Bama Game Thread: Official Postgame Thread, Bama vs. UGA...

[Blueguitar]

A lot has been said on here about DeBoer "taking his foot off the gas", and he was "watching the clock". But I did not see that happen. And none of the coaches have mentioned anything like that happening, as even a small reason for the second half playing out like it did. My thoughts as I was watching the game were that Kirby made really good halftime adjustments, and Bama struggled with it. They couldn't seem to counter those adjustments quick enough. And CKD said he attributes the second half to the four 4th down conversions Georgia made. He said they stop 2 of those, and the second half looks a lot different. I certainly agree. But apparently, there was no taking the foot off the gas. That's just conjecture. Georgia was just good in the 2nd half.

I agree. We were definitely not trying to milk the clock. I get wanting to stay aggressive, but it seemed like we were trying to have it both ways -- less aggressive but not committed to ground and pound either. I see three issues here that could come back to bite us later in the season.
1. OL interior run blocking is not as strong as I would have expected. Georgia had that shut down all game long. Once they figured out how to seal the edge our run game became completely bottled up. We need to improve here.
2. For some reason we tend to snap the ball with 10-15 seconds left. I'm not sure why, but that limited our ability to eat clock. I would guess that that amounted to at least a couple of minutes of clock that we gave back to Georgia. That may be deliberate -- perhaps we made a conscious decision to play fast and keep the D on its heels, but it mostly didn't work in the second half.
3. Related to 1 and 2, Georgia made a lot of good defensive adjustments at halftime, and we didn't seem to have a lot of adjustments of our own to counter those.

But hell, there is a reason I don't get paid to coach. I have no doubt that our staff knew exactly what they were doing. These aren't complaints, just observations.

 

[Blueguitar]

Not sure if this has been posted anywhere here, but one observation that I saw on social media was that RW caught the go-ahead TD pass with exactly 2:26 left on the clock. How cool is that? 2-26 seems to be some sort of cosmic number that foretells doom for Jawja against the Crimson Tide!

 

[REBELZED]

I haven't really seen this talked about re: the second half, but here is my opinion:

When Jalen is decisive (and accurate), he is lethal. That is what we saw in the first half. He got the ball out quickly. He ran with commitment. Everything was moving with rhythm. He was darn near impossible to defend.

Fast forward to the second half. He started hesitating to run instead of just hitting the holes or the edge. Started double clutching throws. The throws he did let loose were mostly off-target and off-timing. The rhythm was completely gone.

I am not smart enough to know what exactly UGA changed, but something they did forced him to be indecisive. He regressed back to the - let's call it - "panic ball" he has been prone to in his time as the starter. It seems when something shakes his confidence, his fundamentals go out the window.

That said, hopefully he and the coaches can learn from UGA did in the second half because we dang sure know our future opponents will be trying the same thing(s). But if we can get decisive, confident Milroe consistently, I don't see how any defense can keep us from scoring enough to win...

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Yep - nothing about the offensive play in the second half makes any sense. Everyone has to learn from it. Sark would have poured gasoline on that fire if he were calling plays, and Alabama would have won by 50.

I think you're right on several fronts.

Sark would have turned it into a bonfire of Biblical proportions in the second half with the playcalling. The players aren't the only ones who learn things from game to game and I have no doubt that if we asked the staff if they would have done anything differently in the second half, they would give us an emphatic "YES". The second half flow of the offense just went way too far off the tracks to just throw our hands up and say "Well, Kirby just made some helluva adjustments and we couldn't do anything about it." That is HIGHLY unlikely. Plain and simple, the staff's mindset let up and it showed through the flow of the offense, playcalling, and just the overall demeanor of the team in the second half. I don't have to have someone stand behind a podium and literally say it to know what my eyes saw.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

I haven't really seen this talked about re: the second half, but here is my opinion:

When Jalen is decisive (and accurate), he is lethal. That is what we saw in the first half. He got the ball out quickly. He ran with commitment. Everything was moving with rhythm. He was darn near impossible to defend.

Fast forward to the second half. He started hesitating to run instead of just hitting the holes or the edge. Started double clutching throws. The throws he did let loose were mostly off-target and off-timing. The rhythm was completely gone.

I am not smart enough to know what exactly UGA changed, but something they did forced him to be indecisive. He regressed back to the - let's call it - "panic ball" he has been prone to in his time as the starter. It seems when something shakes his confidence, his fundamentals go out the window.

That said, hopefully he and the coaches can learn from UGA did in the second half because we dang sure know our future opponents will be trying the same thing(s). But if we can get decisive, confident Milroe consistently, I don't see how any defense can keep us from scoring enough to win...

Regarding the adjustments made by Kirby. The oversimplified answer to this is to do something else. If what we did in the first half had been adjusted for in the second, then do something else. I've heard CKD say the playbook is limitless with things they can do with the offense. Then do it... Don't just sit there with our proverbial thumbs stuck up our butts and try to ride it out to the point of almost giving up the game.

