocity and power of his hits. By the middle of the third quarter, Arkansas receivers obviously wanted no more of Number 21.
Dont'a Hightower led all defenders with 9 tackles, [4 solo] 2 for loss. Mark Barron made 6 stops [1 solo] and broke up a pass. Jesse Williams-the pride of Melbourne Australia-is starting to come into his own as a force on the D Line. He made 5 tackles [4 solo] and Robert Lester made 5 tackles [3 solo].
Dequan Menzie returned his second-quarter interception 25 yards for a touchdown, and Dee Milliner intercepted back-up QB Brandon Mitchell on the Hogs' final possession.
Special Teams:
Punting: A Maze's return for a touchdown has already been discussed. Cody Mandell averaged 37.5 yards per punt and the coverage unit allowed only 6 return yards.
Place Kicking: A Jeremy Shelley was god from 20 yards on his lone FG attempt and was perfect on 4 PATs.
Kickoffs: C Arkansas averaged 48 net yards per kick and had 2 touchbacks. Alabama averaged slightly more than 40 net yards per kick and had only 1 touchback.
Coaching: A Alabama came ready to play in all phases of the game. The offense was visibly improved over its previous games. Bama was penalized 5 times for 55 yards. Some false start penalties early in the game were called when we were checking out of one play and into another. More about that later. And the hit out of bounds call on Dont'a Hightower was bogus. The participation report lists 58 players who saw action against the Hogs. Coach Saban went certifiably ape on the officials when they failed to flag Arkansas' safeth who tried to yank Barret Jones' head off by the face-mask after a play was blown dead. It was shamefully bad play and equally bad officiating. The thug should have been ejected. Saban was richeously indignant.
On the subject of false starts, how teams like Auburn and Oregon [just to name two] can get away with all 11 guys coming out of their stances to look at the side lines in order to read the pictures that signal the play without a false start penalty is beyond me. And what's up with those pictures anyway? I'm sorry, but it just seems goofy to me that you have to use cartoons to communicate with your players.
Yesterday's game was a big win in more ways than the score. Arkansas was believed to be a threat to play for the SEC West. By physically dominating a good SEC team with a legit defense and high-octane offense, Alabama has made a statement about itself and its trajectory for the 2011 season.
Having smoked the Porkers, Alabama travels to Gainesville this week. I suspect that the equipment staff will be packing the deep-fryer for use on the Gators. Nothing short of a perfect season will get the Tide in position to play for its 14th National Championship. That goal can only be achieved if Alabama wins the next one, but won't that be just perfect?
The Commissioner
It was just about a perfect day.
In Tuscaloosa, the first Saturday in the fall of 2011 was about as perfect a day as you could ask for. The weather was splendid; a blue sky, plenty of sunshine, a temperature in the low 80s at kick-off. The crowd on the Quad was large and lively. Friends gathered in the tent-city that occupies the central green-space of the Alabama campus on home game days to eat, drink, and enjoy the fellowship of like-minded people. Old friends were reunited. New friendships were made, and above all, it was great just to be an Alabama football fan.
Oh, and I almost forgot: on this splendid early fall day in West Alabama, the Crimson Tide beat the Hogs 38-14. It was just about a perfect game. Tie Tide scored touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams. The Hogs offense, considered by many to be the best in the SEC, which had averaged 47 points per game in compiling a 3-0 record, was held to 14 points, 14 first downs [half the Hog per game average] and 17 net yards rushing.
It wasn't a perfect game. Alabama was denied a touchdown on three snaps inside the Arkansas one yard line in the second quarter, and kickoffs were chronically short [40.7 yards net per kick]. Apart from that, Alabama dominated Arkansas. The Hogs managed only two drives of 40 or more yards. They couldn't run. They couldn't pass. They couldn't consistently stop Alabama.
In the second half, the Hogs allowed their frustration to manifest itself in some very chippy play, which the officiating crew, supplied by the Hellen Keller Institute, failed to correct. It got so bad, that at one point Dre Kirkpatrick had to intervene with his teammates and become the peace-maker. As one sage observer remarked: "Who saw THAT coming?"
There were several plays that will make the season highlight reel. Trent Richardson reaching between the hands of a defensive tackle to snag a screen pass from AJ, then turning up field and racing for the end zone is certainly one of them. But Marquis Maze's electrifying punt return should be added to the pre-game video with the tag word: "Undeniable." Maze fielded a 43 yard punt on Arkansas' first possession of the second half. From the Alabama 17, he cut left, broke a tackle, split a crease, cut right to the hash-marks, jukes another Hog, cut to his right, stopped, tied his shoe laces and ate a Snicker's bar while Tide blockers knocked Arkansas players to the ground, reached down, helped them up and knocked them down again. Rest, refueled and with his shoes securely tided, Maze shot to his left, got the the 10 yard line, waived more blockers over, and angled back to his right and crossed to goal line in front of the student section which, by this time, was exploding in a wave of sound that made your ears hurt. It is the best punt return I have ever seen in person. Period. Paragraph.
On a day that was just about perfect, Maze's House Call was perfection writ large. As outstanding as his effort was, he could not have scored without excellent and smart down field blocking.
Alabama kicked off after Maze's return. Arkansas ran three plays, lost there yards and punted. From that point, the game was over. The Hogs were never going to come back. The remainder of the game was a formality.
There were still nearly 11 minutes to play in the third quarter.
Here's how I grade the game:
Offense: A The failure to get a touchdown with first-and-goal at the 1 keeps the Offense from getting a +. The O Line played like it was mad, something that it has needed to do. The results are revealed in the rushing yards per quarter: 47, 49, 49, 52.
Bama held possession for nearly 33 minutes, compiled 397 yards of total offense, and converted 5 of 13 third downs.
AJ was a perfect 6 of 6 in the first quarter and finished the game 15 of 20 for 200 yards, 2 TDs and no interceptions. However, one incompletion could easily have been intercepted but was dropped by a DE who sniffed out a screen pass. AJ's first TD pass came on a trick, 4th down play. Having lined up in FG formation with AJ at holder, the Tide shifted into a two-tightend set with Cade Foster split to the left. The play was a pass all the way. Foster took a LB out of the play and Michael Williams ran a deep fly route with a defensive lineman trying to cover him. He was open by at least 10 yards when AJ laid a perfect pass into his hands.
