Let’s discuss our defense...so many injuries, so many freshmen.

Tide&True · Sep 18, 2019

RollTide1224 said:
Overall, I thought it was good that we got challenged on the road and still won the game by 24 points which would have been 31 without the last second touchdown. Our young guys got tested as they will be throughout the season. The defense didn't give up and buckled down inside of the redzone. As we saw in the championship game, modern football is really all about red zone defense.

You make a good point. That was nice to see.

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Cruloc · Sep 19, 2019

Scoring too fast is a problem for the D, any D. Oklahoma has had this problem for years now, when they play a team with a pulse on D they get in a dog fight. They always scored a bunch though and were in their games. Army last year slowed the game down, but they run a triple option offense. Modern offenses these days, employed by most schools outside the military schools, play out of shotgun and run RPO's.

We are in a new age of football right now, rules benefit the O to the point there are huge numbers on O. We aren't going to see Alabama keep good teams with good offenses under 17 points much anymore. I remember under Stallings, if we kept a team under 17 we typically had no issues...then we'd play Florida and Spurrier and have all kinds of issues.

Freshmen QB's a different breed of QB to freshmen QB's 15+ years ago. They are ready almost immediately. These modern offenses....we have got to rethink how we feel about D. Now, with that said, stopping the run and getting pressure on the QB are always integral to any D regardless of era. Bama struggled there against SCarolina....who had a freshman QB that was ready, attacked our youth at MLB....and still lost by 24...instead of 31 because of garbage time TD.

Bama's run game....when D. Brown comes back....we will see improvements with physicality. But we still have Tua and the best WR's in the country. We also have Tua with a different mentality than last year, where he's not looking for the homerun ball every single time....which I'm hoping that plus Brown coming back help our redzone O. Brown would have been nice to have vs. Clemson too.

Southern Miss week....they can score, good O. Can Bama force some turnovers, can they get pressure on the QB, can they hold them to 21 or less? Does USM employ the same passing game as SCarolina, where the QB gets rid of the ball quickly and negates pressure we might get him? For this game, I'll be paying close attention to our D...are they in position and just not tackling well? Or are they out of position and just not there mentally yet? Are they trying to strip the ball instead of tackling? Are they not wrapping up? Are the DB's getting beat or going at poor angles?

The O is fun to watch, they'll score 50+ Saturday....I'm more interested in watching our D and see if there is improvement this week. That's the exciting thing for me....imagine with all the playing time these freshmen are getting how they will look by the end of the season.....given that we don't have anymore catastrophic injuries.

Sorry for the rambling, this one went on too long.

Tide&True · Sep 19, 2019

Cruloc said:
Scoring too fast is a problem for the D, any D. Oklahoma has had this problem for years now, when they play a team with a pulse on D they get in a dog fight. They always scored a bunch though and were in their games. Army last year slowed the game down, but they run a triple option offense. Modern offenses these days, employed by most schools outside the military schools, play out of shotgun and run RPO's.

We are in a new age of football right now, rules benefit the O to the point there are huge numbers on O. We aren't going to see Alabama keep good teams with good offenses under 17 points much anymore. I remember under Stallings, if we kept a team under 17 we typically had no issues...then we'd play Florida and Spurrier and have all kinds of issues.

Freshmen QB's a different breed of QB to freshmen QB's 15+ years ago. They are ready almost immediately. These modern offenses....we have got to rethink how we feel about D. Now, with that said, stopping the run and getting pressure on the QB are always integral to any D regardless of era. Bama struggled there against SCarolina....who had a freshman QB that was ready, attacked our youth at MLB....and still lost by 24...instead of 31 because of garbage time TD.

Bama's run game....when D. Brown comes back....we will see improvements with physicality. But we still have Tua and the best WR's in the country. We also have Tua with a different mentality than last year, where he's not looking for the homerun ball every single time....which I'm hoping that plus Brown coming back help our redzone O. Brown would have been nice to have vs. Clemson too.

Southern Miss week....they can score, good O. Can Bama force some turnovers, can they get pressure on the QB, can they hold them to 21 or less? Does USM employ the same passing game as SCarolina, where the QB gets rid of the ball quickly and negates pressure we might get him? For this game, I'll be paying close attention to our D...are they in position and just not tackling well? Or are they out of position and just not there mentally yet? Are they trying to strip the ball instead of tackling? Are they not wrapping up? Are the DB's getting beat or going at poor angles?

The O is fun to watch, they'll score 50+ Saturday....I'm more interested in watching our D and see if there is improvement this week. That's the exciting thing for me....imagine with all the playing time these freshmen are getting how they will look by the end of the season.....given that we don't have anymore catastrophic injuries.

