JessN: Ole Miss wrapup: Tide gives its fans thrills, but would boredom be better?

JessN

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Ole Miss wrapup: Tide gives its fans thrills, but would boredom be better?
by Jess Nicholas
TideFans Editor-In-Chief
September 29th, 2019 01:59 AM

Somewhere between probably the fourth and fifth time DeVonta Smith ended up in the end zone after catching a touchdown pass from Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama fans had to be thinking it was about time for Ole Miss to fold up the tents, run three plays into the line every possession, and trade punts with […]

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DzynKingRTR

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Thanks Jess. We definitely need a punter change. If Delong continues to be our punter it will cost us. Is it nerves?

It looked to me that all of Bulovas' kicks looked to be knucklers.

Why is it that every QB seems to have their best gams against us?
 

B1GTide

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Yeah, thanks, but I disagree with the criticism of the LB and DL play. You seem to be really down on these groups this year. They played very well against an offense that they had never seen before, and that Ole Miss had not shown them in previous weeks film. These kids were in HS last year. I consider their play to have been exceptional given the circumstances. You will not play a team that will throw that kind of garbage at them again this year, but they learned from the struggle. They are getting better, and playing faster, every week.
 

Tide&True

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Yeah, thanks, but I disagree with the criticism of the LB and DL play. You seem to be really down on these groups this year. They played very well against an offense that they had never seen before, and that Ole Miss had not shown them in previous weeks film. These kids were in HS last year. I consider their play to have been exceptional given the circumstances. You will not play a team that will throw that kind of garbage at them again this year, but they learned from the struggle. They are getting better, and playing faster, every week.
Just to add...seems like the Mississippi schools always let it all hang out against us. Probably from years of us dominating them and the local recruits want to perform well.


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Tides_of_Change

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"You will not play a team that will throw that kind of garbage at them again this year"

I beg to differ. The originally known East Alabama Male College will gleefully throw this kind of garbage and other garbage not yet fathomed at us, but we may look back at yesterday's woeful experience and be thankful if it sets forth the kind of progression we must have two months from now.

We knew losing Moses and McMillon would likely hurt like heck, and it's hurting like heck.

What's more worrisome to me is an apparent gradual shift in culture in this region that is following suit to the Midwest and West. The "Heisman mania/ridiculous offensive stats" philosophy is beginning to take hold. I love Tua and those guys and am appreciating what they're being able to accomplish, but if this represents a long-term change that has no place for ball control offense and scary defense, I don't believe it's good for the sport.

"Big 12 defense" didn't become what it is overnight. It happened over years of knowing all the fastest, most athletic guys were on offense, trying and failing day-after-day in practice and then bearing it into fruition on gameday until it was eventually psychologically accepted that jogging around after receivers in open space was normal, and due to offensive scheme, even encouraged. Anyone would be naive to think it simply couldn't happen East of the Mississippi, and I for one would mourn it if it does.

Lastly, when it comes to punting, it eventually becomes "scholarship schmolarship". This defense needs any field position help it can get right now, and DeLong is absolutely defeated mentally. It's not fair to ask anyone to follow JK without an adjustment in expectations, but we must have more than we're getting right now. It especially hurts any punter whose team doesn't punt enough to allow him to establish a rythym.



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dWarriors88

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^^

might not be here to stay, but in a year where our defense had as many setbacks just during the start of the season, what a great time have an offense to lean on. We have to believe our coaches will get the defense sharpened, and I believe we are still just as capable of winning a defensive slugfest, against UGA or Clemson.

everyone else we just take the top off.
 

Jkl0802

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“....scholarship, and sometimes that results in getting the benefit of many doubts.” This was really disheartening for me to read Jess....I always thought we played the best player; regardless of scholarship or walk on status. They’ve been punting all summer....seems our kicking coach would have this decision made after a week or so??
 

B1GTide

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“....scholarship, and sometimes that results in getting the benefit of many doubts.” This was really disheartening for me to read Jess....I always thought we played the best player; regardless of scholarship or walk on status. They’ve been punting all summer....seems our kicking coach would have this decision made after a week or so??
Pretty sure that Bernier was put on scholarship last year. Did he lose it when he went into the portal?
 

edwd58

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The Perine kid is from Prattville and I've seen him kick for several years. He has a terrific leg (was also on the soccer team) - can certainly handle punting duties and also kicked FGs while he was here.
 