Trent Richardson rushed for 126 yards on 17 runs. His longest was 31. Eddie Lacy scored Alabama's lone rushing touchdown and gained 61 yards on 13 carries. Jalston Fowler added 11 yards on 4 attempts.
Maze caught 3 passes for 40 yards. Richardson accounted for 85 yards receiving and Darius Hanks caught and ran for 13 yards on 2 receptions. In total, 8 Alabama players caught passes.
The Tide offense had 4 drives that gained 40 or more yards [80, 77, 64, 56] resulting in 3 TDs and 1 FG. The offense surrendered no turnovers. Trent Richardson gained 235 all-purpose yards.
Defense A+ Tyler Wilson, the Hogs' QB, was hurried and harassed all day and was limited to completing 22 of 35 pass attempts. He was intercepted once. The Hog QBs were hurried 4 times and intercepted twice while 5 passes were broken up. Arkansas' offense posed the ball 13 times during the game. These opportunities resulted in 2 TDs, 2 Interceptions, a turnover on downs and 8 punts.
Dre Kirkpatrick had an outstanding game [perhaps a break out game]. He was credited with 6 tackles, all solo, and he broke up 3 passes. But what was really obvious was the velocity and power of his hits. By the middle of the third quarter, Arkansas receivers obviously wanted no more of Number 21.
Dont'a Hightower led all defenders with 9 tackles, [4 solo] 2 for loss. Mark Barron made 6 stops [1 solo] and broke up a pass. Jesse Williams-the pride of Melbourne Australia-is starting to come into his own as a force on the D Line. He made 5 tackles [4 solo] and Robert Lester made 5 tackles [3 solo].
Dequan Menzie returned his second-quarter interception 25 yards for a touchdown, and Dee Milliner intercepted back-up QB Brandon Mitchell on the Hogs' final possession.
Special Teams:
Punting: A Maze's return for a touchdown has already been discussed. Cody Mandell averaged 37.5 yards per punt and the coverage unit allowed only 6 return yards.
Place Kicking: A Jeremy Shelley was god from 20 yards on his lone FG attempt and was perfect on 4 PATs.
Kickoffs: C Arkansas averaged 48 net yards per kick and had 2 touchbacks. Alabama averaged slightly more than 40 net yards per kick and had only 1 touchback.
Coaching: A Alabama came ready to play in all phases of the game. The offense was visibly improved over its previous games. Bama was penalized 5 times for 55 yards. Some false start penalties early in the game were called when we were checking out of one play and into another. More about that later. And the hit out of bounds call on Dont'a Hightower was bogus. The participation report lists 58 players who saw action against the Hogs. Coach Saban went certifiably ape on the officials when they failed to flag Arkansas' safeth who tried to yank Barret Jones' head off by the face-mask after a play was blown dead. It was shamefully bad play and equally bad officiating. The thug should have been ejected. Saban was richeously indignant.
On the subject of false starts, how teams like Auburn and Oregon [just to name two] can get away with all 11 guys coming out of their stances to look at the side lines in order to read the pictures that signal the play without a false start penalty is beyond me. And what's up with those pictures anyway? I'm sorry, but it just seems goofy to me that you have to use cartoons to communicate with your players.
Yesterday's game was a big win in more ways than the score. Arkansas was believed to be a threat to play for the SEC West. By physically dominating a good SEC team with a legit defense and high-octane offense, Alabama has made a statement about itself and its trajectory for the 2011 season.
Having smoked the Porkers, Alabama travels to Gainesville this week. I suspect that the equipment staff will be packing the deep-fryer for use on the Gators. Nothing short of a perfect season will get the Tide in position to play for its 14th National Championship. That goal can only be achieved if Alabama wins the next one, but won't that be just perfect?
The Commissioner
Monday, September 19, 2011
North Texas: The Report From The Tire Store
TO COMMENT ON THIS POST, PLEASE CLICK ON THE ABOVE LINK.
With the summer driving season over we’ve shut down the bay doors and turned off the air compressor so that the tire store crew could get a little rest before we try to turn a profit for the year. Despite our best efforts the “Tires Under the Tree” campaign has just never gotten any traction and we have a slow time moving radials and rims after Thanksgiving.
And we began our time off with a quick run to BDS to watch Alabama, especially the defense, beat the brake dust out of the Mean Green Machine (or they were something like that). The grades are good and pretty fair. Here are some observations to add to the Commissioner’s good work.
Offense:
1. First the bad stuff, for whatever reason there is at least one really talented offensive lineman who is playing below his potential. I hope this changes.
2. Cyrus K-unspellable is going to be a seriously good offensive lineman. He would start for North Texas tomorrow and might be their best player on either line. After TR scored one of his touchdowns Cyrus picked him up and hugged him. It looked like Richardson’s cleats were a foot and a half off the ground.
3. AJ will be fine. He is staring down his receivers a little bit, but he’ll learn.
4. P. Sims will also learn, but he has more to learn. Our observation is that he looks like he is about one count slower on everything. It gets said so much it is a cliche, but he just needs to continue to adjust to the speed of the game. He gets in the right play, but throws just after the receiver breaks instead of just before, he leaves his hands on the handoff just a second too long. Unfortunately, at this level, that one count is the difference between a 12 yard gain and a negative play. And CNS is just not going to put up with many fumbled snaps.
5. J. Fowler is fun to watch. Nothing fancy here. Just a battering ram going down hill. You have to feel just a little sorry for boys who have been pounded on by TR and EL for three quarters suddenly looking up to see this guy headed their way. I doubt you will see him make many spin moves to avoid contact.
Defense:
1. These guys are very good. Many of them have outstanding physical gifts from God that they have worked hard to develop. They hit very hard.
2. D. Menzie is a seriously good football player. Like maybe Arenas good. We may never know just how good because an opposing quarterback with good football sense won’t throw his way. One who does may get to try to tackle him.
3. On one play D. Hightower hit the running back and just crushed him. I don’t think the ball carrier really wanted to get up. Ever the gentleman, Hightower leaned over, grabbed him by the jersey, and set him up on his feet. He didn’t seem to even strain when he lifted him.
4. You hear a lot about offensive lines wearing people down. Our defense wears people down. Three yards and a cloud of dust is fine, but not if you can’t get up after.
