Game Thread: OFFICIAL POST-GAME THREAD - Bama vs. Barn...

[PA Tide Fan]

Anyone have a link to Saban's post-game presser?

 

[RollinTider1335]

Someone remind me, were Alabama fans calling for AJ to lose his job when Alabama lost?

Alabama has a top ten quarterback, and empirical data says this, not my opinion. I'm not even sure some people here realize statistically he still had a solid game. His rating was 135, that's like 10 points below AJ's average his sophomore year. His QBR was 75, that's good enough that if he did that every game he'd still be a top 20 QB. That's not even counting the Ridley got mugged plays, which erased what could have been some big plays. All this against a great defense. You're basically football ignorant if you watch this game and your biggest takeaway is that Hurts is the problem.

Hurts could have played better, but so could many other players. He also could have been better utilized..

I have been a big supporter of Hurts, but i think he has plateaued. I dont see him getting much better. His game proficiency today is pretty much the same now as it was against Clemson in the National Championship. So he has not improved as a passer at all.

Hurts still needs to improve on short/intermediate throws and reading through progressions. He has missed second and third reads for most of the season because he looks to run way too quick if Ridley isn’t open.

Basically his second read is to run most plays. That has been evident.

His QBR is so high because he isnt asked to do a lot through the air.


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[Moro Creek]

I think we will find out next year if the statement "the best players will play" is really a true statement.

 

[JustNeedMe81]

I feel like everyone is being harsh on Jalen tonight. He didn't play well and he looked like he was lost tonight. Not the first time it has happened to other quarterbacks within Alabama program and elsewhere. He had a bad game, it happens. Lot of things went wrong for Alabama tonight... Daboll, Pruitt and Saban made lot of mistakes tonight... OL didn't do well. Brent Key is responsible for that. Offense and Defense didn't do well. We made too many mistakes tonight.

Please, I encourage everyone to take the time to calm down a little and not go off on the players.... Take the loss everyone. We will learn from our mistakes and move on. Guys, we are blessed to win 11 games or more each year... That's rare right there. We still have lot to play for.. just take a deep breath and all.

 

[RTR2u]

JustNeedMe81 you speak a lot of truth IMHO. And make a TON of sense.

 

[JustNeedMe81]

Also, I just don't understand why people would go off on Hurts whenever he had a bad game... and were quick to call for his replacement to play... I keep telling people that Tua is not the answer right now, and He would not win the game tonight if he had played.. it makes no difference when the team makes mental mistakes...

 

[RT27]

Jalen would be much better if he was not carrying this team on his back. Between us not getting the run going until the second half for one series, we put Jalen in a bad spot. WE got 5 great backs why are we not running it more? Jalen drops back and is running from rushers from the get go. he held onto a few tonight way to long, WHY? he feelshe has to make a play. We passed entirely at the wrong times. We never got the run established, why? That I do drop on OC. Jalen is a very very good QB but he cannot be the entire offensive run and pass game. With our runners he should only run 3-4 times a game by design. AND he should not have to run on 80% of pass plays. Trying to go deep when blocking is weak is stupid. Quick passes until this line can give him time for deep routes to open up. The few long passes most of the year he was running to but time to make deep pass. WE have run well why do we go away from it so fast in so many games? We need to go back to what got us here, run to establish the pass. Run da bawl as funny maine says it.

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

First of all, You need to calm down. Just because Hurts had a bad game doesn't mean he should lose his job. It seems like you are placing 100 percent blame on Jalen, and that's totally unfair. The blame should be going to the team as a whole. Both side of the ball did not play well tonight. Coaches didn't coach well tonight as well. This is on the team as a whole.

It feels like you're posting this because you are upset..... You need to take a step away from the ledge and realize that Auburn just outcoached us tonight. Nobody played well for Alabama... Tua wouldn't win the game if he had played.....

I am 100% calm. This isn't an emotional thought it is a rational one. I don't blame the game fully on Jalen there were a TON of issues today and coaching deserves a good amount of blame for the overall play today. This isn't just based on this game as I clearly said by pointing to last year. I didn't even say Jalen should lose his job just that there should be a legitimate competition.

The issues that the rest of our team had do not excuse the issues Jalen had and has had in the past. At least not completely. Please tell me how it is anyone elses fault that Jalen ran out of bounds 5+ yards behind the line of scrimmage? Or that throw to the endzone that 100% should have been picked off? or didn't see a wide open WR (again)?

Look Jalen is a upperish level college QB because of his running ability but he has serious flaws that are exposed against elite defensive fronts. Those flaws require the rest of the team to make up for it in other ways and that is a lot to ask IMO. We can win a lot of games with Jalen and probably even a Natty with the right team and right year(I thought last year was that year) but again its asking a lot.

 

[64met]

Good grief. Jalen did NOT loose this game.
Look at coaches, O line, Missed tackles etc.

Not Jalen.

 

[KrAzY3]

but he made a handful of really bad decisions tonight, and a couple of really bad reads.

