The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Bama Lee said:

The Good- The defense, Derek Henry, Jacob Coker, Cooper Bateman, and Kenyon Drake.

The Bad- Penalties, our OL not picking up inside out, LB coverage of Wisconsin RB's out of backfield.

The Ugly- our special teams was atrocious tonight. Punting, FG's, Kick off returns (why don't we take a knee), and blocking on punt returns was darn near abysmal. One bright spot was that we covered better on kickoffs.

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you stole all my answers

When we talk about QBs and RBs in the Good category, don't we practically have to include the o-line in the Good?

Sure, we can also ding 'em for holding, etc.; still should be in the plus column overall, methinks, so . . .

Good - Off line. Kenyan Drake sending a few shivers up the spines of Def Coords down the schedule.

Bad - Punting. Place kicking.

Warning: cross post

Good: No turnovers. Derrick Henry and Kenyan Drake. Was GREAT to finally see D Henry hit the line HARD! Note that they did not give him a run that went outside like they usually do. Both QBs played good enough. Robert Foster. OJ Howard. Stewart. Ridley. Ball got spread around. Defensive line deadly. Great open field tackling by our LBs (Reuben Foster). Sticking to the run and not forcing passing plays. Punt coverage. Cyrus Jones punt returns pretty decent. We ran the ball with authority. We're a better team when we do that. Can we get more of that? :biggrin2:


Bad: Pass blocking. DBs gave up a few more longer passes than I'd like. Luckily we weren't playing a team with a serious deep threat. Punting fell off a bit. FG kicking.


Ugly: Penalties. Most of them no excuses. DBs gotta get their head turned around. Refs were honing in on those (maybe too much). Way too many holding calls. Need to clean these up. What was that kneel-down kick return?! Still scratching my head on that one. :conf2:

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.

The Good: The QBs both played well. Henry+Drake is gonna be a tough combo. Like using Drake as an Urban Meyer offense type H receiver with the sweeps...I doubt we've scratched the surface with the possibilities. The defense looks tough on the run and better at pass rushing.

The Bad: Secondary got lost a bit at times.

The Ugly: "Special" teams

theballguy said:

Warning: cross post

Good: No turnovers. Derrick Henry and Kenyan Drake. Was GREAT to finally see D Henry hit the line HARD! Note that they did not give him a run that went outside like they usually do. Both QBs played good enough. Robert Foster. OJ Howard. Stewart. Ridley. Ball got spread around. Defensive line deadly. Great open field tackling by our LBs (Reuben Foster). Sticking to the run and not forcing passing plays. Punt coverage. Cyrus Jones punt returns pretty decent. We ran the ball with authority. We're a better team when we do that. Can we get more of that? :biggrin2:


Bad: Pass blocking. DBs gave up a few more longer passes than I'd like. Luckily we weren't playing a team with a serious deep threat. Punting fell off a bit. FG kicking.


Ugly: Penalties. Most of them no excuses. DBs gotta get their head turned around. Refs were honing in on those (maybe too much). Way too many holding calls. Need to clean these up. What was that kneel-down kick return?! Still scratching my head on that one. :conf2:

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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!!!!!!!

Good - Alabama Football is back!! QB speculation is over. I was right with my Coker prediction so all you naysayers back in March...hahaha! But I digress, safety play by Eddie Jackson, Henry, the power this team has. We overcame nearly all of our foot shots. This team could be special!

Bad - Penalties

Ugly - Nick Sabans pre game shoes, yikes

I'm sure we'll all echo the same sentiments. Here's my contribution to what everyone else is saying:

The Good: run defense, depth across the field, quarterbacks playing mistake free football, Derrick Henry picking up the slack. The Oline play, especially in run blocking, halftime adjustments by the coaching staff, the focus of involving Howard in the pass game.

The Bad: penalties all over the field, the timing between Coker and Stewart on the long balls, playcalling at the end of the first half.

The Ugly: Our entire special teams. Kick returners had no blocking, Scott looks like he's trying to hard instead of focusing on the fundamentals, and Griffith just isn't consistent. I really like Griffith, he's a great guy, but neither of his misses were difficult kicks.

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The OL had some bad penalties but their performance was pretty dang solid considering Wisconsin is normally a pretty good front seven. Considering we're pretty diverse at tailback with Drake's speed and Henry's power, I'm optimistic about the offense in 2015.

Good: Coker, Running the ball, getting our "identity" back by making the other team quit.

Bad: Penalties

Ugly: Special Teams which has been a recurring theme in the Saban era


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rgw said:

The OL had some bad penalties but their performance was pretty dang solid considering Wisconsin is normally a pretty good front seven. Considering we're pretty diverse at tailback with Drake's speed and Henry's power, I'm optimistic about the offense in 2015.

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Amen, brother...

Good...Good QB play. Run Defense.
Bad... Penalties, even thou the referees seemed to find lots of fault, part of those were judgement calls at best.
Ugly... What does it take to fix our kicking game? It was awful. Field Goals have become extinct. Tonight our usually sure footed Punter was anemic. Special Teams were very bad tonight. Where were our blockers when we received Kicks?

I have one question. Why did we run out of the endzone to the seven yard line then take a knee? Did he receive a signal for mercy from our coaching staff? If not, what the heck was he thinking?

I HATE TO BE SO NEGATIVE AFTER A SOLID WIN...

Ole Man Dan said:

Good...Good QB play. Run Defense.
Bad... Penalties, even thou the referees seemed to find lots of fault, part of those were judgement calls at best.
Ugly... What does it take to fix our kicking game? It was awful. Field Goals have become extinct. Tonight our usually sure footed Punter was anemic. Special Teams were very bad tonight. Where were our blockers when we received Kicks?

I have one question. Why did we run out of the endzone to the seven yard line then take
a knee? Did he receive a signal for mercy from our coaching staff? If not, what the heck was he thinking?

I HATE TO BE SO NEGATIVE AFTER A SOLID WIN...

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I do to, but the reality is that the special teams where terrible. There is work to be for the SEC games.

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!

Ole Man Dan said:

Good...Good QB play. Run Defense.
Bad... Penalties, even thou the referees seemed to find lots of fault, part of those were judgement calls at best.
Ugly... What does it take to fix our kicking game? It was awful. Field Goals have become extinct. Tonight our usually sure footed Punter was anemic. Special Teams were very bad tonight. Where were our blockers when we received Kicks?

I have one question. Why did we run out of the endzone to the seven yard line then take a knee? Did he receive a signal for mercy from our coaching staff? If not, what the heck was he thinking?

I HATE TO BE SO NEGATIVE AFTER A SOLID WIN...

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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.

The Good: We showed a lot of promise there, even in the secondary. Henry, Drake, and Harris. Passing game.

The Bad: What happened to the kicking game? Both sides are shot, and they said it has been going on since camp? WHAT?! The secondary looked a bit lost, but it is young overall. The second and third group of OL.

The Nasty: The D line. It is as advertised and maybe even more. The only way they got 40 yards is because of that little end around and someone didn't play containment. At one point they only had 8 yards rushing. EIGHT! They will be nasty from here on out.


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Good: DL and OL play. Jacob Coker played a solid game. WRs looked good despite lack of experience

Ugly: Pass coverage. Pass rush.

Bad: Punting and place kicking was atrocious. Here is the real BAD. Not taking anything away from our overall performance last night, but with the exception of possibly MSU, every SEC team we play will be light years better than Wisconsin.

rolltide_21 said:

Ugly: Special Teams which has been a recurring theme in the Saban era

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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.