The Good The Bad and The Ugly WVU

theballguy

Hall of Fame
Nov 5, 2012
6,268
1,083
187
Roll Tide Roll, Colorado USA
I respect your honesty, CFB and this is not from any disrespect at all but I don't get it.

Sims' start debut was better than both GMc's and AJ's. I'm not saying this team will do the same, but under both GMc and AJ in their first years, we went on to win it all. Now, maybe it's just me but I was very impressed with Sims. CNS's philosophy as far as QB's go is that a good QB is a distributor of the ball to the play-makers, a leader of the offense (and whole team as well), a good and quick decision-maker and one who makes as few mistakes as possible (turnovers). Based on those qualities, I thought Sims did pretty well.
 

tide power fan

All-SEC
Nov 26, 2011
1,424
20
57
The good our kickers, running game , our short passing game, our receivers making yardage after the catch, they have to be the best Bama has had.

The BAD. C Jones missing the long pass He must not have known he was so open. The D letting WVA go up and down the field.

THE UGLY. Penalties, the run back for a TD
 

mulletover

All-SEC
Dec 1, 2009
1,593
0
0
Cullman Alabama
The good - play calling on offense, reaping the rewards of a shifty and mobile QB (I'm looking for more designed run plays from Sims to keep drives alive.) The kicking game, the run game, OL play.

The bad - Linebackers in coverage and their inability to stay out of the trash and she'd blocks. We're to big at LB to consistently defend a spread attack. Gotta get smaller more athletic here against these types of teams.

The ugly - we never contested the short pass on D. corners gave way to much cushion at the LOS. Tackling in space was poor. Some of the worst tackling I've ever seen from a Saban coached Alabama team.
 

edwd58

All-American
Aug 2, 2006
4,710
1,390
187
Good: being at the game and not reading the gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands comments in the game thread.

Bad: being at the game and hearing all the gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands at the stadium. D. White's injury - hopefully he will not miss much time.

Ugly: how we won, but, we did win.

All in all a decent start. Defense only gave up 1 td, lots of passing yards - more than we'd like - but in today's world of short quick passes that is going to be more the norm for awhile. The offense got into the end zone three times, the kickers were awesome, kick coverage was really very good with the one obvious exception, and even then the coverage was good but the tackle was missed. What I tend to like best is that there were things in all phases that CNS can use as examples of where we can improve. I expect portions of the film reviewing section of the next team meeting will not, or were not, be fun to attend.
 

TideFan in AU

Hall of Fame
Good - Solid performance by Blake Sims, dominant performances by Yeldon, Henry, Cooper, and White. Adam Griffith and JK Scott looked great. Despite the crow we took from AU fans, the scholly we spent on Cole Mazza has been a great decision. The dude is money on snaps. On defense, strong performances by Dickson, Allen, and Collins. Dickson had 2 sacks, several hurries, and forced an intentional grounding throw by Trickett that got lost in all the gnashing of teeth about the defense. Reuben Foster played much better in the 2nd half.

Bad - Confusion on defense, mistakes by the green LB corps, and a tough night from our CB's, especially Sylve.

Ugly - The KO return, 4 penalties from Leon Brown resulting in a trip to the bench.

Beautiful - Clint Trickett's helmet-hair resistant hairdo! -lol
 

TideWatcher

All-SEC
Dec 11, 2006
1,814
11
62
newton county, ms
If the defense would have looked greatly improved over last year, your assessment of Sims might be different. He did fine. He isn't great. But he did show some leadership in overcoming obvious nerves to start with. If the defense does not improve a lot, this team is not going to win a championship. But the talent is there; we will see which way it goes. But I agree with you, drinking the Kool-Aid doesn't change the reality.
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.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

IMALOYAL1

All-American
Oct 28, 2000
3,927
246
187
Birmingham AL
in our last game of last season we gave up 348 yards passing and 4 tds to a top 10 oklahoma team that won 11 games last season.

in our opening game of this season we gave up 365 yards passing and 1 td to an unranked west virginia team that won 4 games last season.

if that's improvement, then we're in big trouble.

