Link: Interesting Take on the Game - Narrowed down to a few key plays

[BamaMoon]

Saw this on Twitter from Ben Litvin. Might make you feel slightly better about the game. Shoot, we still lost but his breakdown makes it feel like it was alot closer than it seems to most of us.

Here's his Storify link to the breakdown:

https://storify.com/Ben_Litvin/the-2017-iron-bowl

 

[MemphisBamaDude]

Thanks for posting this. Very insightful. However, in many ways, this makes me feel worse. Like Coach says, you just gotta do your jobs. So close...

 

[TUSCALOOSAHONOR]

Good read. Its what happened to Ga as well in their first game. If Ga wants to win they will need to make the basic plays and hit a couple that they missed on in the first game.

 

[Redwood Forrest]

No matter how it is sliced up (for me) we were dominated by Miss State and dominated by Auburn. It is discouraging to see my team pushed around like that. I guess on the score board we were not dominated, but on the field we sure were. Fluff like this article asks me to put on my Crimson glasses. That is hard to do when I am discouraged. What is it going to take to get me confident again? I don't know, fixing the problems maybe? I don't think the problem lies with a few plays.

 

[Cruiser]

So, translation; they made plays when needed, we did not.

 

[Cruiser]

But, but; Joey Galloway said the game was not as close as the score.
I will censor myself from comment on that statement

 

[tusks_n_raider]

No matter how it is sliced up (for me) we were dominated by Miss State and dominated by Auburn. It is discouraging to see my team pushed around like that. I guess on the score board we were not dominated, but on the field we sure were. Fluff like this article asks me to put on my Crimson glasses. That is hard to do when I am discouraged. What is it going to take to get me confident again? I don't know, fixing the problems maybe? I don't think the problem lies with a few plays.

I agree that breakdown is absolute 'bury your head' in the sand nonsense. You can play 'if's but's candy and nut's' with just about any game.

Our offensive gameplan was trash. Our playcalling was worse than trash. Our OL did not 'win' the LOS. They didn't get dominated but the trenches were a stalemate at best.

That's pretty much our philosophy on both lines.....just dance and/or mushrush around the LOS. We have absolutely NO mean streak.

But worse than the strategy and lack of adjustments... we have a fundamentals problem in quite a few areas.

Our tackling has been god AWFUL for the last few games. It barely qualifies as 'arm tackling'. It's like guys want to make a singular big hit and then expect the other guy to just go down.....and if he doesn't they watch as another teammate attempts to create a turnover....until someone else FINALLY gets them down or out of bounds.

What happened to driving through someone and wrapping up and taking their butts to the dang ground?? Remember how Landon Collins tackled.....that's how we use to tackle. They need to throw that damn 'ballout belt' in trash and work on tackling fundamentals.

That's how AU tackled in the game. There were quite a few times we had a one-on-one play and the AU defender made Landon Collins level tackles. Beautiful open field tackles. I hate them but I'm not going to take a thing away from them. They had DB's taking Bo down one on one.

They beat us with Phenomenal coaching, 3 good players, a heck of a lot of emotion, and 100% rock solid fundamentals and effort.

We lost because of abysmal coaching, keeping our best players inexplicably on the dang sideline, the absence of emotion, and shoddy fundamentals and effort.

It was a whole hell of lot of things/issues more than a few plays that decided the outcome.

I'm honestly worried about team chemistry right now. The guys that do have some fire in their belly are visibly frustrated right now and I don't blame them.

The last thing this team or the fanbase needs is to think we were 'just a few plays away'. They need to own up and correct a LOT of stuff.

It's time for a come to jesus 'Junction' and that includes the staff.

 

[92tide]

i'm sure glad it's not our fans making decisions about our program.

 

[Maxbama]

I think the article was right on. Hope we get another chance at Auburn this year.

 

[CrimsonProf]

I agree that breakdown is absolute 'bury your head' in the sand nonsense. You can play 'if's but's candy and nut's' with just about any game.

Our offensive gameplan was trash. Our playcalling was worse than trash. Our OL did not 'win' the LOS. They didn't get dominated but the trenches were a stalemate at best.

That's pretty much our philosophy on both lines.....just dance and/or mushrush around the LOS. We have absolutely NO mean streak.

But worse than the strategy and lack of adjustments... we have a fundamentals problem in quite a few areas.

