Game Thread: Official Post Game Thread - Bama vs. Clemson, Round Two...

deliveryman35

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Jul 26, 2003
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A great season, but one thing that I think made us really good in this run has been balance on offense. We became too one -dimensional this past season and for whatever reason Jalen seemed to regress as a passer. If we can get this fixed I think we can get right back to the playoffs and the championship game. This has to be a priority in the off season.
 

TideEngineer08

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Jun 9, 2009
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This has been an issue IMO throughout the season... and played a role in CLK's early departure. To me, one of three things occurred. One... we didn't see the need to develop JH's passing ability and thought our defense would be able to carry us to a championship. Two... JH simply didn't have the ability to progress enough to the point he could pass effectively during crunch time. Three... the attention of our coaching staff did not focus completely upon that development.

Of the three, I'm sure we all will have an opinion as to which one was actually the case. But, consider this... we had an entire month to help get JH ready for these two games and enough defensive versatility to mimic both defenses we'd face. That... and he had time to rest mentally and physically from the long grind of the season.
I just don't think CLK's mind was in the right place over the course of that month, and it severely hindered any prospect of getting Hurts properly prepared for the playoffs.

This defense was, IMO, the best of the Nick Saban era. When you truly consider the tight rope we walked on offense all year, and the fact that we weren't seriously challenged outside of Ole Miss and LSU, you have to acknowledge how great this defense was. Last night, they ran out of gas against an excellent offense. It was too much for them to overcome, but I'd argue no other team would have been in the game in the 4th quarter last night. Yet we led with 2 minutes remaining. It's not any sort of consolation, and I hate it we didn't finish on a winning note for this defense.

Next year, the offense is going to have to return the favor. I think they will. And yet, even though we will lose a ton of defensive talent, you just know we will field another good one.
 

81usaf92

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Apr 26, 2008
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CNS with game manager QB at Bama: 4-0 in NCG.

CNS with dual threat QB: 0-1 NCG.

We may stay the course with this direction, but there's reason to wonder if we should.

That's not whining, it's just perspective, opinion or one way of looking at it.
Coker was not a game manager, and you and JD are putting way to much on Jalen for playing like a freshman. It happens.
 

RTR91

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Nov 23, 2007
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CNS with game manager QB at Bama: 4-0 in NCG.

CNS with dual threat QB: 0-1 NCG.

We may stay the course with this direction, but there's reason to wonder if we should.

That's not whining, it's just perspective, opinion or one way of looking at it.
While we're at it:

Nick Saban in Raymond Jones Stadium: 0-1 in NCG

Nick Saban in any other stadium: 5-0 in NCG

This is beyond stupid.
 

81usaf92

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Apr 26, 2008
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While we're at it:

Nick Saban in Raymond Jones Stadium: 0-1 in NCG

Nick Saban in any other stadium: 5-0 in NCG

This is beyond stupid.
He 2-1 in outdoor championships

2-0 in indoor

0-1 in grass that is put out a week before the game

2-1 when he loses the coin toss in a ncg

4-0 when corso picks against us

0-1 when corso picks us
 
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CrimsonTider-n-SC

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Feb 3, 2004
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If one play on that final drive is different we are talking about the team being the greatest in history. It's a small margin.

Some folks act like Bama needs to revamp everything. Come on. It's more about Watson being great than Bama needing to retool everything.
AMEN! Let's face facts, it takes a QB like Watson, Cam, Tebow or Johnny Football to have a chance to beat us. And even those guys have about a .500 record against us. Sorry SEC I don't see any of those QBs in our conference next year.
 

BamaMoon

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Apr 1, 2004
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While we're at it:

Nick Saban in Raymond Jones Stadium: 0-1 in NCG

Nick Saban in any other stadium: 5-0 in NCG

This is beyond stupid.
With all due respect, I may disagree with you, but I won't say your perspective is "stupid." Can't you agree to disagree?
 

NationalTitles18

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May 25, 2003
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IMHO, the difference was the inability to simply put the game away with long sustained drives like past Saban teams at LSU and Alabama. Credit Clemson for taking advantage, but we can't continue to abandon the power run game and ball control when we have a 10 point lead in the 2nd half.
 

81usaf92

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With all due respect, I may disagree with you, but I won't say your perspective is "stupid." Can't you agree to disagree?
The point was you were pulling arbitrary facts, and also ignoring the changes in football since AJ. We don't win 14 games without a dual threat qb this year.
 

BamaMoon

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I can agree to disagree when someone uses legitimate reasons.
You may be right and I may be wrong OR Vice versa. I've offered reasonable considerations.

