Thanks for that set of Grades, Commissioner. Your catalog of ugly things is quite the
entertaining list, though the Arkansas game may set a new standard. A few years from now, we might take a look at
cheerleader from, say, a school in Lee County and say, “Man, she’s uglier than
the 2014 Arkansas win”.
We mostly agree with the grades. Something about the game reminded us of the
Stallings’ era.
Special Teams:
We suppose it would be charitable to say that our special
teams play is “inconsistent”. Our punter
continues to have one of the most solid and successful first seasons of anyone
we can remember. He has been the single
constant over this season. Kickoffs,
which were a disaster last week (it may not be too much to say that with average
play there last Saturday Alabama might be undefeated this morning) were much
improved Saturday. We had at least one
touchback and the kicks that weren’t touchbacks were well-covered by
disciplined players who stayed in their lanes. Do not forget that Arkansas had a highly-rated
kick off return game going into Saturday. We are blocking PATs, almost a lost
art outside of Frank Beamer teams.
On the other hand, we now seem unable to catch punts (or
hold onto the ball after we do catch them).
Blockers for punt returners can’t seem to avoid contact with the ball. Our
celebrated place kicker has suddenly become unable to find the target (though
folks more knowledgeable than we are have mentioned that some of the missed
kicks may be at least a shared responsibility between the kicker and the
holder, which makes some sense). By all
reports this facet of the game is as solid as an elephant in practice. At any rate, putting it charitably, strong
special teams play has just not been a consistent feature of the Saban tenure,
now at 100 games. Every single football
team in America from 9th grade up, kicks off, covers kicks, kicks field
goals, and punts and field punts -- many of them without resorting to putting their
very best players on kick coverage. There
is no excuse for a team with the talent and support available at the University
of Alabama to have anything less than adequate, if not outstanding, play in
this phase of the game.
Defense:
The defense did finally come around. They got better over the course of the game
and show signs of getting better over the season. Arkansas went against type, throwing the ball
around the field in the first half.
Following what Coach Kiffin likes to do, they concentrated on getting
mismatches where they had tall strong players, like tight ends, covered by our
smaller faster players and/or had
smaller faster receivers matched up with our linebackers/strong safety. That was quite a twist for an Arkansas team
that barely reached double digits in pass attempts in a couple of previous
games.
Their quarterback also showed
good decision making skills. Certainly the Move People team gave up enough 3rd
and longs on Saturday, particularly in the first half, that my dogs were hiding
under the coffee table and my wife had to remind me that the sofa I was sitting
on was new this summer. Their excellent
rushing attack behind a huge offensive line never really got going. When Alabama started to get pressure with
just a four-man rush, the Arkansas offense was in trouble. Finally, by the fourth quarter, you started
to get that sense that it didn’t really matter what the Hog offense tried to
do, it wasn’t going to be all that successful.
Good thing, because….
Offense:
The offense seems to be on life support. Perhaps losing Drake and Kelly really did
hamstring (no pun intended) this team worse than anyone forecast. Perhaps opposing defensive coordinators have
figured out a combination of containment rushes and downfield coverages that
are neutralizing Blake Sims. Perhaps
running backs are tentative waiting for holes that the current incarnation of
the offensive line isn’t opening or perhaps the running backs aren’t quick
enough to openings that are created. Perhaps there are keys other teams see in our
plays so that quick screens and reverses end up with two or three more
defenders than blockers at the point of attack. Our attempted quarterback sneak looked Sims
was trying to jump and see over the big kid’s heads at a parade instead of
bulling ahead for the needed 12 inches. We
sure aren’t smart enough to figure out what is wrong. But somebody needs to and pretty darn quick. Alabama managed six plays and no first downs in
the first quarter -- that would often be a statistic you would point back to
after a loss. Alabama did not have a first down after the
12:36 mark of the fourth quarter. Ten
points last week and 14 this week are not trends that this team can continue
and have a successful season, at least by Alabama standards. If it is not lack of effort and we
wholeheartedly agree that does not appear to be the issue, what is it? Which leads to….
Coaching:
No two ways about it, Alabama’s coaching effort before this
game earned that F- and we note that covers the entire grading scale between 53
and 0 (Miss Worley reminded us of this immutable mathematical fact in her Latin
I class).
This week may set up as one of the more challenging coaching
weeks since 2007. Texas A&M should
be coming to town with something to prove after a pretty embarrassing showing at home
against Mississippi. Their offense is
built around: 1. tempo and 2. many of the things that Arkansas was successful
with in the first half -- especially mismatches in the throwing game and a
quarterback capable of converting third and long with his legs. Their defense has not proven to be
particularly stout, but neither was Arkansas’ till this past weekend. We expect that if forcefully teaching lessons
and high-decibel vocal admonishment was going to work, it already would have. So if screaming, yelling, and cussing a blue
streak isn’t working, the coaches will probably need to try something else. We, uh, are open to suggestions.
The bottom line is, we were glad to get out of Fayetteville
with a win, even if it was uglier than a three-color bowling shoe.
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