5. I’m not too worried about sacks, but I do wish we’d knock the opposing QB down a little more often.
Otherwise:
1. Expect Coach to be seriously ticked off about people leaving the stadium early. He mentioned it last Thursday on his radio show. On Friday he mentioned how Penn State fans were there late with their team down 24-3. Nonetheless, the student section was noticeably emptying out by mid-way in the second quarter. As the man himself says, “you expect the team to play for a full 60 minutes; you should be there to support them for a full 60 minutes.
2. He will not be as irritated with the fans as he was with the two oblivious officials who would not notice him to grant him a time out near the end of the game. It was an interesting thing, given that North Texas’s coach got a sideline time out that appeared to granted about two seconds after his team had snapped the ball.
3. Game management is so much better than in years past. We regularly come to the line of scrimmage with 20 seconds or more on the play clock.
4. I may be the only one, but it cracks me up when Saban is striding along, talking to someone in the pressbox over his headset, and he’s talking with his hands. Expect to hear him talk a lot this season about “moral toughness”.
5. These are exciting times at the University of Alabama, and right now I don’t mean the football team. The student population is now over 31 thousand. Campus stretches over 1000 acres and when the current round of building is complete there will be more than 300 buildings on campus. In the addition by subtraction category, Rose Towers is slated to come down. This year’s freshman class is the largest and most academically talented ever, a statement which has been true for seven years in a row. This week, U.S. News and World report will rank Alabama 75th on its list of colleges and universities in America and 31st on the list of public colleges. The good news is it’s improving.
Roll Tide everyone. See you Saturday. I like my hog barbecued.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
North Texas Grades
TO COMMENT ON THIS POST, PLEASE CLICK ON THE ABOVE LINK.
Richardson gained 167 net yards rushing and scored 3 TDs. His longest was a 71 yard scoring run in the 4th quarter.
Why does a 41 point win seen so unsatisfactory?
After a game where two running backs combine for over 230 yards rushing, and the team gains 586 yards of total offense, why are so many Alabama fans dissatisfied with the performance of the offense?
Coach Saban was blunt in his post-game comments to the media: "We didn't finish drives. We settled for field goal attempts when we should have been trying to score touchdowns, and we missed two of those. We didn't execute with consistency." He's right, of course. Add two lost fumbles into the mix, and a plausible argument can be made that the Tide offense is not ready for prime-time SEC play.
The coaches made frequent substitutions along the offensive line. Barrett Jones saw action at tackle and center. Cyrus played early and often at left tackle. This mixing and matching contributed to some inconsistent play. So did early substitution at quarterback. This sort of disruption, however, is ultimately healthy, because it is only through game experience that younger players can mature.
Nevertheless, the same degree of substitution took place on defense, without a comparable drop-off in consistency and effectiveness. Not a single player who started the game participated in the "goal line stands"-the plural is fitting considering that NTU had first and goal at the Bama 2 yard line, and ran seven offensive plays before surrendering the ball on downs.
Compare that accomplishment to the offense making 5 trips into the Mean Green red zone and generating only 13 points!
Yesterday's game does not engender confidence in the offense unlike last week's win in Happy Valley. What's the difference between the two efforts? The one that comes first to mind is positional stability. While I typically consider a robust player rotation to be a sign of good coaching, I think this offense will benefit from stability along the offensive line and at quarterback. I don't get paid to coach, but Nick Saban does, and his post-game comments suggest that he thinks so too.
Here's how I grade the game:
Offense: D+ The quality of opposition requires a one letter-grade deduction, nevertheless, it's really hard to give such a low grade to an effort that produced 25 first downs, 347 yards rushing, and 21 pass completions out of 29 attempts. All those yards, and all those completed passes failed to generate the points that would have resulted from touchdowns. Alabama's first four possessions resulted in 20 points [FG, TD, TD, FG]; the next five, which spanned the half-time performance by the Million Dollar Band, produced a punt, a fumble, two missed field goals and one TD. The score during this dismal stretch-a nifty 58 yard run around left end by Trent Richardson that followed a 12 yard punt by NTU-was one of three single play scoring drives that Richardson and Eddie Lacy combined to deliver.
Richardson gained 167 net yards rushing and scored 3 TDs. His longest was a 71 yard scoring run in the 4th quarter.
Lacy rushed for 163 net yards and scored 2 TDs. His two touchdowns came on runs of 43 and 67 yards.
AJ completed 15 of 21 pass attempts for 190 yards and was not intercepted. His longest completion was a 30 yard strike to Christion Jones.
Kenny Bell and Brad Smelley each had 4 receptions. Smelley was AJ's favorite target early in the game. Brandon Gibson and Marquise Maze each had 3 receptions and all total, 9 different players caught passes. Darius Hanks returned to action for the first time this season and caught 2 passes for 20 yards.
Alabama had seven drives in excess of 40 yards [69, 58, 76, 58, 68, 71, 67] resulting in 5 TD's a FG and a missed FG. The offense lost two fumbles.
Defense: B+ The one-grade deduction rule applies to the defense as well, but I have to think that there are few teams on our schedule that will find success moving the ball and scoring points if the Stop Troops continue to play the way they did yesterday.
NTU was held to 169 total yards [68 rushing] and converted only 5 of 17 third downs. The Greenies had 12 meaningful offensive possessions. These resulted in 10 punts, a missed FG and a turnover on downs.
Will Lowery was the leading tackler on the night with 7 [5 solo]. Mark Barron was also credited with 7 stops [4 solo]. Vinnie Sunseri had 6 [3 solo]. Dont'a Hightower made 5 tackles including 2 for 6 lost yards and hurried the NTU quarterback.
Tide defenders made 7 tackles for lost yardage, broke up 8 NTU passes and blocked a field goal attempt [Robert Lester].
Special Teams:
Punting: A Cody Mandell interrupted his calculus homework with 5:30 to play in the first half in order to make his only punt of the night [35 yards, no return]. Marquise Maze and Christion Jones handled returns for the Tide. Maze had 5 returns for 56 yards. His longest was 28 yards, made possible by two excellent down field blocks, including one superb de-cleater by Vinnie Sunseri, who is emerging as one of the move valuable players on special teams.
Kicking: A Kickoffs averaged 64 gross yards per kick, and netted an average of 50.9 yards. Coverage was excellent.
Place Kicking: D+ Missing two makable filed goals should result in a failing grade, however, being good from 26 and 37 and perfect on 5 PAT attempts are mitigating factors.