I'm not upset about what happened last night as much as I think it's worth considering if that's the best formula for Bama football going forward.

This is a discussion board so I thought that's what we do.
 

Krymsonman

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IMHO, the difference was the inability to simply put the game away with long sustained drives like past Saban teams at LSU and Alabama. Credit Clemson for taking advantage, but we can't continue to abandon the power run game and ball control when we have a 10 point lead in the 2nd half.
This was the biggest issue of the night, and maybe the pick plays don't even happen if we stick to the ground a little more. Yes, Bo was out but Damien was doing fine. It was kind of like the LSU game. Clemson was taking away a lot of our screens, side passes etc, but we probably getting at least 3-4 yards per carry up the middle. Sometimes you just have to pound it.
 

BamaMoon

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The point was you were pulling arbitrary facts, and also ignoring the changes in football since AJ. We don't win 14 games without a dual threat qb this year.
Arbitrary facts???

FWIW, we may go on to perfect the type of offensive strategy we employed this year with JH and other dual threat guys in the future.

But it takes a generational talent like a Tebow, Newton and now Watson to win a NC with this approach.

I'm just saying we've won championships without generation qbs the other way.

We wouldn't have been in the NC game without JH because he was our best option this year. But at this time, he wasn't ready to win a championship.
 

81usaf92

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You may be right and I may be wrong OR Vice versa. I've offered reasonable considerations.

I'm not upset about what happened last night as much as I think it's worth considering if that's the best formula for Bama football going forward.

This is a discussion board so I thought that's what we do.
Ok, then let's consider your argument between game manger vs non game manger. We are 3-0 with game managers and 1-1 without them. Coker was not a game manager, he was a ben roethlisberger/ Brett farve gun slinger. The only reason he doesn't appear that way is because CNS took the play calls out of CLK's hands and told him to run the ball because we don't need Coker to win the game for us. But if you look at Ole miss, Florida, MSU, and Clemson games last year then you'll see Coker is making a lot more 50/50 high risk high reward throws. AJ and Gmac didn't throw many of those types of balls. We probably don't win the NCG last year with Gmac.

The problem with reverting back to the Mac style offense is our defense in this day of age has a higher probability of getting donkey punched by weird plays and fast paced offenses. We need comeback power on offense. Mac and Nuss's offenses didn't have that. Kiffin' style of offense does. Look at the 2014 iron bowl
 

JDCrimson

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Feb 12, 2006
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Coker was not a game manager, and you and JD are putting way to much on Jalen for playing like a freshman. It happens.
How so? You have your opinion and I have mine. We have not won a NC with either of our dual threat QBs, Sims or Hurts. So pardon me if I think we excel more with a QB similar to Coker or Eason's capabilities. I am not saying UGA was better than us, geez. But I do think he has bigger upside to his game.

I agree Hurts presented out best chance of winning this year. If find it hard argue that we only allowed him to play with 1/3 of the field on any given play. Unfortunately our best chance of winning with Hurts came at the expense of our biggest weapon, our receivers.

Bottom line is as Bama rich said we overplayed the value of our defense and saw no need to develop Hurts intermediate over the middle passing game. I can't think of one post pattern or deep crossing pattern we have completed all year. Everybody knows Hurts is going to have to improve because the playboy on defending him is out there. Personally I like offense where our RBs and WRs are the focal point of the offense as do our recruits at these positions.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk
 

REBELZED

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Whether it be the staff telling Jalen don't make a mistake or Lane not doing a good job of developing Jalen as the season went on, something caused him not to throw as well. I look forward to seeing what he can do next season.
It seems like I remember Jalen taking a lot more downfield shots early in the year and our downfield passing game being much more successful - or at least respected.

Looking back, it was almost like the coaches were thinking we were just playing with house money considering we were starting a true freshman QB. No way we would make it to the championship with a true freshman, right? Might as well sling a few and see what happens because we will probably lose a game or two anyway, right?

Then as the season wore on and they saw how good our defense was, it seemed like they began encouraging Jalen to play super conservatively knowing that our defense would carry us. I don't think that it was so much that Jalen was regressing as much as the coaches sort of went into a shell offensively. We hardly even tried any downfield shots the last 1/4 of the season.

So then when Clemson loaded up on the run, Jalen was not used to HAVING to throw downfield to beat a stacked box BECAUSE he had not been called on to throw downfield for a good portion of the season. I think our offensive coaches hedged their bets that the defense would allow us to get away without throwing downfield and it only worked for 14 of 15 games. JMO...
 

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