Tire Store Report -- Kentucky

Great Grades, Commissioner.  Glad you and loved ones got to be on campus for the homecoming festivities.

And thanks for reminding folks that stopping the vehicle by for a quick once-over before you head out of town is always a good idea.  We can’t guarantee you won’t have any trouble, but we might find a worn fan belt, a roofing nail in the left rear, or just a battery that may not have the cranking amps you’ll need if you run into a chilly night someplace out of town.  Let us run it down the highway see if we hear or feel anything odd.  So what did we see on Saturday night that leads us to believe Coaches Saban, Kiffin and Pruitt might be making some adjustments this week before taking things out on the road?

Offense:  I don’t know about you, but a couple of times on Saturday evening it looked like the play-calling was less about what it was going to take to win the game and more about testing to see what plays would work, what might have some kinks in them, and which ones should be pulled out of the playbook and shredded.

The rumors are that Kentucky’s defensive schemes have been taken over by the head coach, noted defensive whiz Mark Stoops.  We saw some evidence of that on Saturday night.  Truth was, however, that if Alabama had decided to score 50, it probably could have.  The one series the Commissioner so ably documented where the offense decided to just line up and ram it down the throat of the Kentucky defense was a thing of beauty (at least to us, PAC and BIG XII fans need not apply) and there didn’t seem to be a darn thing the Wildcats could do about it.  At a little different level of competition, I expect we’d have run it about 40 more times.

It’s no secret that the head coach likes to have two running backs to rotate, less a first and second string than a 1 and 1a.  It looks to us as if the system going forward may hold true to that form, with Harris and Jacobs.  Word is Harris was cleared to play on Saturday night but the staff chose to run Jacobs and let Harris continue to recover.  I think the staff is still tuning this up.

Jalen Hurts continues to impress.  He is not perfect.  However, the record is perfect through five games and he brings a dimension that Alabama’s offense has not really featured since, maybe, Tyler Watts.  Or maybe never.  On top of that, he is continuing to improve.  He missed seeing some open receivers on Saturday night.  Uh, the coach seemed to be pointing it out to him.  He still has a little tendency to lock onto a receiver.  On the other hand, he did have a lot of completions.  If teams are going to single cover Calvin Ridley, I think locking on to him is a fine idea.  There has been much hand-wringing about whether he had the ability to throw longer distance passes.  He should have put that to rest by dropping a beautiful pass over Calvin Ridley’s shoulder.  We think a little adjustment is in order here and it may take some time.  We are going to have to patient -- adjust, road test, adjust, road test.  That said, it is well to remember that this time last year he was leading his high school team.

Overall, however, it’s important not to let a rattle in the trunk distract you from the fact that the offense was very successful on Saturday evening.  Ridley had more yardage on his own than the Kentucky offense managed.  Jacobs almost hit that number.

Defense:  One reason the offensive coaches had the luxury of testing out some things is that it just became clear at some point in the first half that the Kentucky offense was not that much of a threat.  That is not meant to be a disrespectful comment about the Wildcats.  Their quarterback, in particular, continued to play hard even when it must have seemed that Alabama had about fifteen players on the field at a time.  They have very good running backs who just could not get much going against the Alabama stop troops.

Let’s not mince words, this is a nasty defense.  It continues to improve.  There is a lot of very experienced leadership out there.  Enjoy this folks.  The pass rush is as good as we can remember, and we go pretty far back.  Reuben Foster slices through formations like a hawk slicing through a flock of pigeons.  Overall, this might be the most talented defense of the Saban era.  Sure, there are a few coverages that could be a little tighter, some blitzes aren’t quite getting home, once or twice a game there will be a missed gap assignment that allows a decent run, but doing much with this defense would be fine-tuning.  Of course, it's not actually critical to have your windshield washer reservoir full, but let it run low and you'll drive through the biggest swarm of gooey yellow bugs in insect history.

By our count, in three games this year our defense and special teams have outscored the opponent.  In fact, our special teams and defense have scored more touchdowns than our defense has given up.  Let them play.

Special Teams:  We continue to have miscues in the kicking game.  They weren’t fatal on Saturday evening, but they could be as we go along.  Midrange field goals continue to be a less-than-sure thing.  We weren’t sure if the issue on the miss was the hold or the kick itself, but that could be critical between now and January.  Let’s fine tune that. When was the last time you saw a football roll between the legs of a player who was facing it and trying to stop it?  Let’s hope that is out of the way.

I cannot imagine how exciting it must be to be in an environment like Bryant Denny stadium on homecoming and have the job of fielding a kick off from the opposing team.  I can see where I would get so excited that I would let the ball hit me in the chest, panic, pick it up, and make the really poor decision to bring it out of the end zone.  However, if I had practiced that a few hundred times and risked getting killed first by the players on the other team and then by the head coach, I like to think I’d remember to just down a ball like that and take the free 25 yards.  Regular readers know that we are big fans of kicking off the football into the dadgum end zone.  We test drove a different setting on that on Saturday.  Let’s hope before next weekend we calibrate that back to where it was and get those wiper blades replaced.

Broadcast:  Despite the fact that ESPN is apparently trying to catch the Commercials Before Sports network in total number of advertisements, we much prefer the ESPN broadcasts.  McElroy did a good job, we thought, with interesting insights into how the Alabama system works.  We’ll not comment about the recent quarterback departure, because this blog is about the current team, not former players.  We did think the commentary on the point was much more insightful than the usual Verne and Gary blather about where they went out to dinner.  Oh, and they seemed to know our players’ names.

In short, the 2016 Crimson Tide seems to be running pretty smoothly.  It could use a little fine-tuning, topping off a few fluids, and maybe a slight bit of alignment.  On the whole, though, we’d take it on a trip over any other vehicle on the SEC lot.

On to Fayetteville for some barbequed Hog.  Roll Tide, everyone.

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