Alabama's defensive struggles on 3rd-and-long

JustNeedMe81 · Oct 31, 2014

Read the article on Alabama Defense Struggle on 3rd downs. Click here.

Then go and read this article as well: Click here

What's most concerning for Alabama is it started off the season so promising. In September, the Crimson Tide allowed opponents to convert 12-of-50 third downs. In October, it was 28-of-65.

Alabama forced opponents into third-and-7 or longer 42 times in October. Opponents converted nearly 43 percent of them.

My take on the articles: I'm little concerned about that. We're just not closing the deal on third and long situations. I think the Tennessee game showed us that we were not tackling well, executing our assignments like we were supposed to. The game was somewhat a fluke, because Dobb was unexpected situation, but not an excuses though.

This tells me that if we can do better job on 3rd downs, we can get off the field faster and this creates more opportunities for Offense to put more points on the board. I'm very impressed with Alabama 4th down play.. perfect 0 for 8 against Bama boys in that situation.

Should we be concerned? I don't think so. I think we'll see much more improved defense against LSU, but when it comes to Miss State... that's another discussion for other time.

JBama_in_PCOLA · Oct 31, 2014

I'm hardly concerned. We have usually have trouble when the game is well in hand.

TideEngineer08 · Oct 31, 2014

I haven't looked at the numbers but my instinct tells me we haven't been a good 3rd and long defense in a couple of seasons.

We don't blitz well and we haven't since Rolando McClain, Erik Anders, and Javier Arenas. Yet, we choose to on 3rd and long so often. I'll bet the majority of those stops on 3rd and long came when we only brought 4, and a majority of those conversions happened when we blitzed.

bamaga · Oct 31, 2014

Two things I noticed . The third and long problems are directly attributed to the young secondary as those are passing downs. The way our defense is taught allows quick routes to be successful against our inexperienced DBs . We should be getting better, though, not worse. A good example was the TD in the end zone over TB vs Tennessee. The coverage was tight , but learning to read the receiver and turning around to find the ball is critical. What truly concerned me in the Tennessee game was UT getting wide on us. The outside backers and safeties kept getting sealed inside . That will definitely not be good against a team like Auburn coming up.

RollTide1224 · Oct 31, 2014

TideEngineer08 said:
I haven't looked at the numbers but my instinct tells me we haven't been a good 3rd and long defense in a couple of seasons.

We don't blitz well and we haven't since Rolando McClain, Erik Anders, and Javier Arenas. Yet, we choose to on 3rd and long so often. I'll bet the majority of those stops on 3rd and long came when we only brought 4, and a majority of those conversions happened when we blitzed.

This times a million...see arkansas game.

Con · Oct 31, 2014

bamaga said:
Two things I noticed . The third and long problems are directly attributed to the young secondary as those are passing downs. The way our defense is taught allows quick routes to be successful against our inexperienced DBs . We should be getting better, though, not worse. A good example was the TD in the end zone over TB vs Tennessee. The coverage was tight , but learning to read the receiver and turning around to find the ball is critical. What truly concerned me in the Tennessee game was UT getting wide on us. The outside backers and safeties kept getting sealed inside . That will definitely not be good against a team like Auburn coming up.

I was thinking about the wide runs the other day and I am glad you brought this up. They were discussing this same thing up here on the radio bragging about how well the UT receivers were blocking. I noticed this too, but I also felt as though a lot of it was holding. I hadn't noticed our DB's being manhandled that bad this year, so UT must have been more physical, or they just plain out hold better than the other teams do. I guess if you are a DB coach it was holding and if you are a receivers coach it was good clean blocking though.

JeffAtlanta · Oct 31, 2014

TideEngineer08 said:
We don't blitz well

You've hit on the #1 cause. I'm not sure why, hasn't been able to blitz well for about 4 or 5 years. We either lose containment on 3rd down or the rush is so controlled and methodical that the QB has time to pick the secondary apart.

Maybe because we tend to blitz from linebacker position rather than from the line?

bama579 · Oct 31, 2014

^^

Isn't a blitz sort of by definition something other than the normal setup along the line? From LBs or DBs?

