The Good The Bad and The Ugly WVU

Crimson Flyboy said:

The good: Yeldon and Henry both rushed for over 100 yards, the OL looked very good, the defense only gave up 28 yards rushing.
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Forget about the tackles for losses,that's all part of it - just like a qb back to pass but runs for his life and picks up yardage. It all counts, deal with it. The d line stepped up in the second half, from what I saw - in the third quarter for sure.

Crimson Flyboy said:

The good: Yeldon and Henry both rushed for over 100 yards, the OL looked very good, the defense only gave up 28 yards rushing.

The bad: A lack of pressure from the defensive line, and the pass coverage from the corners.

The ugly: The play of Blake Sims. I still don't get it. He under threw deep passes and threw behind the receivers on crossing routes. His passes were inaccurate and lacked force.



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ugly play of sims?? blake was one of the bright spots yesterday. he had a 72% completion rate (9 incomplete passes, 3 dropped), 250 yds and quite a few rushing yards. he also led the team on 3 80+ yd td drives and four long field goal drives. we punted twice.

Crimson Flyboy said:

The good: Yeldon and Henry both rushed for over 100 yards, the OL looked very good, the defense only gave up 28 yards rushing.

The bad: A lack of pressure from the defensive line, and the pass coverage from the corners.

The ugly: The play of Blake Sims. I still don't get it. He under threw deep passes and threw behind the receivers on crossing routes. His passes were inaccurate and lacked force.



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Ok, first let me say this is not directed specifically at the poster I quoted above but yet all fans who feel this type of negative comments are warranted. I am so sick of hearing this BS. Thats Bull Stinky for the mods. Sims had a 72% completion percentage. Throw in three drops that were between the numbers he would have been at 82%. Had a 7.6 yards per attempt average. Hill at A&M had 73% completion and a 8.5 yards per attempt. If Jones catches the one 60 yard bomb that hit him in the hands, Sims two numbers are better than Hill's numbers. Sure he threw one low pass to Cooper and he made a bad decision to throw towards OJ. Show me any OC who would not take 72% completion from his QB. Stop with the Sims hate. Just say you dont want him playing QB. Dont make excuses that are not valid because you have a bias against him playing QB.

I prepose we place a one week ban to anyone dogging Sims before we even lose a game. Not only are you disrespecting one of our leaders you are disrespecting the best coach in college football who feels he deserves to be starting. Take your negative comments to another board. This is exactly what I cant stand about fans who sit at home, never played or never coached and yet think they have all the answers. What would those same fans be saying if Coker had started and thrown 3 INT's and we lost? Let me tell you. Those fans would be raking Saban over the coals.

Please excuse me for the rant. But I am sick of hearing empty excuses from the wannabe experts.

twofbyc said:

Forget about the tackles for losses,that's all part of it - just like a qb back to pass but runs for his life and picks up yardage. It all counts, deal with it. The d line stepped up in the second half, from what I saw - in the third quarter for sure.

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I will say this though. They had 48 yards at half time. That mean the backs had 0 in the second half. Couple that with the sacks, that pretty good for our defense.


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One other UGLY: On the 100 yard K-O return, that guy should have been stopped inside the 20 by #2?. I think it was #25, could be wrong. I'll have to see the replay.

Skeeterpop said:

Ok, first let me say this is not directed specifically at the poster I quoted above but yet all fans who feel this type of negative comments are warranted. I am so sick of hearing this BS. Thats Bull Stinky for the mods. Sims had a 72% completion percentage. Throw in three drops that were between the numbers he would have been at 82%. Had a 7.6 yards per attempt average. Hill at A&M had 73% completion and a 8.5 yards per attempt. If Jones catches the one 60 yard bomb that hit him in the hands, Sims two numbers are better than Hill's numbers. Sure he threw one low pass to Cooper and he made a bad decision to throw towards OJ. Show me any OC who would not take 72% completion from his QB. Stop with the Sims hate. Just say you dont want him playing QB. Dont make excuses that are not valid because you have a bias against him playing QB.

I prepose we place a one week ban to anyone dogging Sims before we even lose a game. Not only are you disrespecting one of our leaders you are disrespecting the best coach in college football who feels he deserves to be starting. Take your negative comments to another board. This is exactly what I cant stand about fans who sit at home, never played or never coached and yet think they have all the answers. What would those same fans be saying if Coker had started and thrown 3 INT's and we lost? Let me tell you. Those fans would be raking Saban over the coals.

Please excuse me for the rant. But I am sick of hearing empty excuses from the wannabe experts.

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Al A Bama said:

One other UGLY: On the 100 yard K-O return, that guy should have been stopped inside the 20 by #2?. I think it was #25, could be wrong. I'll have to see the replay.

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it was #23 i think. i had no idea who a lot of the players were yesterday, and the picture quality was so poor, i couldn't read a lot of the names.