You take all the fun out of a good win. I saw plenty of potential for this team. My glass is half full and I'm still pouring.:smile:
 

CHATTBRIT

Hall of Fame
Dec 3, 2003
5,762
504
237
Falling Water, TN
Good - RBs, WRs, and improvement of D in 2nd half.

Bad - D in first half, O line penalties.

Ugly - CB's amd LBs slow to read. Poor Sylve was taken to school by #11. He seemed to lose all confidence and technique as the game wore on. Sure he was relieved when 26 took over responsibility for their #11
 

WMack4Bama

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 7, 2008
11,483
1,219
232
Tuscaloosa, AL
I'm late, but here goes..


Good

49 rushing attempts. 0 fumbles.

15 or so targets toward Cooper. 0 dropped passes from Cooper.

33 pass attempts. 0 sacks.

33 pass attempts: 0 missed blocks or sacks allowed or penalties on Cam Robinson

4-4 FGs, 3-3 PATs, all kickoffs in or near the endzone

50.5 yard average on punts

DeAndrew White's blocking on runs and screens

Bad

Amari Cooper's blocking on DeAndrew's bubble screen

Half the guys on both sides of the ball looking around asking what they're supposed to be doing on at least 25% of the plays. It's early in the season, but I've seen little league teams more sure of their assignments.

Ugly

Missed tackles...starting with a missed tackle by a 5th year senior on the first play from scrimmage. It went downhill from there.

Lack of physicality on defense. Haven't seen us pushed around like that on the regular on the d-line since like....2007.


Overall, on defense, it seems that these days, we allow the offense to dictate the game's pace as well as its flow. Clearly, I could be wrong, but this is a snap judgment, and from the outside looking in, it seems like we don't attack for fear of making a mistake. So we play it safe and teams still get big chunks of yardage at a time. And I sit and think to myself that we may as well have made a mistake with how soft we've played the last 4-5 games.

There are games on our schedule that most around the country thought would be tough games for us, but I instead shrugged it off, thinking that we could show up and dominate. We may very well go undefeated this season. But we're gonna have to earn every bit of it.
 

4Q Basket Case

FB|BB Moderator
Staff member
Nov 8, 2004
9,569
12,865
237
Tuscaloosa
I think some posters are over-reacting because this team isn't yet a 2012 juggernaut.

OL was good, understanding that WVU isn't an SEC caliber defense.

Blake Sims was solid, again, understanding that WVU's D <> SEC D. I was especially impressed with his operation in the shadow of our own goal. He converted some 3rd downs that, if we'd had to punt, WVU would have had a short field.

DL was better at pass rush than last year, and I think they will improve as the season goes along.

Running game and rush defense were better than good, especially in the second half.

Defense gave up 16 points, including one touchdown (on a perfectly thrown ball that was essentially impossible to defend).

Kicking specialists were outstanding.

The talking heads raked us for a sub-par performance. But FSU got a pass for a closer game than ours, against an opponent that was comparable underdog. Which means that, in general, they still want us to lose more than anybody. Which means that, notwithstanding the last two games of 2013, they still view us as King. It remains good to be hated.

Now, anyone familiar with my posts knows I'm no Pollyanna in crimson-colored glasses.

Sylve had a bad day, and it was clear early on that the WVU coaching staff had him tagged as a liability. I'm equally sure that our coaches recognized it. What bothered me most was that, given all the circumstances, we obviously STILL felt he was the best option, warts and all. That scared me.

Sims stares a hole in his #1 receiving target. It cost him one pick against WVU. SEC defenses will eat that alive, especially as his arm strength isn't good enough to overcome it on passes longer than 15 yards from point of release (notice I didn't say 15 yards downfield from the LOS). That lack of both arm strength and pinpoint accuracy will become a bigger problem on multiple fronts later in the season.

