News Article: How 6 Plays Turned a Close Game into 38-10 Whipping of Georgia

tidefan26 said:

To be fair, two of the INT's were by safeties looking at the QB. But kudos to Marlon for being "in phase" and looking back.

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Even when we have been in zone we have not been looking and playing the ball. This has affected both safeties and CBs. Our zone is a bit different than traditional zone coverage (pattern-match zone coverage) so I can see how it happens. My point is this is the best fundamentals we've had in the secondary this season (and maybe last season too).


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techster79 said:

The 17 possessions that didn't matter a hill of beans:
UGA offense (10 3nOuts, 4 turnovers, TD and FG)

1. 3nOut - Punt
2. 3nOut - Punt
3. 3nOut - Punt
4. 14 plays, 71 yards - FG after getting to our 8 yard line
5. 3nOut - Punt
6. 3nOut - Punt (we scored TD)
7. 3nOut - Punt
8. 3 plays - End of half
9. 1 play - INT for TD
10. 3nOut - Punt
11. 3nOut - Punt
12. 7 pays - INT
13. 4 plays - Fumble
14. 1 play - 83yd Chubb TD
15. 3nOut - Punt
16. 3nOut - Punt
17. 5 plays - INT

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Exactly. Our defense played lights out practically the entire game. Our offense played well, our special teams played well.

There are at least 20 defensive plays that he could have picked out, and probably 5 or 6 more on offensive.

Do individual plays have an effect and contribute to momentum? No doubt. However Georgia was obviously frustrated that they couldn't do didly squat on offense. That doesn't happen with one defensive stop. It added up on them.

I think there is a similarity to the Ole Miss game but to a much lesser degree. The big difference is that Alabama is the better team vs Ole Miss in the loss and Alabama is the better team vs UGA in the win. Things had to go drastically out of whack for Bama to lose to Ole Miss. Nothing had to go out of whack for Georgia to lose to Alabama. I don't think Bama would be a 28-point favorite if they were to play UGA at Athens for a rematch but I'm making a wild hypothetical guess that Bama would be made a 10 or so point favorite by the experts. This would allow for a few plays going the other way...

tidefan26 said:

To be fair, two of the INT's were by safeties looking at the QB. But kudos to Marlon for being "in phase" and looking back.

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Not gonna lie, hearing "in phase" is on the same level of cringe for me right now as "jumbo package".

Probably not fair but still.


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fralo4tide said:

Maybe I'm wrong, but this is the way I usually like to analyze a game myself. To make a judgment about how good or bad a team is I try to eliminate those plays which we might call rare, or anomalies. Blocked punts for touchdowns, "miracle" plays, I cast out the window. That is why I did not feel the sky was falling after the Ole Miss loss nor do I see it as the limit after this victory.

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Well said, and I agree. I watched some of the game again last night, and we had a lot of the same problems offensively: penalties, confusion, and terrible third down percentage. We covered those things up Saturday with a smothering defense, a big running play for a TD, a big passing play for a TD, a blocked punt for a TD, and an interception for a TD. All those big plays count and led to a very easy and comfortable win, but we still had many issues offensively.
Now, some of you know good and well that if that game had happened in reverse (like the Ole Siss game) you would be saying that we were right in the game except for the big plays. The good news was that it was great to see some excitement from our players. I hope that carries over and that we continue to make some big plays every game, but don't be surprised if our offense bogs down again in some tight games coming up.

TIDE-HSV said:

I have been singularly unimpressed with Casagrande as a beat writer. (Maybe it's because his name in Spanish translates to Michigan's pet name for their stadium.) He's made some stupid remarks, even in his background reporting...

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I would be impressed if any "reporters" still had good grammar.

Al A Bama said:

Thanks. Now, this tells me what I need to know.

P. S. I would also like to have a break down regarding what Bama did offensively in their possessions.

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7 3nOuts and 2 turnover on downs. After the last touchdown, we were milking clock which accounts for about half the 3nOuts.

