Offense out of sync ....

We need to use HOWARD more!!!!

deliveryman35 said:

I'm just having some fun with you.

Actually, I've been banging the pots and pans warning that this would be a 'down season', and that 2016 is actually the season to get excited about. I still believe that.

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I would much rather have an inexperienced offense than defense. Look at who you will lose from this defense. Your 2016 defense is going to be very inexperienced.

The problem with rolling out is that you eliminate up to 3/4 of the field the defense has to defend. Against SEC talent that could be disastrous. Also, if you don't think Coker would throw back across his body to the other side of the field to a seemingly open receiver then you haven't been watching this season.


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Alabama used a rolling pocket very effectively to give McCarron time and space to throw and Coker is at least as mobile and with a stronger arm. He's already done it at least twice this year- scrambling- and has not even looked to the other side of the field. Those plays are usually designed to clear out the defense for short passes in the flat to the H back or FB or safe sideline throws to the WR that have a very low likelihood of being picked off. Isn't that what we're looking for right now with this passing offense?

Well said again Krazy. To me, Coker looked a LOT more comfortable calling the plays especially in the second half. The staff not deciding on a starter before the year started did not
Help. We have a OL that needs to gel and they compounded the problem by putting two guys back there with different skill sets. Both those guys are walking on shells while constantly looking over their shoulder. I'm not at practice so it's difficult to just lay it on the coaches. Clearly they thought neither guy grabbed the bull by the horns. The WRs did not help Jake at all yesterday but they are young too. Their drops killed drives dead but why we continue heaving 50 yard bombs when that is clearly Jake's most problematic throw is beyond me. It just seems that every level from coaches on down is a work in progress. For some reason I think this team will click and when it does it will be deadly. I hope it doesn't take as long as the 2010 did though.


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I know that you had a lot of short fields to work with, but I just watched the game again and was startled to see that you didn't have a single play of 20 yards or longer in the game. Coker only took 2 shots down field the entire game. One was intercepted and the other was knocked out of Stewart's hands at the goal line (great pass and defensive effort). Essentially, ULM played the entire game with its safeties up because they knew that Coker can't make those throws. They played man coverage all night.

Coker actually had a pretty "safe" night. I only saw what I would consider 4 dropped passes (3 in the first half, 1 in the second). He only made one really bad decision the entire night - the interception throw.

Drake and Henry saw almost no action in the second half with Harris getting almost all of the touches. Harris did very well when he touched the ball, but he also whiffed on a few blocks and caused at least one of Coker's sacks.

I am not going to blame coker as long as the offensive line is offensive. only rush plays that are successful are rushes to Robinsons side of the field. as I have said for two years now, Kelly is not that good at center. most of the key deep balls are a no factor is because of any team we play blitzes or rush up the middle gets a pass. the right side with taylor and Jackson is non-existent for runs inside or out. very slow response. dropped passes, missed routes, would cause any qb pain. thank goodness, the defense is getting better each game. the secondary is now showing aggression and

I've said this before, there is something wrong on that sideline guys.

I believe the coaches botched the handling of the QB job after the Wisconsin game and it has had a cascading effect on a young and inexperienced offense. They've got it right now but I don't know if it's in time to save the season. Georgia looms large in Athens. I think we are good enough defensively to shut them down, unless the offense leaves the defense hung out to dry again.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not trying to be critical of the coaches and I'm working with the benefit of hindsight. But IMO Coker proved to be much more effective against Wisconsin and the team seemed to respond better with him in the game. At that point, the decision should have been made. This was abundantly clear after Ole Miss. But it's all spilled milk now.

TideEngineer08 said:

I believe the coaches botched the handling of the QB job after the Wisconsin game and it has had a cascading effect on a young and inexperienced offense. They've got it right now but I don't know if it's in time to save the season. Georgia looms large in Athens. I think we are good enough defensively to shut them down, unless the offense leaves the defense hung out to dry again.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not trying to be critical of the coaches and I'm working with the benefit of hindsight. But IMO Coker proved to be much more effective against Wisconsin and the team seemed to respond better with him in the game. At that point, the decision should have been made. This was abundantly clear after Ole Miss. But it's all spilled milk now.

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It's a fair observation unlike many who just want to throw the quarterback under the bus. The coaches are highly paid professionals who for some reason in my opinion don't seem to be on the same page.

I've seen several references to "......coaches not on the same page....." Can someone enlighten me as to what you (they) have seen that supports that? Honest question, not being argumentative. The offense is clearly out of sync as this thread already points out. I just haven't seen anything I can point to that says the coaches are out of sync also. Because, if they are, that's a problem on a whole different level.

TideEngineer08 said:

I believe the coaches botched the handling of the QB job after the Wisconsin game and it has had a cascading effect on a young and inexperienced offense. They've got it right now but I don't know if it's in time to save the season. Georgia looms large in Athens. I think we are good enough defensively to shut them down, unless the offense leaves the defense hung out to dry again.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not trying to be critical of the coaches and I'm working with the benefit of hindsight. But IMO Coker proved to be much more effective against Wisconsin and the team seemed to respond better with him in the game. At that point, the decision should have been made. This was abundantly clear after Ole Miss. But it's all spilled milk now.

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CullmanTide said:

It's a fair observation unlike many who just want to throw the quarterback under the bus. The coaches are highly paid professionals who for some reason in my opinion don't seem to be on the same page.