I agree that this is probably the most rattled I've seen him. He's weathered everything before so calmly, and this is the first time I saw him actually seem kind of rattled. But what a trainwreck he ended up with. Getting early snaps, defense in his face all game, penalties not getting called, being put in a dire situation. I will not join the chorus calling this his worst game because I don't think it was in terms of how he played, but it might have been his worst composed game. He didn't even seem this phased when Kiffin was basically making up plays against Washington.

Having said that, and I've been fairly consistent with this all year, there's a round hole square peg component to both how Hurts is being used and how the OC is calling plays. He doesn't seem to care what the defense is doing sometimes, he just draws up a play that will theoretically work. And then we see things break down when the defense brings pressure, or Hurts makes a bad read, or the officials don't call a penalty. The OC absolutely has to adjust his play calling to both Hurts abilities and what is happening in the game! Nothing really changed with the play calling, Daboll tries to do the same things every game against every defense.

Over the course of the year, the theme has been consistent. A lack of short stuff, in favor of slow developing plays. Sometimes that's great, but when the defense is in the quarterbacks face, or there are other issues, you take that away! Is Hurts struggling with reads? Ok fine, you draw up a play that relies less on his ability to make reads! The defense is in his face? You draw up a play to counter that! Daboll seems to coach sometimes like he has NFL guys out there, and they can just execute anything (mind you his NFL guys didn't execute his plays well either). This isn't all on Daboll either, but it really isn't fair to judge Hurts at doing something the defense was clearly prepared for. Just do something different!

 

[Bamabus Collins]

My problem with the offensive game plan is simple - you went slow when you have had you best success going fast. Saban/Daboll played this game not to lose while Auburn played it to win. Alabama took no chances while Auburn rolled the dice time after time. Frankly, that disappoints me as much as the loss itself - the fact that Saban still plays this kind of team like it is 2010. I thought that he had learned better after his comments before the aTm game. I was wrong.

THIS. We have lost the last three we have lost to them playing conservative and not to lose. Tight as can be and vanilla. Coupled with the fact that beating us is the barn’s ultimate goal and focus, it puts us at a disadvantage. Even last year, we should have clobbered them and had a very pedestrian win.

 

[JustNeedMe81]

JustNeedMe81 you speak a lot of truth IMHO. And make a TON of sense.

The comments here in the thread disappoints me because that isn't who we are as a Alabama fans. Just because we say things doesn't mean we actually know what we're talking about. The loss tonight hurts a lot, but I'm smart enough to know what we might have ahead of us in next two weeks... I'm smart enough to know that this isn't all on Jalen... Every game Alabama plays, I watch the game again to see what happened good and bad, and I know what Bama needs to do to get better. Right now, the issue is the OL play. I suspect we'll make a coaching change or two in the off season and the OL is one of them. We just need to clam down... Think long and hard about what we say here in this thread.

 

[CrimsonProf]

I agree that this is probably the most rattled I've seen him. He's weathered everything before so calmly, and this is the first time I saw him actually seem kind of rattled. But what a trainwreck he ended up with. Getting early snaps, defense in his face all game, penalties not getting called, being put in a dire situation. I will not join the chorus calling this his worst game because I don't think it was in terms of how he played, but it might have been his worst composed game. He didn't even seem this phased when Kiffin was basically making up plays against Washington.

Having said that, and I've been fairly consistent with this all year, there's a round hole square peg component to both how Hurts is being used and how the OC is calling plays. He doesn't seem to care what the defense is doing sometimes, he just draws up a play that will theoretically work. And then we see things break down when the defense brings pressure, or Hurts makes a bad read, or the officials don't call a penalty. The OC absolutely has to adjust his play calling to both Hurts abilities and what is happening in the game! Nothing really changed with the play calling, Daboll tries to do the same things every game against every defense.

Over the course of the year, the theme has been consistent. A lack of short stuff, in favor of slow developing plays. Sometimes that's great, but when the defense is in the quarterbacks face, or there are other issues, you take that away! Is Hurts struggling with reads? Ok fine, you draw up a play that relies less on his ability to make reads! The defense is in his face? You draw up a play to counter that! Daboll seems to coach sometimes like he has NFL guys out there, and they can just execute anything (mind you his NFL guys didn't execute his plays well either). This isn't all on Daboll either, but it really isn't fair to judge Hurts at doing something the defense was clearly prepared for. Just do something different!

I'm not going do this all night - simply put, a second year starter at Alabama should not be taking sacks like that, nor should he miss open reads because he's locked to his best guy. It's got to get better.

 

[teamplayer]

To me, the tackling was atrocious. I'll never understand why the TE isn't more involved in the gameplan. And why, after running it down their throats in the first possession of the 2nd half, did we get away from it? More importantly, we look like we were playing not to lose. I understand The Process but sometimes you gotta play with some emotion. My only hope is that we'll see something similar as the Rematch with LSU in '11....a fired up and focused Bama squad in the playoffs. I have a eerie feeling we won't make it in though.

Yeah, I don't think we will make the playoffs either. We have had a good year, but against LSU, MSU, and AU we looked pretty mediocre on both offense and defense. We still have won eleven games this year, so that is a lot better than most. Roll Tide and have a nice evening.