Coaching: B- The coaches get the one-grade deduction applicable to the offense and defense. Bama was penalized only twice and the participation report reflects that 66 players saw action Saturday night. Coach Saban saw the same game the rest of us did: "We are just not executing on offense and it is giving us negative plays. I am not very pleased with the way we played on offense."
Alabama fans are often accused of never being satisfied. We're "glass-half-empty" types. When you can whip a team 41-0 and the head coach is not pleased with the offense, it's comforting to know that Saban is not a "glass-half-empty" type; he's more of a "glass? what glass" type.
So now, Alabama gets ready for league play with the Hogs coming to Tuscaloosa next Saturday. The players and coaches are already working on Arkansas. They don't have time to look around the SEC and consider the performance of other teams; but we do.
Vanderbilt is 3-0 and James Franklin is the first VU head coach since WW II to open his tenure with three victories. Auburn, which is two plays away from being 0-3 is 2-1 having lost by 14 points to Clemson in a game that had all the glamor of two mules fighting over a turnip. Tennessee, which was flying high after going 2-0 against Montana and Cincy, went to Gainesville and lost 33-23 to the Gators. A headline in The Daily Fishwrapper says it all: Same Old Swamp, Same Old Vols. The score is deceiving, UT was never really in the game. And the Fighting Chickens only managed a 3 point win over Navy! Better than a loss, to be sure, but you have to know that the Father and Son relationship between Steve Spurrier and Stephen Garcia has to be more like Home Simpson and Bart than Sheriff Andy Taylor and Opie.
Notwithstanding the work to be done in the film room and on the practice field, yesterday was a great day to be in Tuscaloosa. So will this coming Saturday. I hope to see you there.
Pulled pork, anyone?
The Commissioner
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Penn State Grades
TO COMMENT ON THIS POST, PLEASE CLICK ON THE ABOVE LINK.
The Alabama football team traveled a long way the last seven days, and I'm not referring only to the 897 miles between Bryant-Denny Stadium and its counterpart in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania. The literal journey saw the Tide go farther away from home to play a regular season game than it has in a decade and the nearly 108,000 spectators was the largest crowd ever to witness the Tide play a game in the University's 119 seasons of football. Yes, the Tide covered a lot of ground between Kent State and Penn State, but the Tide came a long way figuratively as well as physically this last week.
The Alabama football team traveled a long way the last seven days, and I'm not referring only to the 897 miles between Bryant-Denny Stadium and its counterpart in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania. The literal journey saw the Tide go farther away from home to play a regular season game than it has in a decade and the nearly 108,000 spectators was the largest crowd ever to witness the Tide play a game in the University's 119 seasons of football. Yes, the Tide covered a lot of ground between Kent State and Penn State, but the Tide came a long way figuratively as well as physically this last week.
The sloppy ball handling that produced four interceptions and a lost fumble against the Golden Flashes, was nowhere in evidence against the Nitany Lions. Yesterday, it was Penn State that was looking for one quarterback to separate himself from his competition while Alabama's A.J. McCarron led the Tide offense on all but the final series of game-ending downs. An offense that was searching for an identity in the broiling heat seven days ago in Tuscaloosa, unmistakably declared itself to be a physically dominating and unstoppable force as it marched 65 yards in only five plays, each one a punishing run, to score a touchdown with 6:30 to play in the fourth quarter and put an exclamation point on a lopsided victory over a storied program and respected opponent.
AJ handled the pressure of starting his first game as Bama's number one QB on the road against a nationally ranked team with poise. He seemed to become more confident with each offensive possession. The offensive line did an excellent job in pass protection all day and began to assert itself physically in the running game as the contest progressed through the afternoon.
The defense was ... well, it was the Alabama defense.
PSU managed only two sustained drives the entire day. State won the toss, elected to receive, and executed a 16 play drive that gained 54 yards and consumed half of the first quarter before being forced to settle for a field goal. It would take Penn State four more offensive possessions to run 16 plays and five possessions to earn as much real estate. The Tide Defense limited Penn State's offense to only 170 total yards before allowing 74 yards in 14 plays on the Lions' final possession of the game.
In many respects, the game was like the uniforms worn by the two teams: classic, traditional, old-school. There was nothing in the Alabama-Penn State game like the back-and-forth excitement produced by Michigan and Notre Dame, who combined for 21 points in the final two minutes. Likewise, there was none of the frenzy generated by Mississippi State and Auburn who played with all of the discipline you would expect from a fight between two kids in a reform school. No, what we witnessed yesterday from State College, Pennsylvania was classic, old school football; blocking and tackling, good fundamental football. And, as should be the case in old school football, the better team won.
Here's how I grade the game:
Offense: B+ Difficulty establishing the running game until well into the second half keeps the Offense from grading out with an A. Bama earned 359 yards of total offense [196 rushing] and 19 first downs. AJ completed 19 of 31 pass attempts with 1 TD, no interceptions and no sacks, despite a vigorous PSU pass rush that batted down at least 4 pass attempts. AJ's highlight reel will have to include the play where he grabbed the State player who had just batted a pass attempt into the air and flung him to the ground to avoid even a chance at an interception. Several of his incompletions were balls wisely thrown out of bounds rather than attempting to force a ball to a covered receiver. His TD pass to Michael Williams was a strike that could have been thrown through a car wash without getting wet.
Marquis Maze led all receivers for the second consecutive week with 42 yards on 4 catches. Trent Richardson caught 4 passes for 19 yards. Williams and Kevin Norwood each caught 3. Eight different players caught passes. One of those completions was to Brandon Gibson on 3rd and 6 from the Bama 35 that was good enough for a first down, but for a horribly bad spot by the SEC crew. Whether Brad Smelley got the ball to the 41 yard line on the ensuing play, or was the beneficiary of a make-up call, will go down in the lore of the Alabama-Penn State series.
Richardson gained 112 net yards rushing on 26 carries, while Eddie Lacy added 85 yards on 11 runs.
The Tide had five offensive drives that gained 40 or more yards [69, 52, 50, 50, and 65] each of which resulted in a score. Bama's final points came on five rushes. Eddie Lacy carried for 9, 4, 9 and 30 yards and Trent covered the last 13 into the end zone.
Defense: A Give PSU lots of credit for having scouted the Tide defense. The Lions' opening drive was well thought out and productive; PSU converted 2 third downs and a 4th down on its opening drive. From that point until the final possession, Penn State would only convert 2 possession downs against the Tide defense.
