Undisclosed, unmentioned non-participation is odd. I’m wondering if there was an internal rules violation that cost Ty Perine the bowl game?
Anyway, the change from base to nickel in the 2nd half is part of the problem I have with what we do on defense in general. Saban is too damn stuck on trying to be in the right personnel and play call. Anyone with sense could’ve told you with our injuries on the DL and inexperience at LB that playing base after practically not using it all season was likely to be a bad plan.
Look at what Clemson did this season. Yeah, they wanna line up in a base 4-man front defense and feint more aggressive blitzes than they actually bring to work one-on-ones for their elite down linemen. They didn’t have the personnel for that in 2019 so they went to playing odd front nickel and dime with much more aggressive blitzing plans.They recognized their personnel limitations and crafted a scheme to better flex where their talent lies on the defensive roster.
This is what I don’t get about the Saban defensive structure under the modern offensive slanted ruleset. You’re just not going to be in a perfect defense every play. Just get your best defenders out there and ask them to step up. That’s a lot better than putting a 3rd string NT you didn’t trust to play much all season on the field for a great deal of the 1st half. Or asking two freshmen ILBs to execute a defense they probably didn’t rep much all season.
This is why I laughed when GMac tried to argue this was Saban and his staff’s best coaching job. I don’t even know if what was done on defense this year was adequate even considering the injuries. A lot of what was decided on by the staff seemed to exacerbate the problems.
Lots of rumor that Perine pulled a hamstring either late in bowl prep or in warm-ups. I haven't heard anything suggesting it's disciplinary yet.
I watched a bit of the Wisconsin-Oregon game and Wisconsin was in a 4-4 look on some downs. I never thought I'd see that defense again outside of a game against a service academy.
I can understand why we'd want to be in base in theory because everyone including me was expecting Michigan to put those two tight ends out there and try to chew us up, which they were able to do in the first half even without having to sacrifice a WR for a second TE. My issue with us in base over the years is it puts the OLBs in roles they don't play much anymore. Or, sometimes it brings an inferior player onto the field simply because you need the role. Take a look at how Chris Allen played first half versus second half. He was tentative out of the gate but got more comfortable when we got into nickel because we practice that more during the year. The big issue for Bama in nickel this year is that it doesn't work if Mayden/Carter/McKinney have a bad day, particularly Mayden, who is the run-support safety. Fortunately, Michigan was speed-starved in the WR corps so we didn't have the matchup issues on slot receivers like we do in the SEC where everyone has four burners nowadays.
The other thing is I would never play base much against Patterson because he's so mobile, sooner or later he's going to tempt his OC into opening things up and trying to create scrambling opportunities. No one really loves to see a dual-threat guy on the other side, but Alabama has more trouble than most defending the scramble sometimes because of our coverage schemes. If the first guy through doesn't finish the QB off, it's basically an automatic 15 yards.
I also thought having Raekwon Davis play NT was inspired, as we got away from that at times this year. It doesn't make any sense, really, but I liked him at NT and Mathis at DT/E better than the reverse. As soon as he got over the center, they really started to struggle containing him and Barmore when they were coming together. And that opened up opportunities for Young on the other side because they had to leave him to one blocker so they could double the two better players.
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