Hurray for the return of The Grades. Excellent job, Commissioner. Good to see that your time “on the bench” has not impacted delivery of this fundamental public service.
Down here at the Tire Store Saturday night, we were reminded
of a very old formula for winning a football game -- run the ball, stop the
run, don’t turn the football over. When
last we left the Crimson Tide, they had failed, pretty spectacularly, in
applying that formula to a Big-However- Many team. Saturday night at least, it appeared that
things were moving back to the basics.
Alabama ran the ball with authority, smothered what may be the best
rushing attack in its opponent’s conference, and had 0 turnovers. More about all of this below. Before that, Alabama put together a solid win
on a day when some iconic programs were not able to do so, Penn State lost to
Temple, Michigan lost to Utah, Nebraska lost, Texas was embarrassed….
In short, we should not overlook the fact that Alabama again took care
of a quality opponent to start the season.
Offense: We thought
the offense looked pretty good for a first outing. All the quarterback talk through the Spring
and Summer seemed to revolve around why no one and stepped up and been named
the starter. To an extent, that
discussion somehow evolved into, “none of the quarterbacks are any good”. We don’t think that is the case. From what we saw Saturday night, it looked
like at least two of the quarterbacks are pretty good and capable of directing
the offense. After the first drive, at
least, Coker seemed comfortable. He took
a couple of needless sacks and just missed on a couple of long throws, but we
hope and expect that will get straightened out as the season goes along. Bateman played pretty well in relief, though
without perhaps the same opportunities that Coker had.
The offensive line, which has been more or less the same
five guys since the Spring, played pretty well, too. They seem better at run blocking than pass
blocking right now. Having lost
receivers who have made NFL rosters like Cooper and White, there was concern
about who would step up to run crisp routes and catch the ball. Lots of receivers participated in the
game. All of them looked pretty
good. The one we were most excited about
was freshman Calvin Ridley, who reached up an snatched a couple of bullets out
of the air. We like a player who reaches
up and catches the ball with his hands, not gathering it into his chest. If he and the quarterback can adjust their
timing just a bit on deep balls, he may have a great season. Mullaney, a transfer from Oregon, reminded us
just a bit of Kevin Norwood. Also nice
to see OJ Howard pulling in passes.
But the first part of the formula is about running the football,
and Alabama did that with authority.
Henry and Drake racked up yards in bunches. It was interesting to see how Drake would
play after his horrific injury on that God-forsaken turf they have over in
Oxford. We did not perceive any lasting
effects. Henry took over the lead back
role -- it seemed to fit him just fine.
He seems a little bigger than last year, and maybe faster, too. He did not hesitate in the backfield as he
did on occasion last year but plowed forward, hole open or not. It’s exactly what he needs to do. For our money, though, his best play of the
night was when he stayed in to protect on an obvious passing down. A Wisconsin linebacker who was blitzing on
the play hit Henry and then just bounced back about three yards towards the
line of scrimmage. It looked like the
Wily Coyote running into some sort of weird spring loaded door he had set as a
trap for the Roadrunner. All that was
needed was a cartoon sound effect.
Defense: As the Commissioner has chronicled, the defense
played very well. Make no mistake,
Wisconsin is, and will be, a serious force in their Conference. They averaged over 400 yards rushing per game
last season. They have a massive (if somewhat
inexperienced) offensive line and a very experienced quarterback. That offense managed one good drive in each
half. And frankly, the second half drive
was against mostly the Alabama second string.
Reggie Ragland was all over the field, both coaching up his teammates
and knocking down ball carriers. As the
game went on, Alabama was getting to the quarterback with four rushers, because
Wisconsin had largely abandoned its running game.
Step two of the formula, stop the run, was handled in
excellent fashion. Alabama will see
teams with better running games, Arkansas comes to mind, but not many and not
that much better. The front seven, variously
described as “vicious” and “Best in America” pretty much lived up to the
billing. Wisconsin found very narrow
running lanes. As the game wore on the front four brought more pressure, and batted down passes. A’Shawn Robinson plays as mature as he
looks. Freshman
nose tackle Daron Payne has slimmed down to a mere 315 pounds. He’ll be exciting to watch. The young defensive backs need experience to
go with their God-given talents. As
Coach Kines used to say, “You can’t learn to ride a bicycle sitting on the
porch.” I expect this unit to continue
to improve week-by-week.
ST: Oy vey. As much good news as there was on offense and
defense, the bright spot on special teams was that we kicked off the football
into the dadgum endzone (at least mostly) which is a positive change. We didn’t muff fielding any kicks, though
Cyrus Jones being back there makes us hold our breath like someone was turning
rotors in the shop. Just don’t get hurt,
CJ. Otherwise, it was a forgettable
night. We missed two very makeable field
goals, which didn’t even matter to people who had bet on Alabama to cover, but
sure as heck will matter before the end of December. Worse, our punter who last season may have
been the best punter in football, (not college football, ALL of football), was
very pedestrian. Maybe that big,
low-hanging scoreboard was bothering him.
One of the commentators said he had not had a good fall camp, though it
was the first time we’d heard that.
Anyway, something has changed for a player that was averaging over 50
yards a kick on A-Day. Hoping it was
just an off night and is out of his system.
Coaching: We’d give
the coaches a high grade. The team was
ready to play. Most commentators feel
like having a quarterback “controversy” is upsetting to a team. This is at least the third time since Coach
Saban came that we have gone into the season with no clear “starting”
quarterback -- once we won the National Championship and once we won the
SEC. They appear to know how to handle it. Our halftime adjustments were excellent. Kiffen continues to call plays that should go
for touchdowns, though sometimes the execution is lacking. Our estimate is that Alabama left at least 13
and maybe 20 points on the field through poor execution. I’m not fan of the new “card” system, but
there were very few plays Saturday where the play clock was an issue. We would give demerits for clock management
at the end of the half. For some weird
reason, that has never been a strong suit for Saban-coached teams. But if that’s the biggest gripe we have for a
team that is replacing as much as Alabama is this year, we’ll take it.
One interesting thing to conclude this already-too-long
Report. Coach Saban preaches to the
players about forgetting the last play, forgetting the score, forgetting everything
else in favor of focusing on doing your absolute best on the upcoming
play. In an interview after the game,
Derrick Henry said that he didn’t actually know that it was 4th and
1 when he took the handoff for his highlight reel touchdown run. He just played his best on that play -- secured
the football, hit the hole hard, ran through a tackle, and outran everyone on
the defense to the end zone. To be
honest, I’m not all that sure any of the Wisconsin DBs wanted to catch
him.
We think if Saban can get the rest of the team to follow his
philosophy as demonstrated by Henry on that play, it’s going to be a very
exciting season. On to MTSU, which put
70 points on Jackson State Saturday. It’s
good to have football back.
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