JDCrimson

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The Perine kid is from Prattville and I've seen him kick for several years. He has a terrific leg (was also on the soccer team) - can certainly handle punting duties and also kicked FGs while he was here.
He needs to be given a shot. He was booming his punts in warmups yesterday.

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JessN

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Yeah, thanks, but I disagree with the criticism of the LB and DL play. You seem to be really down on these groups this year. They played very well against an offense that they had never seen before, and that Ole Miss had not shown them in previous weeks film. These kids were in HS last year. I consider their play to have been exceptional given the circumstances. You will not play a team that will throw that kind of garbage at them again this year, but they learned from the struggle. They are getting better, and playing faster, every week.
Well, you can disagree with it all you like, but respectfully, what are you looking at?

How many times did Harris have coverage responsibility for the outside receiver and not know it until one of the corners all but grabbed him by the belt and walked him over to his position? That's what got him pulled against South Carolina earlier in the year, and he was doing it again Saturday. Kaho knows where to be, so I'm assuming Golding is teaching the entire unit at once, but Harris -- who played safety in high school on top of it all -- doesn't seem to be able to pick this up. Then there were bad angles from the SLBs (mostly Allen; Lewis played well overall but they're managing his snaps closely). Corners and/or the responsible safety vacating the backside of the play because they're peaking in. This is the kind of thing young teams do ... in spring ball. When they have coaches the caliber of what Alabama has, usually they're out of this phase by this point in the season, especially when some of the busts were coming from upperclassmen. Lee overcommitted inside a few times but I have less of a problem with that, especially given we couldn't pull him for the much quicker Markail Benton (has missed two straight games with an undisclosed injury; he was in warmup pants this Saturday and last) like we did a couple of times vs. USC.

The DL is a different story. It's less about performance and more about green-ness. Dale started the game at about 75 percent and got gassed pretty quickly. That put Mathis in the middle but he was pulling double-duty in Ray's position (talk about a guy we miss). Young would have to play when this happened, and he's not ready yet. Davis had to play more than he wanted to and I'm sure he slept in Sunday morning. I mentioned I liked what I saw out of Musika (after the first 2-3 snaps he was in). He probably knows where to be better than most, and he's only been here a year (JUCO). He doesn't look like he fits in with this team/scheme (too short) but I bet he gets more opportunities, especially if Dale gets dinged up again. Eboigbe has shocked me by the opposite -- not having an impact. We needed two of the freshmen to be real difference-makers and so far it's just been one (Dale). After the spring I would have bet hard cash on Eboigbe but that hasn't happened.

Regardless, let's talk Ole Miss for a second. Comparing scores is dangerous, but we're talking 10 points against Memphis, 31 against a terrible Arkansas defense, 20 against Can and just 40 against a SeLa team they should have hung 60 on. You could say "well, they changed QBs" and while true, Corral at least gives them a passing threat. There's a reason most of Plumlee's offers were as a safety. He cannot make even all of the most basic throws with regularity and has below-average arm strength on all routes. Ole Miss basically ran a single-wing and veer playbook at Alabama and got to 24 (last TD came against the 3s). Take Plumlee out of there and put Mond in and what happens next? I would say we'll find out in two weeks but I don't think Jimbo can stand to run that sugar offense -- thankfully.

I mean, we could just say "all is well" right now as long as the team is winning, but I've watched folks do that each of the last several years only to get tripped up eventually (by AU twice, by OSU, by Ole Miss a couple of times, etc.) and then folks get mad because they forget there was evidence already out there. The real problem is that, to an extent, it's endemic to the way Saban designs his defense (especially ILB issues in coverage of a TE).

The one thing I give absolutely zero credence to is "we're Bama, we get everyone's best shot." When you see the same stuff year after year from those same programs and you still let it happen, that means they've got you figured out a little. And I will remind everyone that what we saw from Clemson last year was very similar to how Arkansas ran up a bunch of supposedly meaningless points early in the year, and then Swinney's former OC gave him the roadmap when Bama got to a game that actually mattered.
 