Sorry for the rambling, this one went on too long.

Nice ramble[emoji4]. I also believe we need to hold on to the ball longer on O. Isn’t this the game Brown comes back...or is it after this game?

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Cruloc · Sep 19, 2019

I was of the understanding that this is the last game Brown will miss.

B1GTide · Sep 19, 2019

Cruloc said:
I was of the understanding that this is the last game Brown will miss.

Yep - Assuming he has done everything that Saban expects of him, he will get his shot at returning to the lineup next week.

Bamabuzzard · Sep 19, 2019

B1GTide said:
It also hurt you that you almost never brought extra pressure on 3rd down against USCe. Maybe you are playing it safe to protect your younger players, but it cost you time after time in that game. No matter how good your DBs are, they cannot cover for more than 4 seconds. You have to get pressure on 3rd and long.

Bingo! I hate to bring Clemson up but I've watched a few of their games and Venables DEFINITELY understands this concept of DB's not being able to cover very long. I can't tell you how many times I've watched Venables blitz and not only leave his corners on an island but actually leave one receiver completely uncovered. It's a risk, no doubt. But it's also just as much a risk to not blitz.

Tide&True · Sep 19, 2019

Bamabuzzard said:
Bingo! I hate to bring Clemson up but I've watched a few of their games and Venables DEFINITELY understands this concept of DB's not being able to cover very long. I can't tell you how many times I've watched Venables blitz and not only leave his corners on an island but actually leave one receiver completely uncovered. It's a risk, no doubt. But it's also just as much a risk to not blitz.

I really miss the blitz packages. To me, in spite of some risk, you gain so much by telling the opposing QB you don’t have all day to do your thing.

Speaking of blitzing...is Lewis ok?

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bamaslammer · Sep 19, 2019

Bamabuzzard said:
Bingo! I hate to bring Clemson up but I've watched a few of their games and Venables DEFINITELY understands this concept of DB's not being able to cover very long. I can't tell you how many times I've watched Venables blitz and not only leave his corners on an island but actually leave one receiver completely uncovered. It's a risk, no doubt. But it's also just as much a risk to not blitz.

Venables is a gambler who is willing to give up some cheap touchdowns to get to your quarterback. In years past that didn't work so well in big games but college football has changed a good bit, defenses are being put at more of a disadvantage by the rules and with the lineman being able to be down field a bit unlike the NFL the RPO game is very difficult to stop. So in today's game you are going to have to outscore your opponent, that's just a fact. Then you have one of two choices, you get to the QB to make him ineffective or you win the game in the redzone forcing field goal attempts. Clemson last year actually accomplished both in the same game which is a little unusual. I guess you can do that with four 1st round senior defensive lineman. Clearly saban is not the gambling type on defense so we are going to win or lose with our redzone defense.

Having said that if we can't hold them to 60 plays or less we are done so he may become a gambler on defense

B1GTide · Sep 19, 2019

bamaslammer said:
Venables is a gambler who is willing to give up some cheap touchdowns to get to your quarterback. In years past that didn't work so well in big games but college football has changed a good bit, defenses are being put at more of a disadvantage by the rules and with the lineman being able to be down field a bit unlike the NFL the RPO game is very difficult to stop. So in today's game you are going to have to outscore your opponent, that's just a fact. Then you have one of two choices, you get to the QB to make him ineffective or you win the game in the redzone forcing field goal attempts. Clemson last year actually accomplished both in the same game which is a little unusual. I guess you can do that with four 1st round senior defensive lineman. Clearly saban is not the gambling type on defense so we are going to win or lose with our redzone defense.

Having said that if we can't hold them to 60 plays or less we are done so he may become a gambler on defense

Actually, with Pruitt, you did the same thing and won a championship, so Saban is not opposed to this style of play.

imauafan · Sep 19, 2019

B1GTide said:
Actually, with Pruitt, you did the same thing and won a championship, so Saban is not opposed to this style of play.

Agreed. We blitzed quite a bit (and effectively) while Pruitt was the DC. He was a more aggressive DC than was Smart and (so far) Golding.

CoolBreeze · Sep 19, 2019

imauafan said:
Agreed. We blitzed quite a bit (and effectively) while Pruitt was the DC. He was a more aggressive DC than was Smart and (so far) Golding.

I get the feeling that when we get into the meat of the schedule we will have some blitzing action. LSU, Barney and UGA will get our best shot you can count on that.

gtgilbert · Sep 19, 2019

CoolBreeze said:
I get the feeling that when we get into the meat of the schedule we will have some blitzing action. LSU, Barney and UGA will get our best shot you can count on that.

