****Bama Vs. OU Postgame Thread****

[Bamabuzzard]

Hard to make excuses when OU was playing THREE new offensive linemen in this game. THREE! And we couldn't get pressure on their qb if we had to.

 

[Matt0424]

Hard to make excuses when OU was playing THREE new offensive linemen in this game. THREE! And we couldn't get pressure on their qb if we had to.

I agree...there are no excuses. We played poorly, and they capitalized every time...

 

[dirtroadlizard]

An Alabama football team that scores 31 points should never lose ! rtr...

 

[teamplayer]

I'd love to see our big guys loose a few pounds, or more, and get a step faster.
That's a temporary fix for recruiting guys who are a little smaller, but faster.
IMO: WE NEED A PASS RUSHER, WITH A KILLER INSTINCT.

I agree that it would be nice to have a pass rush, but I guarantee that some of you would want bigger guys if LSU were to run the ball down our throats. We are currently built to beat teams like LSU, but other teams are changing what they do to counter our success. It is now our turn to adapt to be able to beat either LSU or Auburn.

 

[WylieTexasTider]

At the start of the season had you told me we would go 11-2 and we would play in the Sugar Bowl I would have taken that all day long considering what we lost to the NFL.

Now that the season is over, 11-2 is disappointing in the sense I think we have more talent than OU and AU. Injuries bit us, especially in the secondary. If Vinny and Perry are not lost for the season and Belue stays healthy, the young guys are forced to be baptized under fire.

The O-line never seemed to gel 100% although, the fact we had perhaps the best college O-line ever last year might skew how we look at this group.

The WR's were as good as advertised but, again nagging injuries slowed Cooper and some of the others.

The RB's were not as good as we have grown accustomed to and Yeldon has a knack for putting it on the ground at horrible times.

The D-line is not built to contain mobile QB's or the HUNH offense. Not bashing the players, we just don't have the D-lineman who can do this.

The LB play was great all year and as previously mentioned the secondary was a huge disappointment although injuries played a huge role.

Looking forward:

QB - Going to be a wide open race but, we have some talented options.
RB - Henry is looking like the next great back and the #2 slot should be Yeldon but, ball security must improve.
WR - A healthy Cooper and White are key as well as Foster or Black stepping up.
OL - Still not sold on MC as line coach. Not bashing, just feel he may not be the right fit. CK showed today he is not the NFL franchise LT and can benefit a lot from coming back for 1 more year. I thought LB played well at RG today and hopefully will progress this off season.
DL - We must get faster, fast twitch guys at DE. I know we are recruiting them, just have to hope they can pick up the system.
LB - Losing CJ is a HUGE loss.. Trey needs to step up and they young guys such as #2 need to buy in this off season.
S - With Collins, Vinny & Perry coming back they should be a strengh.
CB - Someone has got to step up, plain and simple. the new guys coming in such as Brown need to be ready from day 1.

Coaching: I am not sure Nuss is the guy. I think he did do wonders with AJ but, his play calling has been suspect several times this season. It appears he abandons the running game way too early. Flame me but, maybe LK has been in town for other reasons... Crisotbal at O-line has not impressed me at all. I know we have had injuries in the secondary but, it also seems we did not develop the young guys this year. Is it coaching? Did we just miss on recruiting? I know Saban is the 'secondary' coach but, maybe it is time for Kirby to switch back there too and bring in a new LB coach.

If we fix the secondary issues, find the speed rushers and play BAMA ball, this team can be back in the top 10 next year. If they don't the schedule still sets up to win 9 games... It will be interesting to see what changes come before spring ball and to see who steps up this spring...

 

[TideMom2Boys]

I know a lot of fans don't want change and want to see the HUNH go away. But there are always changes in life, you just have to adapt to it.


So I am interested in seeing what changes we make on defending it.

 

[russtang]

I'd love to see our big guys loose a few pounds, or more, and get a step faster.
That's a temporary fix for recruiting guys who are a little smaller, but faster.
IMO: WE NEED A PASS RUSHER, WITH A KILLER INSTINCT.

Twice during the iron bowl Number 8 "mush rushed" the olineman straight back with his head down and didn't even SEE the QB run right by him. All he had to do was stick his arm out for a TFL.


Is CNS willing to let a true pass rusher be a true pass rusher? The true pass rushers take themselves out of the play much more often than not. Look at Clowney or any other top rusher. They make sacks but also miss a lot of plays being aggressive.
They also get beat more often when you run right at them.

