The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

selmaborntidefan · Sep 6, 2015

The Good: Derrick Henry, solid O-line play, Coker getting better as the game wore on

The Bad: slant coverage, over the middle, and it appeared that once a lineman got through Coker really isn't capable of getting away from anyone on his own

The Ugly: special teams were awful sans Cyrus Jones, no blocking, kicking is awful, and even the punter had what was hopefully just an off night

The two overwhelming positives are these: a) we won and relatively dominantly on the scoreboard but still have enough problems that Saban can really ride herd on the problems and fix them; b) unlike Michigan 2012 (for example), this is not a case of peaking too soon (as a result of a)

Bama Lee · Sep 6, 2015

Padreruf said:
I think Chris Black was supposed to down the ball in the end zone...but when he saw the open field it was too much...then it all closed down quickly and so he just downed the ball on the 7. CNS was not happy....not at all.

That seemed to happen on several of the kickoffs. A player brought the ball out of the end zone only to realize that they had no where to run. I personally believe that we would be better off just taking a knee in the end zone, thus giving the offense the ball at the 25.

Atl Joe · Sep 6, 2015

lowend said:
Totally agree with this. It seems like the last few kickers we have gotten have been great in high school, come in and do well their freshman years, and then go bust when they're a sophomore. I think it's past time to move on from Bobby Williams as special teams coach.

Whenever I see Bobby Williams, I can't help but remember what he tried to do to Bradlee Van Pelt when he took over for Saban at Michigan State. I think it explains a lot why the kickers and special teams never get better but regress.

theballguy · Sep 6, 2015

Al A Bama said:
I think the reason he kneeled down was because there was NO blocking! We had a lot of people 10 yards from the ball on the K-O and therefore, no one was down field to block. Did we think that the Badgers were going for an on-side kick-off?

Ugly: Coverage of #86 on passing downs as well as that 25+ yard run.

Awesome: the D-line and #19!

Excellent: We WON! RTR!!!!!!!

That makes some sense I suppose. Must have been a semi-planned thing. I didn't see anyone go nuts on the sideline over it and I don't recall the announcers making a big deal of it. Just thought it was odd. Thanks!

theballguy · Sep 6, 2015

Padreruf said:
I think Chris Black was supposed to down the ball in the end zone...but when he saw the open field it was too much...then it all closed down quickly and so he just downed the ball on the 7. CNS was not happy....not at all.

Ok. I missed that part.

theballguy · Sep 6, 2015

VirginiaTide57 said:
From a Wisconsin board . . .

Positives:

We won't have to play Bama again

Negatives:

We're not good enough to get to play them again

Roll Tide!

Heh. They actually were not a bad team at all. To me, they were like Arkansas lite but could throw the ball a little better. Our d-line is nasty. I don't foresee any team being successful on the run against us.

bamanix · Sep 6, 2015

good: qb play, rush game, off line, def def line and linebackers play

bad: way too many penalties, linbackers drop coverage

ugly: not much difference last two years secondary. still not looking for all. special teams.

still a big win

DC Tide · Sep 6, 2015

Good

Front 7's dominance. The first-team limited Wisconsin to approx. 10 yards net rushing. Wow. This Wisconsin team is gonna run for a ton of yards this year; they may end up winning 10 games.
Henry's speed.
Drake's elusiveness.
Ridley's explosiveness.

Bad

Saban's stubbornness about not hiring a proper special teams coach. The last game was a very small sample size, but does it seem like Alabama's kickers always regress after their first year here?

Ugly

Yellow flags. That will get corrected as the season wears on, though.

selmaborntidefan · Sep 6, 2015

Although not on our team, I'd classify both 'bad' and 'ugly' the concussion/injury to Michael Caputo.

I thought he was picking a fight or trying to intimidate at first. I was very sad when I saw he was injured. I hope he's okay, he's a good player.

CullmanTide · Sep 6, 2015

KrAzY3 said:
The good, I'd say most things, the team improved as the game went on and dominated for a good portion of the game. The defensive line was stellar, the running game was to.

I don't even want to call it bad or ugly and I am reluctant to even name him, I don't want or intend to bash but the bad clearly was the place kicking. I think there are things that can improve, but at this point I think the place kicking has to be a major area of concern. I wish Alabama had some alternatives.

At this point the kicker is 13-24 on field goals. That is 54%. To make a comparison. The last kicker who for two years was used exclusively on long kicks, and had his own struggles was 23-40 for 57%. Shelly and Tiffin were 80% (with Foster doing the long kicks) and 74.8% respectively.

Tiffin and Shelly both won titles, and field goal kicking has cost Alabama a few big games. I really hope Alabama can improve in that area, they desperately need it as far as I'm concerned, the idea of missing 20% more of the field goals really scares me. The rest of the stuff I think you can deal with, but if you can't kick field goals, it seems to me sooner or later it will cost you a game.

