Question: Offensive playcalling

I would mostly chalk up any criticism of Daboll's play calling due to this:
It's been a hot minute since he has been the play caller. I think 2012 was his last OC gig. I feel pretty confident, that like the rest of the team, he will improve greatly over the next couple of games.

Be Patient

ggw98 said:

First, let me say I am in no way questioning the coaches. They get paid a lot of money to do what they do and they know so much more than I do.

Jalen rarely had time to execute the plays last night - he was running for his life on every snap. I've always heard that to slow down a rush, screen plays and draw plays could be called. IIRC, our screen game was pretty effective last year. There were a couple of throws to the backs in the first half, but those were swing passes instead of screens. I'm sure there's a football reason that we didn't try that, but I just don't know why. Any ideas?

I thought rolling Jalen out may help too, but the DE from FSU was upfield on almost every play, and that was definitely ineffective. I also thought about having a 2 tightend offense and keeping them in to hep block might help. I did see us using 2 tightends later in the game as we were trying to run out the clock.

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Nah, our screen game last year was mostly hot garbage. It was great under Mac and Nuss.

I think a few times the tailback rotation seemed a bit odd because Damien Harris was the hot hand and Bo was at least falling forward and fighting through for yards. Najee Harris is gonna be a star one day but that was full-grown man football last night and a true freshman in his first start wasn't quite ready for that level of defense. That's fine. I bet he makes some plays this season and maybe even become a star...but last night we should have fed D. Harris and Bo all night because they were getting the tough yards and explosive plays.

There were a few weird playcalling moments but I never found myself questioning the playcalling excessively. Mostly execution problems on the field not from the playcaller.

I think he will benefit from film study as much or more than any player this week.

The play-calling on the goal line frustrated me a bit.
On 2nd and goal on the 4, it may be time to bring in a couple of d-linemen and smash it up the middle. Calling a pass in that situation (which resulted in a sack and 3rd an goal on the 11) left me scratching my head a bit.
I'm happy to see how Daboll develops as a play-caller.

I could not understand why we did not use motion more...a TE or H-back...the only time I remember we did, we scored. The D was always set and we did not move them around at the LOS. The long TD pass had a play fake and we did not see much of that either. But I am sure there is a reason we do not know about.

I think we may be ready to call for his head a bit too early, I was frustrated once FSU gave away the ball late in the 3rd Qtr and we couldn't score.

I thought we would have used more play action, or short passes to the TE etc to slow down the rush. I thought some sort of toss sweep might work sometimes as FSU was quite often stacking the middle of the line. We definitely needed to try something to slow down that outside rush.

Some growing pains under a new OC are too be expected, especially against such a good defense. That was the best defense we'll face all season, and I expect the offense to get much better.

Wasn't great. It'll take time.


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Tidewater said:

The play-calling on the goal line frustrated me a bit.
On 2nd and goal on the 4, it may be time to bring in a couple of d-linemen and smash it up the middle. Calling a pass in that situation (which resulted in a sack and 3rd an goal on the 11) left me scratching my head a bit.
I'm happy to see how Daboll develops as a play-caller.

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This was the series that bugged me as well

I was not impressed with the offense. I don't know if it was the play calling, execution, or just playing an excellent defense. The talk all summer was FSU's weak defense and how Louisville shredded them. FSU looked pretty tough to me and gave us as much trouble as anyone we have played lately. Most likely a combination of all three things, I have confidence in CNS to adjust where necessary to makes things better. Must be patient.

WMack4Bama said:

I was right there with you until I went back to look at the film. Great play design if Jalen decides to give Cam a chance...he's wide open.

But he'd already made up his mind to take off running if he got pressure, but Cam is....again...wide open.

So...decent play design. Poor execution.

And I've defended Jalen against the world since he set foot on campus. Still do. But this one's on him and his happy feet.

Edit: Jalen also has to see/know that he's gonna have a spy on him every game. On this play, he has two (the middle backer (6) and the safety at the top of the screen (20) ).

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Thank you. When the execution is bad, which was the case most of the game, the play calling is going to be questioned. If we execute the play calling would have been good and solid.

WMack4Bama said:

I was right there with you until I went back to look at the film. Great play design if Jalen decides to give Cam a chance...he's wide open.

But he'd already made up his mind to take off running if he got pressure, but Cam is....again...wide open.

So...decent play design. Poor execution.

And I've defended Jalen against the world since he set foot on campus. Still do. But this one's on him and his happy feet.

Edit: Jalen also has to see/know that he's gonna have a spy on him every game. On this play, he has two (the middle backer (6) and the safety at the top of the screen (20) ).

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I hear what you are saying. In an ideal world (one in which there is no recent history and with football players who will act as emotionless as if they were in the film room), yes, that was a better play call.
In reality, 3:31 in the 3rd, with a quarterback who has been running for his life from a fast edge rush, I'm not surprised that Jalen would be thinking more about avoiding the pass rush that finding the open receiver.
One of the really remarkable characteristics of Jalen Hurts since his arrival at Alabama is how cool he has been under pressure, but at this stage of this game, Jalen was obviously not able to disregard the pass rush and throw to the open receiver. Smashing it up the middle behind d-linemen as blocking backs would have made the Noles' edge rush irrelevant.
That said, I'm not ready to call for Daboll's head on a platter. It was one game and there were a lot of good play calls and Bama won. There is just some room for improvement.
I guess hanging out with Tom Brady might skew a guy's expectations.

TiderJ said:

Thank you. When the execution is bad, which was the case most of the game, the play calling is going to be questioned. If we execute the play calling would have been good and solid.

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Cue the perfectly thrown, but dropped, fade route to Ruggs that has everyone ready to eat Daboll steak during the game.


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JBama_in_PCOLA said:

Wasn't great. It'll take time.


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I agree with this.

I have to remind myself like everyone else "This is game one." These guys may have played last year, but we are still going to go through growing pains that will take time. As was said, we faced a pretty darn good defense that did not give Jalen time to decipher and when he did have time, he got happy feet from the pressure before. It will take some patience and some actual game time to iron out the kinks and trust each player to do his job.

I'm watching the WV/ VT game right now and Grier has forever to throw. My brother said it last night, Bama is an OL away from annihilating everyone. I've got faith the OL will improve.

Roll Tide!!
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