a look ahead

[ChesapeakeTide]

You make a good point. You have to trust your WR's to catch the ball. JPW didn't show much trust. Maybe "bricks for hands" was a bit too harsh, but I don't think anyone can deny the WR's need to catch the ball when it hits them square in the hands. Apparently, I think it was a bigger problem than some others or else others want to blame another person for the WR's deficiencies. Oh, well. Let's just hope everyone improves next year and we'll all be happy.

That's the frustrating thing for me, whether you play on Saturdays or Sundays. When the ball hits you in the hands you've got to catch it!

When the receiver has to make all sorts of adjustments to catch a ball that's on the QB. Our QB doesn't always hit people in stride or put the ball in the right spots; but when he does, the ball needs to be caught.

 

[BamaFossil]

Great analysis bamaslammer! Lots to look forward to next year.

 

[NationalTitles18]

I just have a hard time holding a wr accountable when they are basically not being thrown the ball from game to game then all of a sudden get criticized for being "not good" for dropping balls. It's kind of like anything you or me do. If you play golf, go to driving range every day but only go to the course and actually play once a month. You ain't going to be very good.

Good points. Hopefully by next year it will be a moot point.

 

[thunderz7]

While I have seen comments by Carpenter about playing LT at Bama, ALL the remarks I've seen from coaches and athletic department personnel have said he was brought in for the guard position.
His first look will be at guard.

Hard to deal with much of the rest without speaking against a present or former player.
If the Virginia Tech game was next Saturday we would loose.

 

[bayoutider]

Wide receiver has been a puzzle for me all season. Common sense or maybe it's my lack of common sense tells me the coaches should have worked on Wilson looking for a second or third receiver on passing plays. Too many things go through my head to type them all but I don't think Coach Saban is loyal to a fault keeping a lesser player on the field and someone more talented on the bench. We have receivers almost as talented as JJ on the team but some just haven't panned out in the college game. Brandon Gibson is a name I will throw out there. He was one of the crown jewels of the 2005 (?) class and is third team backup at best?

 

[Squirrely]

We don't pass the ball enough to get into a flow with things. Passing the ball is a beautiful thing once it's running on all cylinders, but Bama never really got anything like that going to this year. We passed mostly because we had to because teams started loading the box at seasons end. Some games the passing game was on, and some games it wasn't.......

Once we get more play makers, and a QB who's got NFL talent. Bama will be like other teams that don't struggle to pass the ball, and it will come much easier when we do it because we want too & not because we have too...........


:BigA: ROLL TIDE :BigA:

 

[Bamabuzzard]

I think our coaches played to our strength's all year as much as possible and if we would have had the personnel that could pass the ball like this offense is intended to be able to then by all means we would have seen more passing. But unfortunately passing and all that it encompasses simply has been an area of offense we have struggled at and teams in big games have figured that out.

 

[davefrat]

i just hope people will understand that we could be a better team next year but only win 9 or 10 during the regular season. i worry that some fans may not realize that it is next to impossible to go undefeated in the regular season twice in a row.

 

[GrayTide]

i just hope people will understand that we could be a better team next year but only win 9 or 10 during the regular season. i worry that some fans may not realize that it is next to impossible to go undefeated in the regular season twice in a row.

Absolutely agree. We should have more overall talent and depth with experience, but will have some huge holes to fill in the OL and at QB. The other point to next year is that we beat a lot of teams in 2008 that should be much improved next year so the competition should be more formidable next year.

 

[Squirrely]

At least Bama has some of those hard games at home with a new QB next year, and this should help with things somewhat, but I think next year. Our holes we will have to fill will show in a few games, and could end in some loses, but only time will tell us all this.

2010 Bama should be close to full strength & a compete team, and have the depth needed to make it through the year. This year we were very fortunate with injuries, and if we had lost a few key players, this year would have been much tougher without question in my eyes.

This Bama team has got a lot of work to do off season, and with having to play a team like VT the first game. They better have their stuff together with the style VT plays defense & special teams......


:BigA: ROLL TIDE :BigA:

 

[eric1978]

I'm just thrilled JPW is gone.The offense will be in good shape if they find replacements for Smith and Caldwell.Bama will have to play a lot of freshman and sophmores again, but that will be the case until all of the Shula losers are gone. Anyway Bama had a super year and that will only help recruiting. Maybe they find 2 pass rushers in the offseason.

 

[TommyMac]

I believe a lot of it just boils down to the fact the JPW never fully caught up to the speed of the game at the big time CFB level and developed tunnel vision when scanning the field on passing plays. He did the same thing last year with DJ. Thankfully, Coach Saban and Coach McElwain were able to coach around it and put more emphasis on the running game and used the TEs more.

Not a knock on JPW, he did a great job this season and played within his limitations. He's never going to be another Namath or Stabler and it's unrealistic to hold him to anything close to that level.