1. 3 Plays - Fumble(would have been a 1st down)
2. 3nOut - Punt (1 yard short of 1st down, UGA fumbled and recovered)
3. 7 Plays, 69 yards - FG
4. 8 Plays, 76 yards - TD
5. 3nOut - Punt (scored TD on UGA next punt)
6. 1 Play, 45 yard TD pass
7. 3nOut - Punt
8. 3nOut - Punt (scored on Interception)
9. 4 Plays, 38 yards - TD
10. 3nOut - Punt
11. 4 Plays - Fumble (UGA fumbled it back to us)
12. 3nOut - Punt
13. 3nOut - Punt
14. 6 Plays, 35 yards - Downs
15. 8 Plays, 29 yards - Downs
16. 2 Plays, 5 yards - End of Game

teamplayer said:

Well said, and I agree. I watched some of the game again last night, and we had a lot of the same problems offensively: penalties, confusion, and terrible third down percentage. We covered those things up Saturday with a smothering defense, a big running play for a TD, a big passing play for a TD, a blocked punt for a TD, and an interception for a TD. All those big plays count and led to a very easy and comfortable win, but we still had many issues offensively.
Now, some of you know good and well that if that game had happened in reverse (like the Ole Siss game) you would be saying that we were right in the game except for the big plays. The good news was that it was great to see some excitement from our players. I hope that carries over and that we continue to make some big plays every game, but don't be surprised if our offense bogs down again in some tight games coming up.

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I view it differently. Bama dominated both lines of scrimmage. Bama's secondary smothered UGA's receivers, with only a few exceptions. Bama had receivers open frequently. Coker had a clean pocket. While Bama's "mush rush" was not as intimidating or exciting as many pass rushes, it was effective and did result in pressure and great uneasiness for both UGA QB's. So, IMO, Bama completely dominated almost every phase of play. How anyone could reasonably declare UGA a few plays away would only reveal their blindness, not any hidden truth as to the true closeness of the game. Bama did all of it's damage through just the first 5 mins of the 3rd qtr, then put it on cruise control. Could have won 60-3.

I knew after seeing Bama's dominance on both sides of the ball where the game was headed at 3-0. UGA had no chance. If there is a rematch, UGA will need a basket of Ole Miss like gifts to win.

If anyone thinks a few big plays are all that separate these 2 teams, they do not understand football.

Also, if I saw Bama beaten badly like UGA on both lines of scrimmage, I can assure you that I would not be saying that Bama was right in the game except for a few big plays.

I just... can't buy the premise of the article, which seems to be trying to draw a contrast between the flukes of the Ole Miss game and what happened in the Georgia game. If you want to compare the two, the real comparison is that both could have easily been blowouts for Alabama.

He's basically just taking every big play, and some potentially big plays and saying what if. Ok fine, but you can do that with any missed pass. I mean how many just missed long TDs has Coker had? Are we going to just start counting those all as should have been touchdowns?

Really, you can do this kind of breakdown for any game. You can take a handful of plays and go oh look if you change the outcome on those we'd have a different outcome. The problem with that is when you are looking at plays in which people did their job on a fundamental level. This is so very different from a true "fluke" in which something that ordinarily wouldn't happen does.

For instance, if we look at the Ole Miss game and pick 6 plays, what are we going to pick? We're going to pick a missed penalty, that would have created a long yardage situation and instead was an Ole Miss TD. Then we'll go with that fluke pass, that should have been an interception, or in the very least a forced punt, but instead was a TD. Then, we can grab a couple fumbles on kickoffs for good measure. We don't even need 6, those 4 will do. Change those and you likely have an Alabama blow out, and mind you none of those plays really should have happened.

With the Georgia game, we can pick out a couple extraordinary things, but Georgia got a couple breaks to. They managed to recover a couple of their own fumbles and a couple Alabama fumbles. A a lot of their offense came on a single play when the game was already over (a big chunk of those offensive yards he cited and 70% of their scoring). The fact is Alabama dominated Georgia, utterly dominated then and you can't change the outcome by just changing a couple plays. You have to get Alabama to just not play like Alabama to change that outcome.

Coach Bryant use to say that every week you could usually point to a few plays that changed the course of the game. Since you never know when those plays are going to happen, the players have to give 110% on each play.

westide said:

Coach Bryant use to say that every week you could usually point to a few plays that changed the course of the game. Since you never know when those plays are going to happen, the players have to give 110% on each play.

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Which is basically saying the opposite of what it sounds like. Every play changes the course of the game whether or not it is obvious.