If PSU's two scoring drives were slices of bread, the sandwich in-between would consist of 6 punts, 2 fumbles and an interception.
Mark Baron recorded 7 tackles [5 solo] a fumble recovery and an interception. C.J. Mosley also had 7 tackles [4 solo] 1 tackle for loss and broke up a pass. DeQuan Menzie and Jeremy Shelley were credited with 5 tackles each, while Josh Chapman and Dont'a Hightower each recorded 4. Dre Kirkpatrick made 2 tackles, forced two fumbles and broke up a pass. Alabama defenders broke up 10 passes.
Special Teams:
Punting: B+ Bama averaged only 37 gross yards per punt, but coverage was excellent resulting in a net of 33 yards per punt. Marquise Maze returned two PSU punts for 43 yards.
Kicking: A- What Bama lacked in gross yards per kick [62 compared to PSU's 67] it made up for in smothering coverage. State averaged only 12 yards per kick return while the Tide averaged 21.5.
Place Kicking: A Three for three in PATs and Jeremy Shelley was good from 18 and 22 yards on his two FG attempts.
Coaching: A The Tide was only penalized 3 times and one of those, pass interference on Dre Kirkpatrick, was a bad call. The participation report lists 55 Tide players who saw action against Penn State. Ball security was vastly improved over last week with no fumbles and no turnovers. There is no official stat for "nearly intercepted," if there were, Bama defenders would be credited with at least four.
The decision to settle on AJ as the starting quarterback was timely and effective. He played better as the game progressed, much like GMac performed in the 2009 season opener against Va. Tech.
The Alabama-Penn State rivalry is a great one and has produced some classic games known by short-hand references: The Goal Line Stand, The Block, The Goal Line Stand Part II. One of the most notorious of those games is known by several names: The TD That Wasn't, Ref Guman, and my personal favorite: The Notch. This of course refers to the Walter Lewis to Preston Gothard completion at the back of the PSU end zone which was ruled out-of-bounds, denying Alabama what would have been one of the greatest comeback victories in history. The only way it wasn't a TD is if there was a notch taken out of the back of State's end zone where Gothard came down with the ball in his grasp. I think that yesterday The Notch was relocated from the back of the end zone to the front. That's the most logical explanation for why Trent Richardson's apparent third quarter TD was ruled down at the 4 inch line. Coach Saban settled for a field goal. In an old-school game, it was the right coaching call.
The Tide returns to Tuscaloosa this weekend for a night game against North Texas and a final opportunity for tune-ups prior to beginning league play against the Hogs on September 24. See you there.
Roll Tide
The Commissioner
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Kent State Report From The Tire Store
TO COMMENT ON THIS POST, PLEASE CLICK ON THE ABOVE LINK.
I agree with the grades, Commissioner. And Kent State is the sort of competition that requires some sort of asterisk or deduction. They have some good players, particularly along the defensive front, but they are just not, in any relevant respect, on the same level as Alabama.
Offense. I might even have been tempted to award an Incomplete for this effort. It is clear that a lot of things were going on that were not, strictly speaking, about a game plan to defeat the opponent. I can think of several examples off hand where the game plan seemed to be more about finding out things about Alabama than it was about the Golden Flashes. By my count B. Jones played three different positions on the offensive line – it could have been more. Wonder if he can play tight end? According to today’s newspaper accounts, even Coach Saban was somewhat chagrined when the first and goal play after the stopped punt resulted in the first string center observing the play from the sidelines. I’m confident there were double digit different offensive line combinations in the game. I’d expect that AJ gets the start on Saturday and it will not be with a plan for three series before giving way to Sims. I think Sims can play better than he showed Saturday, but…. And AJ’s stats were good, but should have been better. There were some drops, a couple of hurries that were the result of the mix and match scheme across the front line, and one of his interceptions hit the tight end in both hands before coming to rest in the arms of the Kent State player. I don’t think the other one (an ill-advised throw) was a catch, see below. And we did manage to rack up almost 500 yards of offense and 48 points despite all those turnovers (and with perhaps 2 of our 4 best receivers unavailable). Incomplete, but full of exciting potential. The things that went wrong are susceptible to improvement by practice and hollering from the coaches. It’s good for the coaches to have something to holler about.
Defense. Wow. Some of the same experimentation was going on with the D. The good news is that it was less obvious. You graphically point out the offensive futility. Here is another measure: Kent State averaged 2.1 yards on its called passing plays. Ouch. This defense is really good. It has the potential to be dominating. About all that I can see is that we are missing is a truly dominating nose guard; Chapman is quite good, just not dominating. I’ll take this group over any of those I’ve seen so far, and I watched a lot of different highly ranked teams on Saturday. We blitzed very little for a Nick Saban team, that'll change on Saturday, I feel sure.
Special Teams. I wish we would kick off the football into the dad-gum end zone. Why we have such trouble finding someone who can catch punts and kickoffs dependably before running with the ball is beyond me. Arenas spoiled us all, of course, but it's not asking too much to just catch it. That said, I do not fault DeAndrew -- lots of players are going to fumble on that hit – credit Kent State for spoiling an otherwise pretty runback. Punting was much better than A Day. Like you, I would never criticize a kicker for missing a 50+ yarder.
Officiating. Well, it’s good to see someone was in mid-season form. There were about four close/critical calls in this game and the zebras missed on two of them. I do not believe that Kent State successfully caught the first AJ interception. I think the ball hit the turf. I’m pretty sure that is reviewable, but no one bothered to look. But the worst call of the game (and it may be hard to top this season) was the play where our wide receiver was driven out of bounds about the five, a flag came in, but the ball was ruled "uncatchable". Of course, that ruling ignores the inconvenient fact that the receiver caught the ball without about half his body in bounds. Just imagine what he could have done if he hadn’t been interfered with. Perhaps the rule should be amended to state that if the receiver catches the ball with some part of his body in bounds after interference, you can assume the ball was "catchable". Sigh. I guess one of the endearing things about college football is that some things never change. Someone should call Texas A&M and warn the Aggies what they are getting into.
We’ll know a lot more after next week. I don’t predict outcomes, much less scores, but I do predict that Jones will play a lot fewer positions on Saturday, that barring injury or a blowout we’ll see a lot more of just one quarterback, that any number of Penn State offensive players will be sore next Sunday morning, and that if we lay the ball on the Happy Valley turf close to a half dozen times times we’ll not be celebrating a victory.