 

[gamersfuel]

I dont think our WR's are bad. We should have done much better with the group we have however they do drop balls that should be caught. I cant tell you how many times I saw Mccoy drop deep balls that he got his hands on. Stover dropped those as well. All i want is a QB that can read a defense. That alone makes any oline look pretty good. Look at TTech's oline. Harrell made them look like the 2nd coming of the 90's Dallas Cowboys until they ran into Ole Miss.

 

[gmart74]

I'm thankful for everything JPW did during his time here. I'm not here to criticize but to critique. He's always been durable, that's probably his greatest quality. While he may not be a John Elway during crunch time, he generally keeps a level head. He doesn't win many games, but he usually doesn't put you in a position to lose them either. And he's a decent scrambler. Those are generally not the things of legendary QB's.

He's ALWAYS been one to lock onto one receiver, this year was probably his worst year EVER for that. His deep ball is inconsistent. He has average arm strength and he's prone to long lapses in judgment and accuracy. He's our all-time leader in TD passes and yardage, yet in his Sr. season he only had 9 TD's and 2,200 yards? He was more consistent this year than ever before, but it could also be said that he's been consistently mediocre.

I'm grateful for what he's done for us, especially this year. I do think he's provided valuable off the field leadership. But I think we can only go up from here as far as the QB position is concerned. And I still think most of the WR problems have to be deferred to JPW.

you said better than i can. i appreciate what he has done for us but I am looking forward to having a different qb under center from now on.

 

[Bama-94-00]

The receivers have to do a better job of moving around and getting open when the QB scrambles. And the QB has to get them the ball if they get open.

Anders is the only speed rusher we had. Got to get/develop more like him and speedier DEs too. More depth and more experience will get Bama more regular seasons like this one..

 

[NYBamaFan]

i just hope people will understand that we could be a better team next year but only win 9 or 10 during the regular season. i worry that some fans may not realize that it is next to impossible to go undefeated in the regular season twice in a row.

Agreed - we cannot expect the SEC to be as weak as they were this year. In retrospect, we only played 3 good teams this season (GA, OM & LSU). We were lucky to win 2 of those games, and beat GA the same way that Utah just beat us (surprised them). The other 9 teams turned out to be huge disappointments. I don't think that we will face 9 patsies next year, nor can we expect to surprise anyone.

 

[derek4tide]

Not enough to make an assessment on them. A wr is much like a rb. They have to be a part of the flow of the game. For the times you say JPW threw to them and they dropped I can tell you the times they went GAMES without being thrown to. Just because a WR drops two or three over a course of a few games doesn't mean you stop throwing to them.

You hit the nail on the head, BB. The original post was way off on our WRs. If you are not thrown to, how can you catch it. JPW's flaws have been pointed out in this thread and are exactly right. You can't lock on to one receiver all year and expect the others to catch the ball on a whim or when you chunk it because you're getting blitzed.

 

[bamaslammer]

I think you missed this one by a mile. How can you assess whether a receiver is "good" or not if he's never thrown the ball OTHER THAN the last game of the year? The "they can't get open and that's why they're not thrown to" is a pile of lies from the pits of hell. It's amazing that other team's second, third and fourth receivers can get open but you mean to tell me that on EVERY PASS play we've run this year no other receiver got open other than JJ? I don't think so. I'm giving the wr's a pass until they are given an opportunity within the game to prove themselves. It's tough to prove yourself if the ball never comes your way. A wr doesn't have to have 20 yds separation to be "open".

I will grant you that Wilson did not spread the ball around enough nor was he the most accurate, but the tight ends and JJ were fairly consistent making catches, Everyone else was not. Hanks seemed to be improving late in the season but failed to produce against Utah. Meanwhile any ball within 10 feet of a Utah receiver was almost money in the bank. Its not unusual for an upper classmen receiver to "suddenly" start catching the ball, so I haven't lost hope for the younger ones. McCoy had really fallen off the map, he's only got one more year to get this right.

 

[KrAzY3]

There are a lot of issues and my concern going into next year was how the team will do without some key players. Alabama really missed Andre and I think it should reset some people's expectations going into next year. I do think that the Utah game was the ULM game for the past season. Alabama didn't show up well prepared and did not play with the intensity that was needed. When you add the bad breaks Alabama got (missed FGs, dropped TD pass, etc...), they really had little chance of winning against such a good team.

Clearly this team can improve. The players can get better and I'd have to say the coaching probably could get a little better to. It's hard to say the team was well prepared and I'd have to hope that if you have a great coaching staff the extra preparation for a bowl game should give you a signifigant advantage, not put you at a disadvantage as appeared to be the case. This all should light a fire under Saban and the remaining players to address the issues.

As far as the JPW discussion/WR discussion... it's complicated and I'm not sure there is so much blame as just lack of talent. Either way, you simply can't blame JPW for a ball bouncing off a WRs chest.

 

[bamaslammer]

You guys bring up a good point. I don't expect Alabama to start out the year very dominant and we could suffer through some painful losses next year, but if the OL improves as the year goes on along with some other areas we could be better toward the end. With a little luck we might get another crack at the SEC title. But I caution you that LSU would have stomped us if they had a quarterback.