Our tackling has been god AWFUL for the last few games. It barely qualifies as 'arm tackling'. It's like guys want to make a singular big hit and then expect the other guy to just go down.....and if he doesn't they watch as another teammate attempts to create a turnover....until someone else FINALLY gets them down or out of bounds.

What happened to driving through someone and wrapping up and taking their butts to the dang ground?? Remember how Landon Collins tackled.....that's how we use to tackle. They need to throw that damn 'ballout belt' in trash and work on tackling fundamentals.

That's how AU tackled in the game. There were quite a few times we had a one-on-one play and the AU defender made Landon Collins level tackles. Beautiful open field tackles. I hate them but I'm not going to take a thing away from them. They had DB's taking Bo down one on one.

They beat us with Phenomenal coaching, 3 good players, a heck of a lot of emotion, and 100% rock solid fundamentals and effort.

We lost because of abysmal coaching, keeping our best players inexplicably on the dang sideline, the absence of emotion, and shoddy fundamentals and effort.

It was a whole hell of lot of things/issues more than a few plays that decided the outcome.

I'm honestly worried about team chemistry right now. The guys that do have some fire in their belly are visibly frustrated right now and I don't blame them.

The last thing this team or the fanbase needs is to think we were 'just a few plays away'. They need to own up and correct a LOT of stuff.

It's time for a come to jesus 'Junction' and that includes the staff.

Every. Last. Word.

 

[trenda]

They beat us with Phenomenal coaching, 3 good players, a heck of a lot of emotion, and 100% rock solid fundamentals and effort.

We lost because of abysmal coaching, keeping our best players inexplicably on the dang sideline, the absence of emotion, and shoddy fundamentals and effort.

Here's your game summary. Bingo!

 

[Saban4Ever]

Jarrett Stidham certainly had his best game of his career. He was motivated and played well, but some of that was because our defense let him. I think he was more of a factor in winning than Kerryon Johnson (but he was great too). Auburn only had 30 more yards on offense than we did. They just were much more efficient.

 

[Wilson Monroe]

I agree that breakdown is absolute 'bury your head' in the sand nonsense. You can play 'if's but's candy and nut's' with just about any game.

Our offensive gameplan was trash. Our playcalling was worse than trash. Our OL did not 'win' the LOS. They didn't get dominated but the trenches were a stalemate at best.

That's pretty much our philosophy on both lines.....just dance and/or mushrush around the LOS. We have absolutely NO mean streak.

But worse than the strategy and lack of adjustments... we have a fundamentals problem in quite a few areas.

Our tackling has been god AWFUL for the last few games. It barely qualifies as 'arm tackling'. It's like guys want to make a singular big hit and then expect the other guy to just go down.....and if he doesn't they watch as another teammate attempts to create a turnover....until someone else FINALLY gets them down or out of bounds.

What happened to driving through someone and wrapping up and taking their butts to the dang ground?? Remember how Landon Collins tackled.....that's how we use to tackle. They need to throw that damn 'ballout belt' in trash and work on tackling fundamentals.

That's how AU tackled in the game. There were quite a few times we had a one-on-one play and the AU defender made Landon Collins level tackles. Beautiful open field tackles. I hate them but I'm not going to take a thing away from them. They had DB's taking Bo down one on one.

They beat us with Phenomenal coaching, 3 good players, a heck of a lot of emotion, and 100% rock solid fundamentals and effort.

We lost because of abysmal coaching, keeping our best players inexplicably on the dang sideline, the absence of emotion, and shoddy fundamentals and effort.

It was a whole hell of lot of things/issues more than a few plays that decided the outcome.

I'm honestly worried about team chemistry right now. The guys that do have some fire in their belly are visibly frustrated right now and I don't blame them.

The last thing this team or the fanbase needs is to think we were 'just a few plays away'. They need to own up and correct a LOT of stuff.

It's time for a come to jesus 'Junction' and that includes the staff.

Yep. All of it.

I saw many defensive linemen beat their man into the gap and then breakdown like a basketball player. I yelled, "wrong sport!" at the TV a few times.

 

[drwho]

Jarrett Stidham certainly had his best game of his career.

Not sure if it was his best game, but if not, it was his second best.

 

[BamaMoon]

I agree that breakdown is absolute 'bury your head' in the sand nonsense. You can play 'if's but's candy and nut's' with just about any game.