It’s nice to have the grades back. And it’s nice to support a football program where most of the attention is about the team on the field and its performance.
The Correspondent From The Tire Store
I agree with the grades, Commissioner. And Kent State is the sort of competition that requires some sort of asterisk or deduction. They have some good players, particularly along the defensive front, but they are just not, in any relevant respect, on the same level as Alabama.
Offense. I might even have been tempted to award an Incomplete for this effort. It is clear that a lot of things were going on that were not, strictly speaking, about a game plan to defeat the opponent. I can think of several examples off hand where the game plan seemed to be more about finding out things about Alabama than it was about the Golden Flashes. By my count B. Jones played three different positions on the offensive line – it could have been more. Wonder if he can play tight end? According to today’s newspaper accounts, even Coach Saban was somewhat chagrined when the first and goal play after the stopped punt resulted in the first string center observing the play from the sidelines. I’m confident there were double digit different offensive line combinations in the game. I’d expect that AJ gets the start on Saturday and it will not be with a plan for three series before giving way to Sims. I think Sims can play better than he showed Saturday, but…. And AJ’s stats were good, but should have been better. There were some drops, a couple of hurries that were the result of the mix and match scheme across the front line, and one of his interceptions hit the tight end in both hands before coming to rest in the arms of the Kent State player. I don’t think the other one (an ill-advised throw) was a catch, see below. And we did manage to rack up almost 500 yards of offense and 48 points despite all those turnovers (and with perhaps 2 of our 4 best receivers unavailable). Incomplete, but full of exciting potential. The things that went wrong are susceptible to improvement by practice and hollering from the coaches. It’s good for the coaches to have something to holler about.
Defense. Wow. Some of the same experimentation was going on with the D. The good news is that it was less obvious. You graphically point out the offensive futility. Here is another measure: Kent State averaged 2.1 yards on its called passing plays. Ouch. This defense is really good. It has the potential to be dominating. About all that I can see is that we are missing is a truly dominating nose guard; Chapman is quite good, just not dominating. I’ll take this group over any of those I’ve seen so far, and I watched a lot of different highly ranked teams on Saturday. We blitzed very little for a Nick Saban team, that'll change on Saturday, I feel sure.
Special Teams. I wish we would kick off the football into the dad-gum end zone. Why we have such trouble finding someone who can catch punts and kickoffs dependably before running with the ball is beyond me. Arenas spoiled us all, of course, but it's not asking too much to just catch it. That said, I do not fault DeAndrew -- lots of players are going to fumble on that hit – credit Kent State for spoiling an otherwise pretty runback. Punting was much better than A Day. Like you, I would never criticize a kicker for missing a 50+ yarder.
Officiating. Well, it’s good to see someone was in mid-season form. There were about four close/critical calls in this game and the zebras missed on two of them. I do not believe that Kent State successfully caught the first AJ interception. I think the ball hit the turf. I’m pretty sure that is reviewable, but no one bothered to look. But the worst call of the game (and it may be hard to top this season) was the play where our wide receiver was driven out of bounds about the five, a flag came in, but the ball was ruled "uncatchable". Of course, that ruling ignores the inconvenient fact that the receiver caught the ball without about half his body in bounds. Just imagine what he could have done if he hadn’t been interfered with. Perhaps the rule should be amended to state that if the receiver catches the ball with some part of his body in bounds after interference, you can assume the ball was "catchable". Sigh. I guess one of the endearing things about college football is that some things never change. Someone should call Texas A&M and warn the Aggies what they are getting into.
We’ll know a lot more after next week. I don’t predict outcomes, much less scores, but I do predict that Jones will play a lot fewer positions on Saturday, that barring injury or a blowout we’ll see a lot more of just one quarterback, that any number of Penn State offensive players will be sore next Sunday morning, and that if we lay the ball on the Happy Valley turf close to a half dozen times times we’ll not be celebrating a victory.
It’s nice to have the grades back. And it’s nice to support a football program where most of the attention is about the team on the field and its performance.
The Correspondent From The Tire Store
Kent State Grade
TO COMMENT ON THIS POST, PLEASE CLICK ON THE ABOVE LINK.
Separation.
That's what the Alabama coaches said they were looking for in yesterday's opening game of the 2011 football season. They were looking for "separation" in the heretofore neck-and-neck competition between potential starting quarterbacks A. J. McCarron and Phillip Sims.
They got lots of separation, all right, but not the sort they were looking for. Oh sure, an argument can be made that one QB outperformed the other; indeed just such an argument will follow in today's edition of The Grades. Unfortunately, the separation that dominated the Tide's performance yesterday was the separation of the football from the possession of an Alabama player.
Five turnovers. That's right: five. Four interceptions and a fumbled punt. Four picks is one shy of the ignominious record for interceptions in a game. Against most of Alabama's 2011 opponents-including the one this coming Saturday-that sort of play leads to defeat. If you want a case in point, just look at the box score of Oregon's game against LSU Saturday night. The Ducks out gained LSU and dominated on the ground, but lost three fumbles and an interception.
The coaching staff needs to answer the quarterback question and do so today. It is certainly possible, that the idea they were competing for the starting job contributed to some high-risk decision making on the part of Bama's signal callers. Settle the issue and perhaps the starter will be more content to take care of the football instead of forcing throws to covered receivers.
Readers of The Grades know that a letter grade deduction is imposed from time to time in order to take into account the quality of opponent. That is the case today. Alabama dominated Kent State. Alabama was supposed to dominate Kent State. It's great to hold a team, any team, to less than 100 yards total offense while accumulating 482 yards of your own. The letter grade deduction, is so we fans don't start expecting that sort of statistical imbalance against the other "States" on the schedule; like Penn State six days from now.
Here's how I grade the game:
Offense: C- Alabama earned 24 first downs, rushed for 183 net yards, scored 5 rushing touchdowns and accumulated 482 yards of total offense. A.J. and Phillip combined for 21 completions on 37 attempts for 299 yards and 1 TD. The first four offensive possessions resulted in three TDs and a punt. However dreadful second and third quarters produced seven consecutive possessions that yielded 2 punts, 3 interceptions, one missed field goal and one good FG. The final five possessions of the game generated 3 TDs, a field goal and 1 interception.
