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

BamaJama17 said:

LSU perhaps. Georgia, OU, Ohio State, and/or Clemson perhaps in the postseason. That is if we expect Bama to play in the NC again...

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I can see possible shootouts with Texas AM if Mond is hot that day; also with LSU if Joe Burrow is still playing well; Auburn since Nix will probably be much improved and more comfortable by then. I just hope BAMA has no more injuries, especially those for those 3 games.

I don't want to even think about UGA, Clemson, etc yet.... BAMA has to win the West first. I just hope Auburn, LSU, and Texas AM beat each other in their games to where BAMA wins the West even with 1 loss.

This weekend game b/w Texas AM and Auburn should be interesting. Go Aggies

CajunCrimson said:

USCe got a gimme TD
Plus a seeing eye lucky throw for a TD

Duke scored 45 and 41 in their other two games.

Our D won’t give up many points. We can outscore anyone.

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It really is a great point. USC's last TD was a trash time score, aided by a terrible penalty call. The other TD was totally a shot thrown up, and a talented receiver gave it his all to pull it down. The rest of the game was bend, but don't break. USC's offense is going to give some people not named Georgia some trouble. They still play Georgia, aTm, and Clemson. Clemson might be a shootout with them. As weak as we looked tackling and getting pushed around on the defensive line, someone like Clemson running some weird 3-3-5 defense might get abused by USC. Good measuring stick game. On the scoreboard, and even the stats, throwing out that last score, we bent, but didn't break.

Saban4Ever said:

I can see possible shootouts with Texas AM if Mond is hot that day; also with LSU if Joe Burrow is still playing well; Auburn since Nix will probably be much improved and more comfortable by then. I just hope BAMA has no more injuries, especially those for those 3 games.

I don't want to even think about UGA, Clemson, etc yet.... BAMA has to win the West first. I just hope Auburn, LSU, and Texas AM beat each other in their games to where BAMA wins the West even with 1 loss.

This weekend game b/w Texas AM and Auburn should be interesting. Go Aggies

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A great point made by someone on JOX Birmingham this morning was that the loser of the game can essentially cancel their plans for Atlanta, as it is quite likely either team would lose a 2nd game, maybe a 3rd, in conference, with each team still yet to play LSU and Alabama. So, this weekend is an SEC title quarter final for Auburn and aTm. Bama's time is coming too, obviously.

I get your point BamaJama17 and I do agree that we have the QB and WRs that are more than capable if we have to win a shoot out. I think we can play better defense overall than we did at SC, but I really want to see us improve our rush defense. I do agree that there is no Dylan Moses, Rolando McClain, or CJ Moseley; There is room for improvement against the run...

RTR91 said:

Conversely, Alabama's offense can score too fast like it did last year. We have seen a few times already in 2019 the WRs' ability to take a quick, short pass the distance.

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Yes they can. Idk though if JP Wilson, GMac, AJ, Coker would be able to be a effective in a shootout though.

BamaJama17 said:

Yes they can. Idk though if JP Wilson, GMac, AJ, Coker would be able to be a effective in a shootout though.

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What am I missing here? That doesn't really go with your post that I quoted.

BamaJama17 said:

My point is that the rush defense may not be as suffocating like in years past. Alabama just does not have a Rolando McClain, Dont’a Hightower, or a CJ Mosley at MLB this year. However this year the QB play is good enough to mask the deficiencies and keep the defense from having to play 90+ snaps. Alabama will probably have win a few games by shootouts.

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Saban4Ever said:

I can see possible shootouts with Texas AM if Mond is hot that day; also with LSU if Joe Burrow is still playing well; Auburn since Nix will probably be much improved and more comfortable by then. I just hope BAMA has no more injuries, especially those for those 3 games.

I don't want to even think about UGA, Clemson, etc yet.... BAMA has to win the West first. I just hope Auburn, LSU, and Texas AM beat each other in their games to where BAMA wins the West even with 1 loss.

This weekend game b/w Texas AM and Auburn should be interesting. Go Aggies

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That too. AU in Jordan-Hare is almost way tough no matter what. LSU has plenty of NFL prospects just as Bama does. I’m just looking at the whole spectrum of things.

RTR91 said:

What am I missing here? That doesn't really go with your post that I quoted.

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What I’m trying to say is that I’m glad there is an elite QB instead of a game manger for once.

BamaJama17 said:

What I’m trying to say is that I’m glad there is an elite QB instead of a game manger for once.

