News Article: ESPN: What’s wrong with Alabama’s pass D?

theballguy said:

And that's what bothered me the most watching that game. Attempting the strip when the guy wasn't even wrapped up or close to it. But.... those things can very simply (never easily) be fixed by coaching em up. We've got the best in the business to do that. Sometimes the players may forget this stuff as the season goes on but coaching is there to make sure it's kept to a minimum. Not worried about it really.

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I thought it was more an issue of guys leaving their feet to make a tackle instead of bringing their feet with them as they are instructed. This is a fundamental of tackling and IMHO tough to correct for some guys because it's how they've always done it (because they could get away with it through high school) and has become instinctive. I've seen it many times where they get to the point of tackling correctly in practice but, when it comes game time, they get out there and dive at guys' ankles.

We'll see if this is continues to be an issue for the offending parties.

Count me among those who think we're gonna be just fine on D. This may very well be the most talented team we've had. That being said, nothing takes the place of experience , of which we will get more of every week. Watch for this group to get better each and every week. I think the schedule sets up nicely from a "scheme" outlook , meaning look at the schemes our opponents run offensively and it looks to be that as we gain experience, the different schemes and how well that team runs it, gets tougher as we go along ,again as the schemes //teams get tougher, our experience levels climb outmatching the opponents. We'll be fine - Roll Tide!

The reason it's hard to defend! It is organized chaos!

sabanball said:

And yet BAMA won both of those games.

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Exactly.

The College FB landscape is changing. The HUNH is squeezing all defenses. Phil Savage said as much yesterday. Don't know if it is fair or realistic to be measuring 2011 defensive #'s
Allowing 250 to 300 yds. per game in 2009, for instance, probably would compare better with 350- 400 in 2014.

After 1st week of 2014, 73 teams racked up 400 or more yards of total offense... 11 teams ran 90 or more plays.

BTW- WVU ranked 76 out of 122 teams in total offense after week 1.
We need to put things in perspective. Tide defense will continue to get better.

Small sample of the top 5 teams in:

points per game, yards per game, rushing yds per game, passing yds per game and average plays per game.

Top 5 average in each category 2009 and 2013

PPG-- 40 in '09 and 48 in '13
YPG-- 499 in '09 and 557 in '13
RUSHING YPG-- 289 IN '09 and 316 in '13
PASSING YPG-- 363 in '09 and 378 in '13
PLAYS PER GAME-- 81 IN '09 and 85 in '13

Giving up 6 broken tackles in a game is actually pretty impressive when you consider Derrick Henry breaks that many tackles on a typical run play.

Cool idea: do every kickoff onsides. Like many here, it seems you can stop the HUNH once the field is short and you have 11 guys near the line. So just start near there. Occasionally, you'll recover the kick!

Do punts that way too - punter rolls out and chooses a nearby opponent to kick the ball directly at. Try to recover the live ball, defend the short field if you can't.

(Almost used blue color since clearly this will never happen, but I didn't because it could actually work.)

So we have no defensive problems? :conf2:

BamaJackPA said:

Exactly.

The College FB landscape is changing. The HUNH is squeezing all defenses. Phil Savage said as much yesterday. Don't know if it is fair or realistic to be measuring 2011 defensive #'s
Allowing 250 to 300 yds. per game in 2009, for instance, probably would compare better with 350- 400 in 2014.

After 1st week of 2014, 73 teams racked up 400 or more yards of total offense... 11 teams ran 90 or more plays.

BTW- WVU ranked 76 out of 122 teams in total offense after week 1.
We need to put things in perspective. Tide defense will continue to get better.

Small sample of the top 5 teams in:

points per game, yards per game, rushing yds per game, passing yds per game and average plays per game.

Top 5 average in each category 2009 and 2013

PPG-- 40 in '09 and 48 in '13
YPG-- 499 in '09 and 557 in '13
RUSHING YPG-- 289 IN '09 and 316 in '13
PASSING YPG-- 363 in '09 and 378 in '13
PLAYS PER GAME-- 81 IN '09 and 85 in '13

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This is similar to what I've been saying....we need to adjust our expectations of success on D. WV only had 28 rush yards. One dimensional teams usually don't win.

We will be good.

So the whole world knows that Nick Saban and Alabama have trouble with the HUNH teams.
We here it on the television, we see it in teams gameplan, we read it in the print media, we have many threads on football boards about it.

Where is the list of teams that shut them down and have NO trouble with the HUNH?
Why doesn't the media tell us all about this list of teams that Alabama needs to copy in order to not have trouble against the hunh?

tusks_n_raider said:

The most aggravating part in that whole article is the 6 missed tackles allowed 200+ yrds of YAC. A missed tackle also allowed a 100yrd Kick Return. We have to clean that up and it's mind boggling to be so poor on such a major fundamental.

We need to correct a lot of little things on Defense but Tackling on the first attempt will help immensely.

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yep x 100!