Why, oh why, can we not prevent the long KO return? We'll have three great stops inside the 20, then throw all that on the trash heap with a breakdown leading to a TD.

Taking into account the competition, I fully understand that Saturday's performance would result in at least four losses later on down the schedule. But we have time and the best coaches in the game. While I'm not predicting 15-0, I am confident that, barring crucial injury, we'll have our playoff fate in our own hands in the second half of November.
 

TideWatcher

All-SEC
Dec 11, 2006
1,814
11
62
newton county, ms
I think you nailed it about the D. Players seem to be trying too hard not to make a mistake and seem flat footed at times. I was worried about the secondary coming in, but did not expect the D line to be pushed around. At the last the line seemed to start getting pressure because of obvious passing situations, which says the talent is there.
 

Chukker Veteran

Hall of Fame
Feb 6, 2001
10,594
5,067
287
The good: Sims had a good day...he did what he needed to to get the win. He even threw a few off-throws to give the folks critical of him something to hang their hat on. I was impressed at how he kept his poise in a high pressure situation. He could have folded after the interception, but he keep things steady.
I'm going to be supportive of Blake...we have rivals who do a good job criticizing our players. Blake needs self confidence as much as anything, and I'm glad to see the board is on board with him.

The bad: I'm not sure what to make of our defense. It's been so reliable under Saban, and now just look at it. It's odd feeling better about the offense than the defense on a Saban team.

The ugly: It's been mentioned before...but it's hard watching our kick return team spot them a touchdown.
 

BamaMoon

Hall of Fame
Apr 1, 2004
20,932
15,935
282
Boone, NC
I'm real late showing up for this thread. Was away from wifi most of the weekend and can just now chime in:

GOOD:
1. Adam Griffen. He accounted for 12 of our 33 points. Clutch!!! I predict he'll win a game or two this year with clutch kicking AND I THINK WE'LL NEED HIM TOO (see below).
2. Scott: What a punter he is going to be...he'll be flipping field position for us all year long!
3. Runnning backs: Nuff said
4. Blake Sims: He far exceeded my expectations. He was actually more accurate than I thought he would be, although he still needs to improve accuracy. His leadership is unquestioned!!! I like his positive attitude, even after he threw the INT he bounced right back. I like his scrambling skills, although I was surprised he got tackled in the open field a couple of times in one on one situations when I thought he might allude that one tackler.

BAD:
Defense:
1. I was so disappointed with our defense, overall. Worst tackling I'm seen from Bama since the 07 season before CNS taught our guys how to tackle that year. I've never seen so many missed tackles all over the field. Never! I think we may have to have some live tackling in practice to improve on this (which opens up to more possibilities of injuries).
2. DL got pushed around early in the game, but they did stiffen as the game wore on.
3. LBs: Where's the faster linebacker pursuit that we've heard about??? WV had running backs in the flats that were wide open all day long and I'm surprised they didn't abuse us more.
4. DBs: I don't know what to say, honesty!

Offense:
1. Blake Sims: (remember the good above) but he cannnot continue to laser in on his primary target. He likes AC but once we meet a better secondary AC won't always be wide open like he seemed to be Saturday. I am concerned about BS's ability to stretch the defense with deep throws over the middle and long corner and post routes. It's not that he can't throw the ball 50 yards, but whether he has the zip, accuracy and placement on those types of throws. I can throw a football 50 yards, but I have to put a lot of air under it to do so and that won't work against SEC elite talent. So there is a difference in being capable of it and actually doing it in such a way that works. That's my concern.
2. Offensive explosiveness. We only scored 21 points off tds, which was a concern of mine in the pregame prediction thread. I had predicted 26-10, so offensively I wasn't too far off. The "exposive" plays that we've seen the last few years wasn't there. I think CNS defines an explosive play as 16+ yards. The dink and dunk passing won't produce that, especially against a more elite defense.


UGLY:
It's hard to say anything was "ugly" cause we won but:
1. KO return coverage, but it was really about a missed tackle (see above).
 
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