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I saw Saban himself going out of way to reassure and calm Jake down after bad plays. I can see why people say that the coaches botched the QB competition - BUT - I can also see why they had such a hard time deciding. I'm not excusing them, but I think it's clear what they are having deal with. This is how I see it:

Jake makes some throws that just makes your mouth hang open in awe, and on the next play, he'll stare down a receiver from the beginning of the snap and throw into coverage. He's frustrating to watch, but you can see flashes of brilliance. Coker's running ability is actually pretty good, is something I think we are going to have to utilize, at least some, to loosen up the defenses. I think we can slow down the outside pass rush a little if he is allowed to gash a defense a time or 2 a game on some designed QB draws straight up the gut.

Bateman just looks average all the way around, but he seems to a little more careful with the ball most of the time. His short intermediate (downfield) passes look decent, but the ones behind the LOS) are are always late and behind the receiver. He does get the ball out faster, which I think is why Kiffin may have preferred him. He also known to more of a threat to run, but we have not seen that AT ALL.

I believe CNS when he said that they pick a starter because neither guy stepped up and just seized the job. I think Jake's performance against OM forced the coaches to roll with him (and rightfully so, I think), but the issues that kept him from being the clear cut starter early are still there. For lack of a better way to put it, I think Jake is the best we have right now, and we are just going to have the take the good with bad. All we can do is get behind him and hope our defense continues to develop into the monster they are seemingly becoming. I think this defense is good enough to keep us in any game we'll play this year (short of the offense/special teams turning the ball over 5 times).

Unfortunately, this looks like it may be a "rebuilding" season based on offensive performance so far. I'm not all gloom and doom though, still hoping we can get it together. We should know for sure by around 6 o'clock next Saturday.

ccc2259 said:

I've seen several references to "......coaches not on the same page....." Can someone enlighten me as to what you (they) have seen that supports that?

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I'm not sure anything really supports that, other than the notion that has been presented for a little while now that there was basically a Coker camp and a someone else camp. The idea being that some just lack confidence in Coker and would prefer any other option (Bateman, Morris, etc...).

It somewhat plays into this narrative to see Coker, despite a strong showing against a good Wisconsin team really be on a short leash and then get one half to play against MTSU and then not start against Ole Miss.

I can kinda see where the coach/coaches might have been going with that. Coker does have some issues he may or may not resolve, but Bateman is a far bigger risk (he refused to run against Ole Miss, and his soft toss interceptions are deadly) in my mind and I think myself, most posters, and I would hope the coaches are now on the same page. It's Coker or bust...

we are just so predictable and vanilla on offense. its as if we have a script that we use each game and stick to it whether it works or not. even with our weak secondary, the defense is good enough to beat any team in the country. but our offense is so bland, it could end up costing us again.

gamersfuel said:

even with our weak secondary

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Umm, nope.

Edit:
I suppose I'll go ahead and elaborate. Alabama's passing efficiency defense is 28th. That's not bad, that's good, and it might improve since there are three freshman back there.

Also, back on track with the thread this might explain some of the QB woes a bit...

MTSU is 22 in passing efficiency defense.
Ole Miss is 23
Wisconsin is 29

The most points any team has put on those teams is Alabama.

The aberration though is ULM. They are poorly ranked (106) but oddly enough teams haven't really thrown that much on them (459 yards), so I'm not sure what's going on there. They're actually 15th in passing yards allowed.

deliveryman35 said:

I actually think we will be ready to play in Athens, but I still see us getting beat 27-13 or something close to that. We've done nothing so far that would objectively convince me that we go in and pull the upset between the hedges.

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No way UGA puts 27 on this D.
That being said I don't think it will take 27 to beat Bama with the
inconsistent / out of sync / confused whatever you wanna call the offense right now.


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Bama could have easily just ran the ball right down ULM's throat all day if they wanted to do that but this gameplan was about getting more passing game practice for everyone. Everyone still has plenty of work to do but the passing offense looked MUCH better in the second half.

I think we'll see more power rushing next week with guards pulling and probably Nysewander leading Henry/Drake through holes.

It would be great if people could lay off Kiffen and Coker a little bit this week and see what happens next Saturday in Athens.

ccc2259 said:

I've seen several references to "......coaches not on the same page....." Can someone enlighten me as to what you (they) have seen that supports that? Honest question, not being argumentative. The offense is clearly out of sync as this thread already points out. I just haven't seen anything I can point to that says the coaches are out of sync also. Because, if they are, that's a problem on a whole different level.

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The glaring indecisiveness. Who is our QB? Should we go HUNH or do we pace ourselves? Do we pound them running the ball or spread the field? Which cartoon character do we put on the cards? Seriously though we are just too unsure of what we want to do. It is compounded by the fact we have only 2 returning starters on that side of the ball. Another thing that could be a factor is how in the world can we improve on offense practicing against that brutal defense?

fundytide said:

It would be great if people could lay off Kiffen and Coker a little bit this week and see what happens next Saturday in Athens.

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Even if we beat UGA you know that's not going to happen. People want to look at what is wrong more than what is right with a team, and close games and losses make their voices louder. Take last year for example, after the wv game there were negative Nancy's saying the same thing about sims and kiff as they are now about jake and kiff, but when we tore uf a new one there was an appreciation thread. Then we lost to ole miss and had a close one against arky and then they came back.

There was even a fair amount of people calling gmac and AJ the weak links in 09 and 11 when things didn't seem to go great.

If we limit our mistakes and use Henry on sweeps more than on the middle then I think a 24-13 type win is a good prediction this week. I don't think we get ran out of the stadium unless we turnover the ball.