Nothing will change with our special teams until we get a position coach as qualified as others on staff. If that's too harsh so be it.

JDCrimson · Sep 6, 2015

theballguy said:
That makes some sense I suppose. Must have been a semi-planned thing. I didn't see anyone go nuts on the sideline over it and I don't recall the announcers making a big deal of it. Just thought it was odd. Thanks!

I was at the game and Saban was furious. I fully expect Black to have some extra work to do after downing the ball the way he did.

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BamaWally · Sep 6, 2015

Good - Stout defense, Henry, QB play

Bad - penalties, special teams

Ugly - We are using picture signs on offense ?!?!? Oh please, no!!!

RollTide1224 · Sep 6, 2015

Good - Henry, drake, ol, Coker, and run d led by Mr Ragland. I just liked the way that we controlled the game, I never really felt at risk.

Bad - special teams and their ability to pass on us.

Ugly - special teams. Really hope Scott just had an off night

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beardensdaman44 · Sep 6, 2015

Does anyone not realize that the reason Black had no blocking was because we played the onside kick? He was the lone deep man. I'm pretty sure he had a brain fart. I really don't think it's that big of a deal.

On the other side of things, want Chris Black supposed to be our breakout WR for the past couple seasons? What's going on here?

Philippines · Sep 6, 2015

KrAzY3 said:
The good, I'd say most things, the team improved as the game went on and dominated for a good portion of the game. The defensive line was stellar, the running game was to.

I don't even want to call it bad or ugly and I am reluctant to even name him, I don't want or intend to bash but the bad clearly was the place kicking. I think there are things that can improve, but at this point I think the place kicking has to be a major area of concern. I wish Alabama had some alternatives.

At this point the kicker is 13-24 on field goals. That is 54%. To make a comparison. The last kicker who for two years was used exclusively on long kicks, and had his own struggles was 23-40 for 57%. Shelly and Tiffin were 80% (with Foster doing the long kicks) and 74.8% respectively.

Tiffin and Shelly both won titles, and field goal kicking has cost Alabama a few big games. I really hope Alabama can improve in that area, they desperately need it as far as I'm concerned, the idea of missing 20% more of the field goals really scares me. The rest of the stuff I think you can deal with, but if you can't kick field goals, it seems to me sooner or later it will cost you a game.

Agree 100%. We border on incompetence on field goals.

TideEngineer08 · Sep 6, 2015

Good: Coker looked like a winner at QB. Needs to work on his deep ball but he made a lot of good throws. Henry looked like an All-American. Defensive line dominated. Wrs looked good (Ridley looked just a little like Cooper out there) and I thought we used the TEs more in the passing game. Howard looked great.

Bad: penalties. I'm sure it will get corrected, because it seemed to be mostly new guys. Coverage is still a weak spot but it is improved.

Ugly: special teams. What can I say that hasn't already been said? It's a coaching problem but I truly hope Scott just had an off night and it wasn't that they've "tinkered" with his punting.

Loam · Sep 6, 2015

Good: Henry, Drake, Coker, Foster, OL, DL and LB play

Bad: Kicking on special teams, penalties and some of our DB's are still not getting their heads turned around on some throws. However, I feel like all of the "Bad" that I list here will be fixed by week 3.

I also want to give a shout out to Richard Mullaney. He looks like a good WR pickup for us. Hes one of those types of sneaky WR's that will give defenses fits. OJ Howard looks like hes finally turned the corner too. Hes going to make some plays for us this season.

Con · Sep 6, 2015

Good: the adjustments made by the oline. I felt like the announcers were unfairly bashing big Cam for the early sacks when to me it seemed Cam was passing the defender off to the guard and the guard didn't get him.
Bad: missed fg's and poor punting.
Ugly: Wisconsin cheerleaders

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DzynKingRTR · Sep 6, 2015

selmaborntidefan said:
Although not on our team, I'd classify both 'bad' and 'ugly' the concussion/injury to Michael Caputo.

I thought he was picking a fight or trying to intimidate at first. I was very sad when I saw he was injured. I hope he's okay, he's a good player.

yes the Caputo injury looked scary. Bama players ere pointing out to him that he was on the wrong side and his response looked to be no I am ok let's go finish the game.

day-day · Sep 6, 2015

beardensdaman44 said:
Does anyone not realize that the reason Black had no blocking was because we played the onside kick? He was the lone deep man. I'm pretty sure he had a brain fart. I really don't think it's that big of a deal.

On the other side of things, want Chris Black supposed to be our breakout WR for the past couple seasons? What's going on here?

I had the same thought the moment it happened. It looked like his brain caught up with his feet as he realized he should have downed the ball in the end zone and then he took the knee but oops...too late. At least he didn't run back into the end zone to down the ball. At this point, this may be a good learning experience and will keep him more focused the next time he receiving kicks.

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