 

[colbysullivan]

Regarding the adjustments made by Kirby. The oversimplified answer to this is to do something else. If what we did in the first half had been adjusted for in the second, then do something else. I've heard CKD say the playbook is limitless with things they can do with the offense. Then do it... Don't just sit there with our preferable thumbs stuck up our butts and try to ride it out to the point of almost giving up the game.

Maybe CKD is playing the long game. I think he knows this could be a special team, but we will have to win at least 3 playoff games this year, so maybe he’s just not fully unleashing the offense with Murderball yet.

 

[STONECOLDSABAN]

Maybe CKD is playing the long game. I think he knows this could be a special team, but we will have to win at least 3 playoff games this year, so maybe he’s just not fully unleashing the offense with Murderball yet.

A couple of years ago I would say you were crazy but the 12 team playoff probably has changed how coaches see the season. Not that we want to lose any games and we need to take it one game at a time but we are a long way from the “do or die, everything on the line bcs games”

Theoretically you could lose an out of conference game. Lose two conference games make it to the conference championship win your conference a you would be in the playoff.

 

[92tide]

based on the vibe at the office today, the bulldogs have been taught to behave. at least temporarily

 

[Tidewater]

I agree. We were definitely not trying to milk the clock.

Coach needs to go check out Bama-LSU 2015. Bama gets the ball up, 30-16 with 9:13 to play and LSU never gets the ball back. Bama takes a knee at the 16 on the last play.
Not sure that would work today, but that is the gold standard for killing clock.

 

[oskie]

... Don't just sit there with our preferable thumbs stuck up our butts and try to ride it out to the point of almost giving up the game.

... never really thought about having a preferable thumb for such actions, but I guess it does make sense ... on several levels

 

[day-day]

Hahaha, this is awesome!

VIDEO: These Japanese announcers were absolutely electric

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1840865494393295344

Sorry, I don't speak Japanese and NEVER will

 

[Ledsteplin]

I agree. We were definitely not trying to milk the clock. I get wanting to stay aggressive, but it seemed like we were trying to have it both ways -- less aggressive but not committed to ground and pound either. I see three issues here that could come back to bite us later in the season.
1. OL interior run blocking is not as strong as I would have expected. Georgia had that shut down all game long. Once they figured out how to seal the edge our run game became completely bottled up. We need to improve here.
2. For some reason we tend to snap the ball with 10-15 seconds left. I'm not sure why, but that limited our ability to eat clock. I would guess that that amounted to at least a couple of minutes of clock that we gave back to Georgia. That may be deliberate -- perhaps we made a conscious decision to play fast and keep the D on its heels, but it mostly didn't work in the second half.
3. Related to 1 and 2, Georgia made a lot of good defensive adjustments at halftime, and we didn't seem to have a lot of adjustments of our own to counter those.

But hell, there is a reason I don't get paid to coach. I have no doubt that our staff knew exactly what they were doing. These aren't complaints, just observations.

On your #2, I heard it had to do with staying in a rhythm. Waiting for the clock to tick down would disrupt that. The exception being late in the 4th quarter. I don't know if there's anything to that or not. Kinda makes sense though. Another thing, Kirby played a bit of ball control in the 2nd half. We didn't get it as much as we should have. Those 4th down conversions helped keep the ball out of our hands.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

... never really thought about having a preferable thumb for such actions, but I guess it does make sense ... on several levels

I got too excited and my Grammarly app didn't step in, it just let me walk off that cliff. LOL!

 

[Bamabuzzard]

based on the vibe at the office today, the bulldogs have been taught to behave. at least temporarily

Did you even have to say anything? LOL!

 

[92tide]

Did you even have to say anything? LOL!

reality is the only smack that i need to talk

 

[Ledsteplin]

SIAP

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1840505967940935855

They certainly got excited. Could you maybe paraphrase what they said?

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

I didn't watch Washington closely enough to notice but someone said that at Washington DeBoer did the same thing when it comes to clock management. Maybe vs Oregon? Idk

 

[BhamToTexas]

I wouldn't want to lose either but the college game has moved a lot in the same direction as the pro game. The RB position simply isn't as valued in the offense as it once was.

There is actually a lot of discussion this year about this trending back the other way in the NFL. Rushing numbers are up and passing is down. Teams are adjusting to the defensive players and schemes.

 

[SkullDuckery]

Coach needs to go check out Bama-LSU 2015. Bama gets the ball up, 30-16 with 9:13 to play and LSU never gets the ball back. Bama takes a knee at the 16 on the last play.
Not sure that would work today, but that is the gold standard for killing clock.

I don’t there is a Derek Henry on our roster.

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

There is actually a lot of discussion this year about this trending back the other way in the NFL. Rushing numbers are up and passing is down. Teams are adjusting to the defensive players and schemes.

Yes but the point with RBs in the NFL (and college) isn't that the running game isn't important (though there is some of that) its the success in the running game isn't really about the RB but about play design and OL.

There are a plethora of good RBs in the world and you don't need the best RB to be successful running the ball.