The offense had four drives in excess of 40 yards [74, 49, 76, 63] which achieved 3 TDs and a missed field goal [53 yrd attempt at the end of the first half].
Jalston Fowler was the leading rusher with 69 yards on 4 carries including a 49 yard rumble for a score. Eddie Lacy ran for 58 net yards on 8 attempts and scored a 23 yard TD. Trent Richardson gained 37 net yards on 13 rushes and scored 3 rushing TDs. Blake Sims gained 16 yards on 6 carries. From my vantage point, it looks as if we are well supplied with quality running backs. The offensive line, however, didn't start to dominate the KSU defensive line until the last third of the game. At the same time, however, it looked as if our rushing game plan was very vanilla. We did a lot of running up the middle, and attacked the edges of the KSU defense only rarely. Likewise, I don't recall a single play out of the "Wild Tide," although we did run a good deal out of the Pistol formation.
Third down efficiency [2 of 10] was a disappointment. Alabama did not convert a single third down in the second half.
Marquise Maze had his first career 100+ yard game with 8 receptions for 118 yards that included a fantastic TD catch of a rocket from A. J. in the first period. Marquise also lead the team with 253 all purpose yards.
Freshman, DeAndrew White caught 4 passes for 44 yards, Eddie Lacy contributed 76 yards on 3 receptions and Brandon Gibson caught a single pass for 18 yards. Nine different players caught passes. Lacy's 76 receiving yards combined with his 58 yard rushing total placed him second in all purpose yards [134] behind Maze.
Now to the quarterbacks: A.J. completed 14 of 23 passes for 226 yards and a TD. His longest pass completion was 48 yards. Phillip completed 7 of 14 attempts for 73 yards. His longest was 18. Both threw two interceptions. In my opinion, A.J.'s performance was good enough to settle the QB question.
Defense: B+ This was a dominating defensive performance.
KSU was held to -9 yards net rushing. Think about that statistic for a moment. If you gave Kent State the ball at its own 20 yard line, and they ran every single rushing play of the game [including the four passing attempts that resulted in sacks] they would end up at their own 11 yard line.
The Golden Flash achieved only 6 first downs, and were limited to only 90 yards of total offense. Their first 10 offensive possessions ended with punts and they had 13 offensive possessions with 4 downs or less. After scoring a TD on a short field taking advantage of a special teams turnover, KSU's last five possessions resulted in two turn overs on downs, two punts and an interception.
True Freshman, Trey Depriest was the leading tackler with 10 [3 solo] he also had a share of one tackle for loss and was credited with a QB hurry.
Dont'a had 7 tackles [4 solo] half of a sack and a hurry. Courtney Upshaw also had 7 tackles [4 solo]. Vinnie Sunseri and DeQuan Menzie each were credited with 6 tackles. C. J. Mosley had a sack and the Tide's only takeaway [Int.] although several Tide players had interception opportunities that just got away.
The Alabama defense is big, fast, and physical. The pass rush with the front four was putting lots of pressure on the KSU quarterback and on the rare play when we blitzed, KSU had no answer.
Special Teams:
Punting: C Readers of The Grades know that there are certain special team events that result in automatic grades; a blocked punt is either and F or and A+ for example. One of those automatic Fs is a fumbled punt. We had one yesterday that set up KSU's only points. The rest of the punting game, however, was excellent. Cody Mandel handled all the punting and averaged 42.3 yards per kick. Hang time and coverage combined to yield a net of 40.7 yards per punt. Maze, White and Christion Jones shared return duties with Maze gaining 96 yards while White added 34 and Jones contributed 18.
Kicking: B+ Cade Foster averaged 64.4 yards per kick and the coverage unit limited KSU's smothered KSU's return game resulting in a respectable net per kick net of 45.2 yards. The Alabama return game was very effective as well. With only two kick return opportunities, Maze gained 39 yards and White added 24.
Place Kicking: A+ Jeremy Shelly was good from 36 and 32. Cade Foster's 53 yard attempt was long enough but wide. Carson Tinker handled the long-snapping duties to perfection.
Coaching: B If the players get a one-grade deduction for quality of opponent, the coaches should as well. Alabama had only 2 penalties for 10 yards and 69 players participated in the game. If there were any Penn State scouts in the crowd of 101,382, they didn't get a look at much of the Bama playbook. In his post-game comments Coach Saban observed that there are good interceptions and bad interceptions and noted that we had both kinds against KSU. He justifiably singled out Marquise Maze for special mention and alluding to Duron Carter and Darius Hanks, he said there are players who were not available against Kent State who will be significant contributors in future games.
That future is now and it is located in Happy Valley. Penn State warmed up for the Tide by whipping Indiana State 41-7. Look for Marc Torrence to drill into the Nittany Lions later this week in his Behind Enemy Lines feature at Bama On Line. The game will be broadcast on ABC with a 2:30 kick off. Bama fans traveling to the game should pack their crimson colors; PSU has called for its fans to show up for a "White Out."
Coach Bryant used to say that a football team makes its greatest improvement between its first and second game of the season. If the 2011 Crimson Tide makes the improvements that are clearly within its grasp, it will become one heck of a football team and the "separation" we will be discussing will be the growing qualitative difference between Alabama and the rest of college football's elite, starting with Pennsylvania State University.
The Commissioner
Separation.
That's what the Alabama coaches said they were looking for in yesterday's opening game of the 2011 football season. They were looking for "separation" in the heretofore neck-and-neck competition between potential starting quarterbacks A. J. McCarron and Phillip Sims.
They got lots of separation, all right, but not the sort they were looking for. Oh sure, an argument can be made that one QB outperformed the other; indeed just such an argument will follow in today's edition of The Grades. Unfortunately, the separation that dominated the Tide's performance yesterday was the separation of the football from the possession of an Alabama player.
Five turnovers. That's right: five. Four interceptions and a fumbled punt. Four picks is one shy of the ignominious record for interceptions in a game. Against most of Alabama's 2011 opponents-including the one this coming Saturday-that sort of play leads to defeat. If you want a case in point, just look at the box score of Oregon's game against LSU Saturday night. The Ducks out gained LSU and dominated on the ground, but lost three fumbles and an interception.
The coaching staff needs to answer the quarterback question and do so today. It is certainly possible, that the idea they were competing for the starting job contributed to some high-risk decision making on the part of Bama's signal callers. Settle the issue and perhaps the starter will be more content to take care of the football instead of forcing throws to covered receivers.