I think CNS is going to HAVE to make some personnel adjustments to address the HUNH offenses.

 

[RJ YellowHammer]

You've hit on a lot of it. The rest is their QB and receiver corps played out of their minds tonight. We kept hearing that we just needed to stop their running game. Ha!

If we have one shutdown corner tonight it's a different game. Javy? KJ? Dre? Dee? Any of them. We're young at CB and beat all to hell at safety. Schematically, I'm sure CNS and CKS are going to have to change some things up, but if we can't play press man coverage on the outside with Coach Saban's philosophy we're going to be in a bad way against a QB that has a good game and speedy, heady wideouts. I don't think we won many of the jump balls and deep routes down the sidelines against OU. Our corners are going to be on islands and need to win more of those battles. Because of how young we are I'll chalk it up to execution, not a lack of talent.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

If we have one shutdown corner tonight it's a different game. Javy? KJ? Dre? Dee? Any of them. We're young at CB and beat all to hell at safety. Schematically, I'm sure CNS and CKS are going to have to change some things up, but if we can't play press man coverage on the outside with Coach Saban's philosophy we're going to be in a bad way against a QB that has a good game and speedy, heady wideouts. I don't think we won many of the jump balls and deep routes down the sidelines against OU. Our corners are going to be on islands and need to win more of those battles. Because of how young we are I'll chalk it up to execution, not a lack of talent.

It's more than just having shutdown corners. Our defensive philosophy must change to keep up with these HUNH offenses. Go read JessN's post game article. He's dead on. These type offenses are dissecting Saban's style defense and making it look VERY average.

 

[RJ YellowHammer]

It's more than just having shutdown corners. Our defensive philosophy must change to keep up with these HUNH offenses. Go read JessN's post game article. He's dead on. These type offenses are dissecting Saban's style defense and making it look VERY average.

I did read it, and, as usual, Jess makes some great points. However, comparing him to Monte Kiffin is bit of a stretch. We wanted to make them one dimensional and to a large degree we did. Then we didn't make plays...

Look at Oklahoma's rushing:

Oklahoma Rushing
Player	Carries	Yds	Avg	TDs
B. Clay	17	44	2.6	0
K. Ford	3	15	5.0	0
S. Shepard	3	14	4.7	1
T. Knight	5	7	1.4	0
J. Saunders	1	4	4.0	0

We made them one dimensional. The one dimension everybody thought was their weakest. Then we didn't make plays. When we got em backed up (1st and 30?!?!) we couldn't get off the field. Look at two of the long TDs and the Jarrick PI penalty in the fourth quarter in man coverage. If we simply play the ball in the air a little better everything changes - even with the 4 turnovers that mattered. I'm not saying that constant evaluation isn't needed, but blowing everything up based on two games with a secondary we knew was in trouble coming into the season, before we lost Vinnie, probably won't be the way CNS decides to go.

 

[rgw]

I've never liked the safety-type at star personnel decisions in 2012 and 2013 either. It gets burnt 5-7 times a game against decent passing teams.

Belue never developing into a field corner hurt because Saban does a good job of disguising weaker corners at boundary with his playcalls. You can't really mask your field side pass defense much. Pass rush was almost as bad as the secondary though.

In retrospect, the fact this team didn't lose to TAMU and LSU this season is impressive.

 

[CB4]

I think that we will have to adapt to the players we are recruiting, as well as changing the defense. Too many times, we seemed to be a bit slow of foot. We have our guys bulked up to stop the power game when the trend seems to be going away from that, towards a fast-paced game based more on deception. Of course, in the second half, fatigue started to have a role in the slow feet. The HUNH is not going to go away, so we'd better head our defensive thinking in the direction of stopping it. I see more and more teams adopting it at the college level...

It's not only about re-evaluating the present players and the ones we recruit. After giving up total of 79 points in the last two games, it is time to re-evaluate this staff as well. I don't think I've seen a Smart/Saban coached defense this poorly prepare for the last two games since 2007. Certainly injuries and youth took its toll, but scheme wise this defense didn't seem prepared to play the last two games. I felt certain that OU would look at the success TAMU had the last two years and AU this year and work it into their game plan, which they did. It seems defensively we would have been prepped better.