The second linked story goes into how our performance on third down defense is worse in Oct than Sept. Well, duh. Look at who we played in both those months. . Other than WV [august 30] there wasn't a particularly scary offense on the schedule in Sept. So how does than square up with manhandling aTm in Oct? It's puzzling.

My predicting and powers are at an all time low this season.

TideMom2Boys · Oct 31, 2014

I would like to see our numbers once we shortened the field. Seems like we are at our best after they reach our side of the field? Almost like a bend don't break defense.

I think that is how we will beat teams like Auburn. They rack up yards, but once they get to our 40 yard line..we shut them down on the shorter field.

JeffAtlanta · Oct 31, 2014

bama579 said:
Isn't a blitz sort of by definition something other than the normal setup along the line? From LBs or DBs?

A blitz can come from walking LBs or DBs up to the line or from blitzing them from their normal position.

For example, the Redskins blitzed Dallas a lot last Monday and they mostly brought everyone up to line. They did have some effective blitzes from the DB position as well though.

Alasippi · Oct 31, 2014

When we rush the passer like we did against A&M, our secondary suddenly becomes very good

There's not a team in America, other than us, that could beat A&M 59-0.
Once the game was quickly out of hand at UT, we backed off.
Don't read too much into the stats after we got ahead 27-0.
We're a young team who struggled early but who is getting very good at the perfect time.
sip

rgw · Oct 31, 2014

I think it comes down to the secondary. We're stuck in a weird situation where aggression with the blitz usually has our safeties losing guys in man coverage between the hashes and coverage leads to just enough time that our perimeter corners get beat in one on one plays for the ball.

That is really the looming problem with our defense: none of our safeties are exceptional in man coverage and none of our perimeter corners seem capable of identifying the ball in the air.

bamaga · Oct 31, 2014

TideMom2Boys said:
I would like to see our numbers once we shortened the field. Seems like we are at our best after they reach our side of the field? Almost like a bend don't break defense.

I think that is how we will beat teams like Auburn. They rack up yards, but once they get to our 40 yard line..we shut them down on the shorter field.

That has never been Nicks MO. That is a principle for less aggressive type defense, he likes to get off the field, keep the defense fresh and control the ball on offense. The longer you keep a defense on the field , the greater likelihood of getting tired and giving up cheap scores.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk yuuyyyy

AgentAntiOrange · Oct 31, 2014

IMHO, our back 7 has been better than our front 7 for at least a few years. Be it scheme or individual play, we just don't win a whole lot of individual battles on the DLine. Our trademark has been exotic zones, strong man coverage, and the occasional Nickel blitz.

With an inexperienced secondary we need the front 7 to step up in the form of quick QB pressure without all out blitzes. Most of our QB pressure comes when a properly executed zone gets a QB antsy and he starts to look for running lanes. In particular, we need pressure from the interior DLine. We're going to see a decent amount of zone/read and mobile QBs over the next few games. Interior pressure, without extra blitzers, disrupts both of these things.

dadleyblane5 · Oct 31, 2014

Alasippi said:
When we rush the passer like we did against A&M, our secondary suddenly becomes very good
There's not a team in America, other than us, that could beat A&M 59-0.
Once the game was quickly out of hand at UT, we backed off.
Don't read too much into the stats after we got ahead 27-0.
We're a young team who struggled early but who is getting very good at the perfect time.
sip

This......

TIDE-HSV · Nov 1, 2014

What's the mystery is that we keep on recruiting DL who can bring interior pressure and, for one reason or another, it just doesn't work out...

Search

Alabama's defensive struggles on 3rd-and-long

JustNeedMe81

Hall of Fame

JBama_in_PCOLA

TideFans Legend

TideEngineer08

TideFans Legend

bamaga

Hall of Fame

RollTide1224

All-American

Con

Hall of Fame

JeffAtlanta

All-American

bama579

Hall of Fame

TideMom2Boys

Hall of Fame

JeffAtlanta

All-American

Alasippi

Suspended

rgw

Suspended

bamaga

Hall of Fame

AgentAntiOrange

1st Team

dadleyblane5

All-SEC

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator

New Posts

Latest threads

TideFans.shop - NEW Stuff!