BamaFlum

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Jess, is there an alpha dog on the defense? We need a Jonathan Allen type that will help these yunguns.


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B1GTide

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Jess, is there an alpha dog on the defense? We need a Jonathan Allen type that will help these yunguns.


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I think that your lack of experience at DC hurt you Saturday. You saw something from the MS offense that you won't see again, and your DC has no experience, so nothing to draw from in making adjustments to that garbage. You played them the same way from the start of Q2 through the end of the game. You kept a safety back the entire game as if Plumlee was Kelly. You never spied Plumlee. You didn't try anything new to affect his play.

I believe that this game was an anomaly because of the junk plays, but we will find out in 2 weeks.
 

B1GTide

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The one thing I give absolutely zero credence to is "we're Bama, we get everyone's best shot." When you see the same stuff year after year from those same programs and you still let it happen, that means they've got you figured out a little.
These two are not mutually exclusive.

You absolutely will get the best effort of the year from Auburn and LSU because you are Alabama. I'm not sure that the same applies to aTm yet, but it will eventually. The same applied to Ole Miss under Freeze. It also applies to TN, though they simply don't have the horses to make it matter right now. Those teams, as well as GA and Clemson, have all played you often enough to know what to expect and adjust their offense and defense accordingly.

The Clemson loss seems to have you guys afraid that someone has stolen Saban's secret sauce. They haven't. The same things win that have always won. Clemson made adjustments last year and beat Alabama. Saban has made adjustments this year to correct for that. Dabo will adjust again based on what he is seeing now. Saban is spending this entire week self-scouting and making adjustments. Nothing is static.

It is great that Saban has pushed this sport to this level. College football, at the highest level, is now much like the NFL lite. The play is fantastic. The coaching and talent are at a level never seen before in the game. Teams that miss the CFP today would dominate the game just 10 years ago. It is a great time to be a college football fan. Enjoy the show.
 

UAH

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I think that your lack of experience at DC hurt you Saturday. You saw something from the MS offense that you won't see again, and your DC has no experience, so nothing to draw from in making adjustments to that garbage. You played them the same way from the start of Q2 through the end of the game. You kept a safety back the entire game as if Plumlee was Kelly. You never spied Plumlee. You didn't try anything new to affect his play.

I believe that this game was an anomaly because of the junk plays, but we will find out in 2 weeks.
If the defense gives Mond the same opportunity without containment he could put up some big numbers as he proved last year.
 

TideEngineer08

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People keep bringing up Mond in comparison to a WR playing QB. Mond will actually try to throw the ball, because he can. He's also not nearly as fast as Plumlee. Mond and Nix are true QBs playing in established offenses. They'll play us more "honest" than Ole Miss was even capable of.

We didn't do a good job strategically against Ole Miss, true, but the game was over at 45-10. The defense isn't disciplined enough, because of inexperience, to maintain focus in the face of that score against a sandlot team that wasn't going to lay down and quit. Factor in playing on surface temperatures approaching 120 degrees, and you've got a recipe for giving up 21 garbage points.

This is meaningless. Frankly, Arkansas was meaningless last year. Arkansas wasn't why we got blasted by Clemson. That happened for very different reasons, and most of them left for other jobs after that fiasco.

But I'm not against the analysis. I'm not against talking about the reality of our situation which is that we do have problems that could sink us later in the year. I disagree anyone can say they will​ sink us, however.

Oh and another thing about what's good for the game. I'll agree I enjoyed strong defenses, and a ball control offense like what we had in the first half of Nick Saban's tenure, and I generally abhor the Big 12 style of football. But what's good for the game, especially its future? I can tell you it is to get farther and farther away from players repeatedly beating one another in the head. The less traditional running plays, the less that happens.
 

Saban4Ever

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If the defense gives Mond the same opportunity without containment he could put up some big numbers as he proved last year.

When we played Texas AM at home last year, does anyone remember Mond's stats? I will try to look them up somehow later (maybe ESPN? ) .

I am sure he will play better vs Bama than he has all year. They have a bye week like we do, so each team has time to improve on some things.

If he is hot, he is dangerous with both his arms and legs. I hope our rush defense plays well, or this could be another 80 plus snap game for the Bama defense.
 

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