 

[editder]

Auburn was not going to let us beat them in the air to Ridley. If we had thrown deep perfectly to Ridley 10 more times, they would have sacrificed a PI 15 yard penalty each time. It was part of their game plan, and it was the smart thing to do.
The TD completion to Jeudy was beautiful.

Yes, they did have him under wraps, so to speak.

 

[RT27]

Also, I just don't understand why people would go off on Hurts whenever he had a bad game... and were quick to call for his replacement to play... I keep telling people that Tua is not the answer right now, and He would not win the game tonight if he had played.. it makes no difference when the team makes mental mistakes...

All Tua would have been able to do is run like Jalen did, we lost this game for 2 simple reasons. 1 we did not control the line of scrimmage on offense. 2 we did not control the line of scrimmage on defense. BIG games are won in the trenches, rewatch game and just watch the the lines. Aubs pushed our OL back and aubs held our DL to a stalemate. Jalen was running on pass plays after 2 seconds, they were chasing him all over the place. On the flip side Stidham had all day to find guys open, as we got almost no pressure on him. THAT is why we lost, they won the trenches, and that won them the game. Not rocket science, control the lines control the game. They did we did not.

 

[JustNeedMe81]

I am 100% calm. This isn't an emotional thought it is a rational one. I don't blame the game fully on Jalen there were a TON of issues today and coaching deserves a good amount of blame for the overall play today. This isn't just based on this game as I clearly said by pointing to last year. I didn't even say Jalen should lose his job just that there should be a legitimate competition.

The issues that the rest of our team had do not excuse the issues Jalen had and has had in the past. At least not completely. Please tell me how it is anyone elses fault that Jalen ran out of bounds 5+ yards behind the line of scrimmage? Or that throw to the endzone that 100% should have been picked off? or didn't see a wide open WR (again)?

Look Jalen is a upperish level college QB because of his running ability but he has serious flaws that are exposed against elite defensive fronts. Those flaws require the rest of the team to make up for it in other ways and that is a lot to ask IMO. We can win a lot of games with Jalen and probably even a Natty with the right team and right year(I thought last year was that year) but again its asking a lot.

But you are suggesting that Jalen should lose his job because of his performance tonight. That's how I looked at it when I read the post. Jalen is a sophomore who wasn't coached up properly last year. So in essentially, he had to start over and treat this year as a freshmen year... He improved a lot this year.... You have to look at the long picture, not the short picture.

 

[B1GTide]

I feel like everyone is being harsh on Jalen tonight. He didn't play well and he looked like he was lost tonight. Not the first time it has happened to other quarterbacks within Alabama program and elsewhere. He had a bad game, it happens. Lot of things went wrong for Alabama tonight... Daboll, Pruitt and Saban made lot of mistakes tonight... OL didn't do well. Brent Key is responsible for that. Offense and Defense didn't do well. We made too many mistakes tonight.

Please, I encourage everyone to take the time to calm down a little and not go off on the players.... Take the loss everyone. We will learn from our mistakes and move on. Guys, we are blessed to win 11 games or more each year... That's rare right there. We still have lot to play for.. just take a deep breath and all.

I think that he deserves the criticism as much as he deserves praise when he plays well. Folks just need to keep in mind that he is a great QB who had a bad game. It happens to the best of them. Watson had many bad games at Clemson over the years. It is just a shame that it happened tonight.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

I don't think he's plateaued at all. I think the coaching staff has gotten enamored with him and have forgotten that he's not the only stud player on the field. Look at the first half rushing attempts and who they went to. The second half, we come out running the ball down their throats and just like we've done all year. We go away from it. Honestly, Hurts needs to be used like they used AJ McCarron, as a game manager. There is simply too much talent at the running back position, WR position, TE position to gameplan the bulk of the gameplan around Jalen Hurts.

It does us no good to have all these blue chip running backs when they aren't fed the ball enough on a consistent basis to get going. Running the ball is a rhythm, has a flow to it. You don't just plug a guy in there for one run, pull him, then not go back to him for three series. It simply doesn't work that way.

Offensive game planning and playcalling is the problem. Has been all year.

I have been a big supporter of Hurts, but i think he has plateaued. I dont see him getting much better. His game proficiency today is pretty much the same now as it was against Clemson in the National Championship. So he has not improved as a passer at all.

Hurts still needs to improve on short/intermediate throws and reading through progressions. He has missed second and third reads for most of the season because he looks to run way too quick if Ridley isn’t open.

Basically his second read is to run most plays. That has been evident.

His QBR is so high because he isnt asked to do a lot through the air.


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[RTR2u]

The comments here in the thread disappoints me because that isn't who we are as a Alabama fans. Just because we say things doesn't mean we actually know what we're talking about. The loss tonight hurts a lot, but I'm smart enough to know what we might have ahead of us in next two weeks... I'm smart enough to know that this isn't all on Jalen... Every game Alabama plays, I watch the game again to see what happened good and bad, and I know what Bama needs to do to get better. Right now, the issue is the OL play. I suspect we'll make a coaching change or two in the off season and the OL is one of them. We just need to clam down... Think long and hard about what we say here in this thread.

Agree 100%