Improvement?
- Thread starter TENNTIDE1
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I think "naive" is a perfect descriptor for the way this team is playing. They are naive enough to think that just because they are better on paper than teams like Duke, then those teams should bow down before them and just let 'em win with a half-arsed effort...
Yes, naive is a PERFECT adjective for this team...
along with young, inexperienced, and talented...
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Well, naivety is curable. Maybe before our next supposed cupcake the coaches should pop in game film from Lousiana Tech in 1999, Southern Miss and Central Florida in 2000 and Northern Illinois in 2003.
QB, WR, FB, LT, C are better now than the first game. TE might be but, it would take game-film to tell the difference.
Very, very good point. To piggyback on this comment, WHY would our team, when you consider how we have played and performed, take ANYONE lightly? I don't buy that at all, and I assure you that these young men are not that naive. To me, that is a backhanded slap in the players' faces, like basically telling them they are not putting forth their best effort. Also, you only get to play 12 games all season anyway, why on earth would you not be up for each of them? I can see how us fans would not take some games seriously, but it's a totally different mindset for the players.
It should, but it just seems that as long as they pull them out at the end, they might not get the message.
They've played well until this game. Even though they lost the previous two games, they still played well and just didn't pull them out. I hope and believe that this was just a fluke. However, if they play this badly against FIU, they may be in trouble. Even at 0-6, they aren't that bad of a team and they've been close in almost every game that they've played. If they come in and Bama gives the same effort as last night, Bama will probably lose.
The only thing that aggravated me was our inability to stop the run. Granted they were running some option, but they also made yards with pretty much basic running plays. And even that's not really aggravating, until you consider Duke ran for 47 yards against 1-AA Richmond.
Other than maybe not dumping a couple of time, I thought JPW continued to play well. The TD in the first half from the 4 was a great play. The kid plays with some old-school chutzpah. Brown and Hall look like NFL receivers most of the time. Darby has definitely smoothed some of the edges off.
FIU will scrap with you.
The fact is that a game against Duke shouldn't be in question in the second half. Period. No other way to spin it. They aren't just a bad team, they are one of the worst football programs in the nation: statistically and in the win column. Being down at the half against Duke was an embarrassment to the Alabama winning tradition and the coaches and players should receive their share of criticism. The offense and defensive gameplans were horrible and the players seemed to be in autopilot. Kines saved our tails again: he obviously lit a fire under his player's bottoms and he made the decision to move to more 3-3-5 to keep more speed on the field. If it wasn't for our defense shutting down Duke (which shouldn't have been a question to start with) we would have lost this game because similar offensive adjustments were not evident.
There are no excuses for the way Bama played against Duke. Duke is one of the worst teams in all of Div. 1A. Living up here in Charlotte, I've had the good fortune of watching Duke play Va. Tech, which is a decent team, and Virginia, which is a really bad team that just lost to East Carolina last night. Both of these teams shut Duke out, and Virginia did it at Duke. Duke is terrible, plain and simple. It shouldn't matter if Bama was looking past Duke, or if the players weren't motivated. Bama should've destroyed this team. Not just beat them, destroyed them. I had to listen to the Duke broadcast of the game, so my view of how this game was played might be skewed a bit, but it sounded to me like this terrible Duke team was simply much more physical than Bama was last night. They ran it right down Bama's throat, and on defense, it sure sounded to me like Duke shut down Bama's running game, at least until Duke wore out in the 4th quarter. And on top of that, it sounded to me like Duke was pressuring JPW on about every pass play. I know we have an inexperienced o-line, but failing to dominate this Duke defense is an indictment of either the coaches or the technique, period. I am shaking my head in confusion about how our defense performed last night. This Duke offense is woefully inept, yet they ran the ball on Bama like they were the mid-90's Nebraska team. I don't get how Bama can basically contain the Arkansas running attack, yet nearly fold against this terrible Duke juggernaut. Why do Bama defenses of the past few years always have trouble with offenses that utilize an athletic QB? It has sure seemed to me that Bama defenses have trouble containing these types of QBs.
Anyway, I hope that Bama can refocus on Ole Miss, or we might end up 1-3 in the SEC by this time next week.
Anyway, I hope that Bama can refocus on Ole Miss, or we might end up 1-3 in the SEC by this time next week.
Don't read too much into that Vandy win.
Vandy dominated Ole Miss but 5 turnovers cost them the game. The stat sheet reads Vandy Total Offense 405 - Ole Miss 177.
Ole Myth had a 45 yard TD drive, a 16 yard TD drive, and a 28 yard drive for a FG.
Not skewed one bit. The Duke team was busting our chops during the play and after the play. I am amazed at how non-physical this team has become. Yes the after the play shots were "illegal" but they were a great indication of who was physically winning. Sounds crazy but Duke was just a meaner bunch. Our guys never showed any signs of physical play.
Not sure what is wrong.
I know what you are saying. Duke was playing dirty. They were also beating us up during the play and acting all cocky. It was amazing to see.
I know this had probably been discussed previously, but I haven't seen it. Why are we not using Tim Castille down close to the goal line like we did last year to try and get a touchdown. I remember last year KD would get it down there and Tim would run it in. Is Castille in the doghouse or something?
A teams attitude is a reflection of coaching. Alabama plays soft...
Draw your own conclusions.
I wouldn't read too much into our victory either. Vandy and Ole Miss would probably play Duke tougher than we did.
And what changes this? Having a lineup made up of 5th year seniors that have started for 4 years? It's not going to happen. If you can't get young guys to stop acting young, being naive, and making stupid mistakes then you are never going to have success. Under this line of thinking you are going to have one good year every 3 or 4 years and be young, naive, and prone to making stupid mistakes all the other years. No thanks.
Doesn't seem to be a problem at Florida. They've got freshmen running all over the place. At some point the excuses have to stop. The coaches and players have to expect more out of themselves.
Look, I don't have the answers to what our problems are. But the problems aren't being fixed. It's obvious to most that are willing to be open about it.
I bet that they couldn't hang with Florida our outplay Arkansas like we did either.
I wasn't hapy with last night's game and this I will blame on Shula. We came out not focused on this game. It happens but we should never overlook anyone. The team thought that they could just comeout onto the field and Duke would lay down for us. I have played in those games before. I have also played in games where we were supposed to be beaten but we won the games because we were determined and we were taken lightly. This isn't the first time a Bama team has done this. It has actually been a long history of Bama playing down to an overmatched opponent.
My conclusion is that you're incorrect. So many people want to look solely at this year... but it's the same coaching staff that was here last year... when our team wasn't "soft", at least not on the defensive side of the ball. IMO, too much stock is placed in that statement... teams are always a total reflection of their coach. May be the case a lot... but not always.
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