Our offensive gameplan was trash. Our playcalling was worse than trash. Our OL did not 'win' the LOS. They didn't get dominated but the trenches were a stalemate at best.

That's pretty much our philosophy on both lines.....just dance and/or mushrush around the LOS. We have absolutely NO mean streak.

But worse than the strategy and lack of adjustments... we have a fundamentals problem in quite a few areas.

Our tackling has been god AWFUL for the last few games. It barely qualifies as 'arm tackling'. It's like guys want to make a singular big hit and then expect the other guy to just go down.....and if he doesn't they watch as another teammate attempts to create a turnover....until someone else FINALLY gets them down or out of bounds.

What happened to driving through someone and wrapping up and taking their butts to the dang ground?? Remember how Landon Collins tackled.....that's how we use to tackle. They need to throw that damn 'ballout belt' in trash and work on tackling fundamentals.

That's how AU tackled in the game. There were quite a few times we had a one-on-one play and the AU defender made Landon Collins level tackles. Beautiful open field tackles. I hate them but I'm not going to take a thing away from them. They had DB's taking Bo down one on one.

They beat us with Phenomenal coaching, 3 good players, a heck of a lot of emotion, and 100% rock solid fundamentals and effort.

We lost because of abysmal coaching, keeping our best players inexplicably on the dang sideline, the absence of emotion, and shoddy fundamentals and effort.

It was a whole hell of lot of things/issues more than a few plays that decided the outcome.

I'm honestly worried about team chemistry right now. The guys that do have some fire in their belly are visibly frustrated right now and I don't blame them.

The last thing this team or the fanbase needs is to think we were 'just a few plays away'. They need to own up and correct a LOT of stuff.

It's time for a come to jesus 'Junction' and that includes the staff.

Trust me, I feel very much like you do about the overall performance of the team, their attitude, chemistry, coaching mistakes etc. I also agree that we got beat with our own game in the way they tacked and we didn't.

However, as the link suggests, the game really turned on a series of several plays, which is so often the case in "big" games.

Biggest thing I got from "reliving" the game in his story is how often our defense really played great and we had them in a key 3rd down play but they made the play and we didn't. I think most would agree that our defense could obviously played better, but to hold them to 26 points considering they dominated TOP was not the main problem.

The article also affirmed my biggest concern and that is our continual struggle that we have on 3rd downs.

So, I've had the same feelings as you, but I will take from his review that, if we were to play them again (in the playoff) there are things within our control (physically speaking) that would easily erase the deficent IF (something he doesn't address in the article) we solve what seems to be some team chemistry issues and coaching philosophy issues.

 

[drwho]

Our OL did not 'win' the LOS. They didn't get dominated but the trenches were a stalemate at best.

I don't know how he could call that a win for OL. I'm not even sure stalemate is correct.

 

[Cruiser]

I think the story is about the missing plays; the other 10 carries by DH that never happened.

 

[drwho]

I think the story is about the missing plays; the other 10 carries by DH that never happened.

That, I would fully agree with.

 

[TIDE24]

I told my wife after the game, our guys don't play with that "edge" they used to. It's almost as if they are so used to being so much better than everybody they beat them on talent alone. Every once in a while you need that "edge", that mean streak. Those other guys had it Saturday, Clemson had it last year. Our guys didn't seem to have it, they looked like they wanted to have it, but they didn't play with it, not like that 09 team against FL. That team was not going to be denied. I do not see that.

 

[BamaMoon]

I think the story is about the missing plays; the other 10 carries by DH that never happened.

Probably true. There's a narrative that GMac on Twitter has proposed that there "could" have been more running back carries but that Auburns defensive formations took those opportunities away and forced more qb run reads. In other words, Auburn was able to "force" Jalen to keep more than to give to the backs on his reads. We've heard that Kevin Steele had said that the key to stopping Bama is to key on "Michael Jordan - numbers 2 and 3." So if they could force Jalen to keep the ball they knew they were going to be able to stop the "2" and by far, that was bigger in this game than stopping "3" because our passing game took care of that for them.

Gmac knows more football X&Os that most people for sure and he may have a legitimate point, but, once again, that reignites the argument that our whole offensive philosophy isn't built to take advantage of "all" of our talented athletes.