Kent State Grade

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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