Al A Bama said:

One other UGLY: On the 100 yard K-O return, that guy should have been stopped inside the 20 by #2?. I think it was #25, could be wrong. I'll have to see the replay.

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You are right. Bama stopped pursuit of it after it was thought he was going down. That cannot happen.


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It is not disrespectful to give my opinion about the play of a player on the team. I try to be as unbiased as I can, which can be difficult because I am a long time Bama fan. If we take Coach Saban's advice and look at the process and not the results, this was a poor game. And that throw to Jones was under thrown.


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It is disrespectful. And more so completely inaccurate factually to say his play was Ugly. He was very efficient. As for Saban's advice? Try his post game comments. The performance was not poor. It is what it is and we are where we are. He sounded very comfortable with how Blake played and knows he can improve and play even better.

Im done going back and forth on this. Just try to keep unjustified negative comments off the board. Thanks

Al A Bama said:

One other UGLY: On the 100 yard K-O return, that guy should have been stopped inside the 20 by #2?. I think it was #25, could be wrong. I'll have to see the replay.

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It was #23, Jabriel Washington. I saw about two holding calls that should have been called on that play. Those are always missed, though.

Crimson Flyboy said:

It is not disrespectful to give my opinion about the play of a player on the team. I try to be as unbiased as I can, which can be difficult because I am a long time Bama fan. If we take Coach Saban's advice and look at the process and not the results, this was a poor game. And that throw to Jones was under thrown.


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Yet, it still should have been caught. Instead of trying to catch the pass like he was on a slant route, Christion should have caught the ball in his arms.

RTR91 said:

It was #23, Jabriel Washington. I saw about two holding calls that should have been called on that play. Those are always missed, though.



Yet, it still should have been caught. Instead of trying to catch the pass like he was on a slant route, Christion should have caught the ball in his arms.

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Christion should have caught the ball, it hit him square in the hands. He tried to run with the ball before he caught it. It was badly under thrown, however. A good pass would have been in the end zone and led to an easy touchdown.


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Crimson Flyboy said:

It is not disrespectful to give my opinion about the play of a player on the team. I try to be as unbiased as I can, which can be difficult because I am a long time Bama fan. If we take Coach Saban's advice and look at the process and not the results, this was a poor game.


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I can see where people can have their opinions on how he played, and many opinions either way can be legitimate in their own ways. But you also have to understand that this has been a touchy topic ever since the realization that AJ wasn't going to be behind center this year, and people have gotten so emotional that any thing that is said that isn't sunshine and rainbows about sims, Coker, or the guy down the street has often been taken out of context as bashing and being a "hater". Has there been blatant shots taken... YES but like I said it's more often than not,people just giving their opinion that actually has some relevance.

Blake sims played a heck of a game, but how good he is remains to be seen on September 20th. I think there are somethings he needs to work on til then mechanically, but we are in good shape with him under center.

If you want to say that he played with composure and didn't panic, I'll agree. But, calling his game a heck of a game is an overstatement. Mechanically, he needs a lot of work. His passes are inaccurate and his arm is not strong. That was plain to see yesterday. Let's just call it like it is, A is A.

By the way, I have no time for "haters" or people who only want to blow sunshine.


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The Good

Griffith looks like the kind of kicker we've been missing the last few years. Shelley was reliable but only at a typically limited range. We finally have a guy like Tiffin who can help cash in stalled drives. When you can start consistently getting 3pts any time you go 40 or so yards, it helps the offense out greatly.

Yeldon and Henry are largely interchangeable as feature RBs. I don't think WVU was a great test for our young OL but the foundation is there for an imposing rushing game.

Blake Sims was very reliable as a short to medium range passer. He had a few bad throws on crossing routes but for the most part he was putting the ball in a spot where receivers could turn and run for YAC (which is important if your passing game is going to be predicated around the short pass).

I also liked Blake's ability to turn nothing into something with his legs. He's no Johnny Football but I think his running ability is an asset to this offense.

Our receivers are impressive. All of the top guys have take-it-to-the-house potential.

The pass rush actually looked improved though WVU was throwing so quick it was hard for it to show up in the stats. When Trickett was in situations where he had to hold the football for routes to develop, he was usually taking heat and getting hit.

The Bad

The defense as a whole didn't perform very well:

The perimeter guys are still having similar struggles to 2013 with positioning and identification of the ball when in the air against deep passes. That improved pass rush I saw is being hampered due to the fact that our DBs are getting burned on fades when they press and getting dink and dunked when they play off. If our DB play improves, I think we will see a lot of sacks this year. If not, expect a lot of DL being 1 second too late on a free rush.

The middle of the defense struggled with run fits against inside zone runs. Youth at ILB and the small size of the DL are likely the faults. I think it will improve with DePriest back on the field.