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If you're wanting the defense to not play 85+ downs in a shootout, Tua and these weapons aren't exactly what you want on offense, though. Alabama's longest drives with the 1s on the field Saturday was a 13 play drive that went 50 yards in 6:35. Other than that, every drive was 10 plays or less for no longer than 4:12.

There's going to be some give and take as far as the offense being so talented and how many plays the defense plays in each game.

BamaJama17 said:

What I’m trying to say is that I’m glad there is an elite QB instead of a game manger for once.

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Imagine Greg McElroy or Jake Coker with this team. Yikes.

BamaJama17 said:

LSU perhaps. Georgia, OU, Ohio State, and/or Clemson perhaps in the postseason. That is if we expect Bama to play in the NC again...

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That is a quite reaching.....

LSU has a good defense. Likely will be a low scoring game.
Clemson- I don't think it will be a shootout game... It will come down to Defense who executes the best.
OSU- Unknown at this point. Doubt it will be a shootout.
Georgia- I don't think we will see over 28 points between those teams.
OU- Probably would be 3 score difference.

Bottom line: I don't think we'll see many shootout games this year. Tua is a gamechanger, but he can at times be a game manager when necessary. It all comes down to who calls the plays... IF we are up by 4 scores, Saban will get conservative and try to drain the clock as much as he can.

CoachJeff said:

Imagine Greg McElroy or Jake Coker with this team. Yikes.

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Blake Sims.

Any decent qbs will look good with those receivers we have.

RTR91 said:

If you're wanting the defense to not play 85+ downs in a shootout, Tua and these weapons aren't exactly what you want on offense, though. Alabama's longest drives with the 1s on the field Saturday was a 13 play drive that went 50 yards in 6:35. Other than that, every drive was 10 plays or less for no longer than 4:12.

There's going to be some give and take as far as the offense being so talented and how many plays the defense plays in each game.

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Yep and the defense has to get off the field and make stops on 3rd and 4th down. That will cut down on the # of plays they are on the field.

JustNeedMe81 said:

Blake Sims.

Any decent qbs will look good with those receivers we have.

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It helps when the ball is thrown where the receiver catches it perfectly in stride. Not many QB's can do this consistently but ours does. If you overthrow it or behind or out front those WR's don't look as good.

TiderJack said:

Yep and the defense has to get off the field and make stops on 3rd and 4th down. That will cut down on the # of plays they are on the field.

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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.

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.

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I agree, and WITHOUT so many penalties Bama had them in 3rd down so many times, and then the penalties gave them yards and a 1st down. So frustrating... I bet that irritates Saban even more than he indicates. That is one reason the defense had more plays/got tired.

Tide&True said:

The word I use to use for our defense was “energy”. I don’t see that with this defense yet. However, the only way you play with energy is knowing what you are doing and are one step ahead of the offense. Remember the great D’s we’ve seen in CNS’s tenure? They were constantly moving and reacting before the ball was snapped. Many times they were disguising blitzes, backing out and giving multiple looks (all on the same down). This D is too young to be that good at it yet.


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Yep, I think a lot of that "energy" comes with experience. SC was a crazy loud atmosphere and I'm sure some of our young guys were like WOW. First time on the road in the SEC can rattle a young guy. I'm sure there were a lot of nerves and uncertainty. Each game will bring a little more confidence and experience.

TIDEnGA said:

Yep, I think a lot of that "energy" comes with experience. SC was a crazy loud atmosphere and I'm sure some of our young guys were like WOW. First time on the road in the SEC can rattle a young guy. I'm sure there were a lot of nerves and uncertainty. Each game will bring a little more confidence and experience.

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As someone who attended the game I am fairly certain the weather was a part of our "energy" problem. The visiting sideline was in the sun the entire time and the home section was in the shade. It was incredibly hot that day. Add in that we are kind of thin on the DL and LB right now and the number of plays that were played and it makes sense.

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.

I kind of prefer how this season is going where there is no doubt that we need to improve rather than last season where we were thought to invulnerable.

Scoring too fast is a nice problem to have. But it does mean losing control of the clock and giving the D a lot of plays. This is really the basis of us old-timers complaining about the run game. Used to be, we knew we were going to run, they knew we were going to run, the announcers knew it, the crowd knew it. Didnt matter, we got the 3.5 yards. There are times when this is a really nice thing and I'm sure Saban wants this old fashioned zone blocking executed properly. We have the road graders to do it with. Perhaps we need to show Tevita how to take a handoff from the QB.