Bamabuzzard said:

I think it is more of a shot at Saban's defensive reputation than anything. Before the HUNH craze teams found it exhausting to score against Saban's defenses. The complexities of it caused opposing qb's so many problems, teams couldn't run against it and so forth. It's like finally getting to see the baddest kid on the play ground get beat up a few times. Other defenses have been mediocre even before the HUNH and they're mediocre after it. So it's no big deal. But Alabama's/Nick Saban's defense hasn't. It was dominant before it and now isn't so dominant when facing HUNH teams. So naturally it draws the most attention.

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Love the analogy...CNS is the kid that beat everybody up and now he has been somewhat neutralized.

I miss the "good ole days" of a corner blitz to throw off a qbs timing, but we just need all hands on deck in the defensive backfield now.

If CNS is wondering what to work on, this article has a detailed outline, but for some reason I figure he's already on it.

Bamabuzzard said:

I think it is more of a shot at Saban's defensive reputation than anything. Before the HUNH craze teams found it exhausting to score against Saban's defenses. The complexities of it caused opposing qb's so many problems, teams couldn't run against it and so forth. It's like finally getting to see the baddest kid on the play ground get beat up a few times. Other defenses have been mediocre even before the HUNH and they're mediocre after it. So it's no big deal. But Alabama's/Nick Saban's defense hasn't. It was dominant before it and now isn't so dominant when facing HUNH teams. So naturally it draws the most attention.

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This ^^^^ for all the trouble we had, we were still in the top 3-5 teams in just about every defensive category last year. We held AU well below their average points and yards and only one other team faired better - LSU. The numbers would have been even better if we convert 3&1 on two attempts. We also held TAMU to below their average. OU was just a debacle though.

That said, I think we can do better than we have, but we have to have a couple of key cogs fall into place from a positional standpoint. We do just have to get used to the fact that the way the rules are, there will be more offensive production, so it's best to not compare to years past, but to how we are doing compared to the rest of the nation for the current year, with the current trends and current implementation and interpretation of the rules that gives a decided advantage to the offense.

Why do people wanna say the sky is falling after one game. I hate to agree with Gary danielson but we only struggle when a qb gets hot. Trickett was on fire with a quick release and wouldve destroyed Knight's numbers against us if not for his wide recievers with vegetable oil laced gloves plain and simple. It happens. we will be better as we get people back and as the season progresses. I really think if we have improvement by Arkansas we will be ok.

The biggest problems I saw on defense were poor fundamentals in tackling and coverage.

In this day and age of tv, the internet, social media, youtube etc., CFB is becoming more about entertainment and less about fundamentally sound teams. The mentality of some players these days is that making the highlights on ESPN trumps making a sound fundamental play. That's one reason tackling is atrocious these days, and more so year after year. It's a "snowball" effect...the players that play with this mentality are gonna be future coaches. Think about it, who gets all the accolades and makes all the highlight reels? The DB that comes up and makes a good, sound tackle, or the DB that comes up and makes the big "hit". The QB who doesn't make mistakes and passes for 150 yards in his teams 10 point win, or the QB that throws for 500 yards and 5 td's in a losing effort.

Now a days it's about entertainment...and entertaining football is replacing good football. As time goes by, I'm afraid, sound fundamental football will be thought of as the "good ol' days".

I think it's the simple fact that we rarely rush the passer effectively and we don't have a speed rusher off the blindside edge.
And I really feel like that's the way our defense is designed.
For example, in our 09 championship year we averaged two sacks a game. That's not very many, and it's never varied much at all.
I'll agree about tackling and our corners struggling, but I'll also say this---a couple of those catches Bradley gave up Saturday were absolute pin point perfectly placed passes that could not have been completed if the ball had been thrown anywhere else.
It's way more difficult for a QB to throw such perfect passes if he is under even marginal pressure.
The secondary is called "the alumni position", because if you give up a play it's easy for all the alumni to see. But what those alumni need to realize is it's what they're NOT seeing that's causing most of the problems, and what they're not seeing is an effective pass rush.
My two cents..
sip

Come on guys, let's not get silly about this. Yes, the D was tested last weekend and there were some obvious deficits. However, it is the first game and there were major adjustments in the second half with Collins on No. 11. With Trey DePriest back calling signals and perhaps an introduction of our uber-talented Frosh CBs. there will be improvement.

Our problem is we, as fans, got spoiled over the previous couple of years with Nat Ch. and last year was a hiccup. first against the boogs and then Okie. It wasn't that long ago when we were suffering the trio of Mikes in charge and we were happy just to get to a bowl game.

Geez, I am so tired of hearing this mess. Yes, we have issues that need to be addressed. But I've said it a million times, coach Saban has an excellent track record of adapting his defenses. The guy's been coaching some form of defense since 1972, and dare I say that he's had some success.

There are clear issues to be tended to, but coach Saban and Smart are going to figure it out. Sip is right on this - the HUNH will eventually be taken care of just like the triple option, run and gun, wildcat, and every other offensive thing that has come along. I like to think our guys will be at the forefront of taking it out. We have the tools to do it.