The Ugly

Blake Sims may be an athletic QB but he hasn't shown that he can do the one thing that makes an athletic QB killer: throw on the run once the pocket breaks down. With our receiving talent if we start cashing in those opportunities with scramble drill plays, we could be a dynamic offense.

The Good:

Offense: I am very pleased with Sims' poise and decision-making. Sims does not have the talent that AJ did and he's likely not going to be Peyton Manning in the NFL but our offense does not need a QB like Manning. We need a ball distributor to the play-makers. He did that very well. Our running backs had a better game than what I was expecting. The o-line gave Sims plenty of time and he was able to extend plays that AJ and GMc were not able to do in their time. The o-line was adequate for our running backs. I thought they did a good job on run blocking but I still would like to see them get a little more physical and create gaping holes for our running backs. This year's game 1 performance of the online was much much better than their performance in game 1 last season. The receivers made the catches that needed to be made -- even more consistently so than WV's "future NFL" receivers. I give the offense an A.

Defense: We got gashed a little early on a few runs but those were shown to be something of a fluke. Once our defensive line (and linebackers -- as far as the run went) got settled, WV found that the ground game was not much of an option for them. They became one-dimensional and then we were able to focus a little better on their passing and keep some of it in check. Our defense put pressure on the QB when it was most needed (I'd have liked to have seen more pressure but it seems we only put it on when Coach Smart dials it up -- I have to believe he knows more about def strategy more than I do though). If the defense was facing a pro-style offense and got the same results, I'd give them a B- but it was against a good HUNH offense (not Ole Miss's mind you), so I have to give them a B+. I would have liked to have seen us put on a 92 or 2011 defensive show like the rest of you but I have to admit I was satisfied with the defensive effort.

Special Teams: Adam Griffith was awesome!!! 4 FG's with 3 of them in the 41-49 yard range. JK Scott's punts were incredible (with 2 punts he avg'd 50.5 yards - 62 being the long one). We had great coverage on the punts and most of the kicks. If we hadn't given up that TD on the kickoff before the half, they would have earned a very easy A+ .... but .... I'll have to give them an A-.

Overall for my expectations coming in, I have to give Bama an A-. I see us finishing 9-3 or better (very likely better) and won't be disappointed one bit unless we play horribly in a bowl game. We are ranked a little high. I see us at about #5 or #6 for the time being.

The Bad:

The kickoff return we allowed for a td. The middle of the field stayed vulnerable for short/medium passes. We were lucky a number of passes were dropped by WV receivers.

The Ugly:

We had more offensive penalties than we should have but that's really it. Hey, I had to put something in for ugly and that was as ugly in my mind this game got. And oh yeah.... Wisconsin's fans chanting "Overrated" at LSU. LSU came back to beat them 28-24 after being down 24-7. Not saying it's why Wisky lost but sometimes when you don't show class it comes back to bite you.

Crimson Flyboy said:

If you want to say that he played with composure and didn't panic, I'll agree. But, calling his game a heck of a game is an overstatement. Mechanically, he needs a lot of work. His passes are inaccurate and his arm is not strong. That was plain to see yesterday. Let's just call it like it is, A is A.

By the way, I have no time for "haters" or people who only want to blow sunshine.


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I never called anyone a hater, I was just saying how people react to statements.

Sims played better than what I thought personally, but I'm not on the "exceeded" my expectations boat that some are. I think he is very serviceable quarterback as long as he continues to improve.

If I had to grade his performance on an A to F scale i would give him a B. The only reasons not an A was because he still has a habit of staring down his receivers and while he made some key throws he missed quite a few as well. Which can be expected for a first time starter.

Overall he had a great outing for his debut.

I am pulling for him, but I am not going to pretend to see something I don't. I want the team to win in the worst way, but I don't want to be that guy who can't see the warts on his own team.


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Crimson Flyboy said:

Christion should have caught the ball, it hit him square in the hands. He tried to run with the ball before he caught it. It was badly under thrown, however. A good pass would have been in the end zone and led to an easy touchdown.


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There were 2 WVU players back on him deep on that play. I actually thought BS made a very smart throw on that play and threw it to an open spot on the field where the WR could make a play on the ball. I actually thought that single play helped open the field for our offense.

I was skeptical the first half of play when BS was out there. And then I realized it is just a total different STYLE of QB that we've had at Bama. Sims is a different type of QB than we're used to seeing (i.e. JPW, GM, and AJM) and now I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing as long as it is in the principle and parameters of the offense.

Stop and think for a minute, what if we have an athlete at QB now that can field the efficiencies that Saban wants in the offense? That has incredible upside. Also, it really appeared the WRs were playing hard for Sims.

Lastly, 12 weeks now this game will have helped our SOS because they may be around the 3rd best team in the big12.