They averaged 2.5 yards per play against us. If that's bad, I would love to see what good is.
I honestly think there is something to these observations that others are having.
I hope that no one accuses me of being an eeyore because I think we played a great game. But I just went back and rewatched it and I noticed what some are talking about.
Yes, no doubt that end stat of 2.5 yards averaged per play is amazing. TBF a large reason for that is that the Mercer QB's were literally worse than many high-school QBs. I did also notice there were some runs that were still not fitted correctly or where the edge was set way too shallow or bad angles were taken by LB's coming in to meet runners in the gaps- things that we havent seen the past 2 years at Bama. The Mercer offense had a slew of negative plays that helped skew that stat but they also had some very nice gains on some very plain runs. People are seeing that and just choosing to say something.
Our MO has been to make teams 1 dimensional and then strangle them to death in the 2nd half. As we saw with Miss. State (and I DO think we are improved from that game and have a better shot at playing better both from a personnel POV and from an opponents game-plan POV) if we can't make teams 1 dimensional then the game can easily turn competitive. If we can fit our gaps and defend the perimeter with speed early and then build a bit of a lead and force Auburn to throw then I think the game will be over.
Now, to head off eeyore claims - upon my 2nd viewing I was even MORE impressed with Moses' play. That kid has BLINDING speed and closes at mach II on anything in front of or beside him. The calls seemed to be coming in cleanly by halfway through the 2nd quarter which is good because communication is half the battle. Deionte Thompson has incredible instincts coming forward to make a play on the ball. He was always in on or near the tackle when he was in the game. Rashaan Evans seemed to trust Moses the more they played together. I saw him overrun his coverage a few times early but later in the game he just nailed his side of the field down and the whole defense clicked better. I can't imagine the pressure Evans must feel to perform and hold this defense together. IF he feels like he can play his zone or gap and not fret about the other one we will be very competitive at those positions going forward.
I'm not going to get in to a stat war back and forth about our defenses performance because just by about every conceivable metric we pulverized Mercer. But by the eye test I saw where they had success where they shouldn't have and where others may still find it also. But I also saw our discipline solidify and our tackling form improve as the game went along.
Ideally what I'd like to see is our play defense mindset against LSU in 2015. The team was SICK AND TIRED of hearing about the great Leonard Fournette and played one of the most disciplined, angry, and ferocious games I've ever seen. They were gladiatorially violent (yah, I made that word up, it just felt right.) If we can bring that focus and that anger into this game against Auburn then we win.