Let's also face the fact that the o-line play was bad to start the season versus Va. Tech. Slowly it improved through the LSU game, but after that it slowly regressed. Think some questions have to be raised about Cristabol and the zone blocking schemes being used. From a RB standpoint, it seemed the only player we used on the edge to stretch the defense was Drake because of his speed. Where was he the last two games?

Throw in turnovers we have experienced recently along with break downs in the kicking game, there is plenty of room for the staff to take some responsibility as well. Don't get me wrong. I think we have one of the overall best staffs in college football. If we are going to question the players efforts, abilities, and motivation, I think it is only fair that the staff take a hard look at what they are doing.

Still I'll be saying RTR tomorrow.

 

[oregonbltzkrieg]

It's more than just having shutdown corners. Our defensive philosophy must change to keep up with these HUNH offenses. Go read JessN's post game article. He's dead on. These type offenses are dissecting Saban's style defense and making it look VERY average.

You won 3 out of the last 4 NCG's. There's nothing at all wrong with your scheme or philosophy. Auburn played an excellent game. Yes they use the HUNH but they also needed a few errors from UA to win that game, and they also recruit in the same areas that UA recruits from. The OU game seemed more to be a matter of lack of motivation/uninspired play. The use of Henry was great, but I wonder if the departure from the familiar Yeldon/Drake combo that worked well all season long was a mistake. Don't fix what isn't broken. After seeing firsthand how old school football can shutdown HUNH, I have less faith in the latter system. Plus the OU QB was on fire and hitting most of his passes.

 

[RJ YellowHammer]

I've never liked the safety-type at star personnel decisions in 2012 and 2013 either. It gets burnt 5-7 times a game against decent passing teams.

Belue never developing into a field corner hurt because Saban does a good job of disguising weaker corners at boundary with his playcalls. You can't really mask your field side pass defense much. Pass rush was almost as bad as the secondary though.

In retrospect, the fact this team didn't lose to TAMU and LSU this season is impressive.

Not bashing the players, but, looking at the personnel, I think Coach Saban's hand might've been forced. We've got a bunch of underclassmen. The official roster on the team site still listing Cyrus Jones as a wide receiver says a lot about the patchwork nature of the position this season. We don't have a lot of CB types capable of playing star, or, hopefully, they're not ready to play star.

 

[rgw]

No doubt RJ. Some things I can say are more due to the personnel availability rather than some overarching philosophy at the position.

blitzkrieg, Stanford runs a pretty wildly different 34 defense base than our own. Its a 1-gapping front that is heavily predicated on pressure. Alabama has just about the most passive 34 defense you can run. When the secondary is top-tier and the Jack LB is above average, it works pretty well. When something is off, it gets tore up.

 

[GeorgiaTider]

Think about our last few losses, A&M, Auburn, this one. In every one of them we, in my opinion, went away from the run game way too quick and allowed the other team to have too many offensive possessions. We arent a passing team, we are a power running team.

I agree an think it I due t not having\using a big bruise like MI or Trent.

 

[CoreGroup]

I would say that Auburn beat us twice; but Bama was somewhat exposed here. Team is not equipped to come back, and the defense is lacking pass rushers. Congrats to OU. I don't like Stoops mouth, but he and that dang QB of his came up big tonight. Bama lost this game in the trenches believe it or not.

Bama should have beaten au, no if ands or buts about it. However OU wanted this game more and had a better offensive game plan.

 

[JTBama]

Bama should have beaten au, no if ands or buts about it. However OU wanted this game more and had a better offensive game plan.

Auburn did what they had to do..whether Bama was suppose to win or not. Auburn did lay a blueprint for how to beat us. The print was actually layed out by Texas A&M but they didn't have at least an average defense to keep up with Bamas offense.

 

[GeorgiaTider]

I was just about to post that maybe he should reconsider. His weakness was exposed. Scrambling and improvising is becoming the #1 trait for the scouts.

The Senior Bowl will not correct any weaknesses. They may highlight them more and expose him to injury. I think I would sit it out.

 

[derek4tide]

Auburn did what they had to do..whether Bama was suppose to win or not. Auburn did lay a blueprint for how to beat us. The print was actually layed out by Texas A&M but they didn't have at least an average defense to keep up with Bamas offense.

Yep, Sumlin showed everyone how to beat us and lsu tried it last year and came close. We will see this next year from every team that can run it.