You're likely right. why would we show any special looks now and let the better teams get a look at them? Much better to have some new looks once we get to the tougher teams

BamaFlum · Sep 19, 2019

When Golding was at UTSA, did he blitz much?

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B1GTide · Sep 19, 2019

gtgilbert said:
You're likely right. why would we show any special looks now and let the better teams get a look at them? Much better to have some new looks once we get to the tougher teams

I agree, but only to a point. If you want this stuff to work when you need it, you have to run it against real competition before you get to that game. Maybe they are doing this in practice, but if they are not going full speed, it is meaningless.

Blitzing is an art - like blocking. It is about timing and deception. You can't just start running them against LSU. They won't work.

Cruloc · Sep 19, 2019

B1GTide said:
I agree, but only to a point. If you want this stuff to work when you need it, you have to run it against real competition before you get to that game. Maybe they are doing this in practice, but if they are not going full speed, it is meaningless.

Blitzing is an art - like blocking. It is about timing and deception. You can't just start running them against LSU. They won't work.

Agree that it takes real game experience, especially with the amount of freshmen are playing....they need to run it and practice it in a live game experience. But if they start blitzing to practice blitzing I can see Bama giving up some very big plays with out of position players....out of position simply because of lack of experience.

The Bama D of years past would disguise and change on the fly, presnap, like an NFL defense....I don't think we will see much of that if any at all this year...guys are just too green for exotic defenses. I've never played a down so this is all just my speculation...just wouldn't think they'd run stuff with Lee and Harris that they would have run with Moses and McMillon.

B1GTide · Sep 19, 2019

Cruloc said:
Agree that it takes real game experience, especially with the amount of freshmen are playing....they need to run it and practice it in a live game experience. But if they start blitzing to practice blitzing I can see Bama giving up some very big plays with out of position players....out of position simply because of lack of experience.

The Bama D of years past would disguise and change on the fly, presnap, like an NFL defense....I don't think we will see much of that if any at all this year...guys are just too green for exotic defenses. I've never played a down so this is all just my speculation...just wouldn't think they'd run stuff with Lee and Harris that they would have run with Moses and McMillon.

If you can't/won't blitz effectively, you won't beat GA, much less win in the CFP. There are some great, and I mean GREAT, QBs playing for the best teams in the country this year. They will all pick you apart if you give them time. You have to blitz, because you do not have a Q on the team this year.

BamaInBham · Sep 19, 2019

BamaFlum said:
When Golding was at UTSA, did he blitz much?

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I'm too lazy to look again, but my distinct impression was that Golding was an aggressive blitzer at UTSA. It's not just the coaches that are different this year vs Pruitt but the players' talent and experience is different. There is only so much one can do based on personnel.

BamaFlum · Sep 19, 2019

BamaInBham said:
I'm too lazy to look again, but my distinct impression was that Golding was an aggressive blitzer at UTSA. It's not just the coaches that are different this year vs Pruitt but the players' talent and experience is different. There is only so much one can do based on personnel.

Thanks. So most likely, the blitz packages are there but either can’t be used due to the greenness if the front seven and/or being held out until quality opponents.

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UAH · Sep 19, 2019

B1GTide said:
If you can't/won't blitz effectively, you won't beat GA, much less win in the CFP. There are some great, and I mean GREAT, QBs playing for the best teams in the country this year. They will all pick you apart if you give them time. You have to blitz, because you do not have a Q on the team this year.

Listening to a few minutes of Three Man Front this morning it seemed pretty clear that no objective observer would see a team with the number of injuries in critical positions that Bama has experienced on their defense be able to beat a team that is very good on both sides of the ball. With arguably the best offense in Saban's tenure the defense still has to find a way to get the ball back in the offense's hands with time on the clock. I tend to believe that CNS has a very good feel of where the defense is and can only work to improve every practice. I see a big test coming at College Station and we will know a lot more following that. One thing for sure CNS knows exactly what Jimbo is going to throw at Bama and we will see how effectively the defense deals with it.

teamplayer · Sep 19, 2019

CoolBreeze said:
I get the feeling that when we get into the meat of the schedule we will have some blitzing action. LSU, Barney and UGA will get our best shot you can count on that.

I agree. I don't think we are going to show much against Duke, New Mexico St., and South Carolina. Then again, I wonder if the defensive coaches wished they had done a little more to try to get off of the field and not face 80 plays. Sometimes we just have a danged if we do and danged if we don't situation. We'll see how the team progresses.

Let’s discuss our defense...so many injuries, so many freshmen.

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