Readers of The Grades know that a letter grade deduction is imposed from time to time in order to take into account the quality of opponent. That is the case today. Alabama dominated Kent State. Alabama was supposed to dominate Kent State. It's great to hold a team, any team, to less than 100 yards total offense while accumulating 482 yards of your own. The letter grade deduction, is so we fans don't start expecting that sort of statistical imbalance against the other "States" on the schedule; like Penn State six days from now.
Here's how I grade the game:
Offense: C- Alabama earned 24 first downs, rushed for 183 net yards, scored 5 rushing touchdowns and accumulated 482 yards of total offense. A.J. and Phillip combined for 21 completions on 37 attempts for 299 yards and 1 TD. The first four offensive possessions resulted in three TDs and a punt. However dreadful second and third quarters produced seven consecutive possessions that yielded 2 punts, 3 interceptions, one missed field goal and one good FG. The final five possessions of the game generated 3 TDs, a field goal and 1 interception.
The offense had four drives in excess of 40 yards [74, 49, 76, 63] which achieved 3 TDs and a missed field goal [53 yrd attempt at the end of the first half].
Jalston Fowler was the leading rusher with 69 yards on 4 carries including a 49 yard rumble for a score. Eddie Lacy ran for 58 net yards on 8 attempts and scored a 23 yard TD. Trent Richardson gained 37 net yards on 13 rushes and scored 3 rushing TDs. Blake Sims gained 16 yards on 6 carries. From my vantage point, it looks as if we are well supplied with quality running backs. The offensive line, however, didn't start to dominate the KSU defensive line until the last third of the game. At the same time, however, it looked as if our rushing game plan was very vanilla. We did a lot of running up the middle, and attacked the edges of the KSU defense only rarely. Likewise, I don't recall a single play out of the "Wild Tide," although we did run a good deal out of the Pistol formation.
Third down efficiency [2 of 10] was a disappointment. Alabama did not convert a single third down in the second half.
Marquise Maze had his first career 100+ yard game with 8 receptions for 118 yards that included a fantastic TD catch of a rocket from A. J. in the first period. Marquise also lead the team with 253 all purpose yards.
Freshman, DeAndrew White caught 4 passes for 44 yards, Eddie Lacy contributed 76 yards on 3 receptions and Brandon Gibson caught a single pass for 18 yards. Nine different players caught passes. Lacy's 76 receiving yards combined with his 58 yard rushing total placed him second in all purpose yards [134] behind Maze.
Now to the quarterbacks: A.J. completed 14 of 23 passes for 226 yards and a TD. His longest pass completion was 48 yards. Phillip completed 7 of 14 attempts for 73 yards. His longest was 18. Both threw two interceptions. In my opinion, A.J.'s performance was good enough to settle the QB question.
Defense: B+ This was a dominating defensive performance.
KSU was held to -9 yards net rushing. Think about that statistic for a moment. If you gave Kent State the ball at its own 20 yard line, and they ran every single rushing play of the game [including the four passing attempts that resulted in sacks] they would end up at their own 11 yard line.
The Golden Flash achieved only 6 first downs, and were limited to only 90 yards of total offense. Their first 10 offensive possessions ended with punts and they had 13 offensive possessions with 4 downs or less. After scoring a TD on a short field taking advantage of a special teams turnover, KSU's last five possessions resulted in two turn overs on downs, two punts and an interception.
True Freshman, Trey Depriest was the leading tackler with 10 [3 solo] he also had a share of one tackle for loss and was credited with a QB hurry.
Dont'a had 7 tackles [4 solo] half of a sack and a hurry. Courtney Upshaw also had 7 tackles [4 solo]. Vinnie Sunseri and DeQuan Menzie each were credited with 6 tackles. C. J. Mosley had a sack and the Tide's only takeaway [Int.] although several Tide players had interception opportunities that just got away.
The Alabama defense is big, fast, and physical. The pass rush with the front four was putting lots of pressure on the KSU quarterback and on the rare play when we blitzed, KSU had no answer.
Special Teams:
Punting: C Readers of The Grades know that there are certain special team events that result in automatic grades; a blocked punt is either and F or and A+ for example. One of those automatic Fs is a fumbled punt. We had one yesterday that set up KSU's only points. The rest of the punting game, however, was excellent. Cody Mandel handled all the punting and averaged 42.3 yards per kick. Hang time and coverage combined to yield a net of 40.7 yards per punt. Maze, White and Christion Jones shared return duties with Maze gaining 96 yards while White added 34 and Jones contributed 18.
Kicking: B+ Cade Foster averaged 64.4 yards per kick and the coverage unit limited KSU's smothered KSU's return game resulting in a respectable net per kick net of 45.2 yards. The Alabama return game was very effective as well. With only two kick return opportunities, Maze gained 39 yards and White added 24.
Place Kicking: A+ Jeremy Shelly was good from 36 and 32. Cade Foster's 53 yard attempt was long enough but wide. Carson Tinker handled the long-snapping duties to perfection.
Coaching: B If the players get a one-grade deduction for quality of opponent, the coaches should as well. Alabama had only 2 penalties for 10 yards and 69 players participated in the game. If there were any Penn State scouts in the crowd of 101,382, they didn't get a look at much of the Bama playbook. In his post-game comments Coach Saban observed that there are good interceptions and bad interceptions and noted that we had both kinds against KSU. He justifiably singled out Marquise Maze for special mention and alluding to Duron Carter and Darius Hanks, he said there are players who were not available against Kent State who will be significant contributors in future games.
That future is now and it is located in Happy Valley. Penn State warmed up for the Tide by whipping Indiana State 41-7. Look for Marc Torrence to drill into the Nittany Lions later this week in his Behind Enemy Lines feature at Bama On Line. The game will be broadcast on ABC with a 2:30 kick off. Bama fans traveling to the game should pack their crimson colors; PSU has called for its fans to show up for a "White Out."
Coach Bryant used to say that a football team makes its greatest improvement between its first and second game of the season. If the 2011 Crimson Tide makes the improvements that are clearly within its grasp, it will become one heck of a football team and the "separation" we will be discussing will be the growing qualitative difference between Alabama and the rest of college football's elite, starting with Pennsylvania State University.
The Commissioner
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)