Honestly the Defense was so bad I turned the game off and even though I recorded it I won't watch it. We looked like a poor Big 12 team on defense. I grew up with Paul Bryant and I could not take it.
State of Alabama defense
- Thread starter gymcoach
- Start date
I saw over and over that our pre-snap reads and alignments were wrong. I thought having Moses back would fix it. We still looked lost. Good news is we aren’t likely to face a mobile QB with an offense guru calling plays until the playoffs. Out of 86(29 passes) snaps we had 2 sacks, 7 TFL, 2 passes defended and 3 QB hurries.
A couple of thoughts:
1 - I am going to assume that a part of the problem with tackling was wet football players. For the most part, you guys were getting to the RBs early in plays with good form, but for some reason, time after time, they simply slipped out of good form tackles. I would say that represented at least 50% of your missed tackles, and if you eliminate those Alabama wins by 30. I don't know how to tackle wet football players better, but you can't tackle that poorly again.
2 - Communication in the game last night was the biggest reason for the busted plays, and there were a ton of them. You were not getting set, and your players did not know where to line up. Some will blame that on the speed of Ole Miss' offense, but you have played fast offenses before. This is fundamental in this era of football. Need to get better at getting the defensive calls onto the field and getting the defense set.
3 - Lost confidence is my biggest concern going into the GA game. You can't play in this defense if you do not trust yourself. Kiffin and Sark are the two best offensive minds in college football right now. You won't have to face Kiffin again this year. Throw out the tape and move forward.
4 - Golding is responsible for getting the calls on the field. He is also the guy who is responsible for coaching the ILBs. The ILBs set the back 7 of the defense. Even with Moses and Harris back there - probably the most talented ILB combo in college football - you are not getting set. That is 100% on Golding. Not injuries. Not inexperienced players, not Covid - Golding. I don't have the answer - I just know that it isn't Golding. And not just because he is not good enough at defensive play calling - he is not a good ILB coach.
1 - I am going to assume that a part of the problem with tackling was wet football players. For the most part, you guys were getting to the RBs early in plays with good form, but for some reason, time after time, they simply slipped out of good form tackles. I would say that represented at least 50% of your missed tackles, and if you eliminate those Alabama wins by 30. I don't know how to tackle wet football players better, but you can't tackle that poorly again.
2 - Communication in the game last night was the biggest reason for the busted plays, and there were a ton of them. You were not getting set, and your players did not know where to line up. Some will blame that on the speed of Ole Miss' offense, but you have played fast offenses before. This is fundamental in this era of football. Need to get better at getting the defensive calls onto the field and getting the defense set.
3 - Lost confidence is my biggest concern going into the GA game. You can't play in this defense if you do not trust yourself. Kiffin and Sark are the two best offensive minds in college football right now. You won't have to face Kiffin again this year. Throw out the tape and move forward.
4 - Golding is responsible for getting the calls on the field. He is also the guy who is responsible for coaching the ILBs. The ILBs set the back 7 of the defense. Even with Moses and Harris back there - probably the most talented ILB combo in college football - you are not getting set. That is 100% on Golding. Not injuries. Not inexperienced players, not Covid - Golding. I don't have the answer - I just know that it isn't Golding. And not just because he is not good enough at defensive play calling - he is not a good ILB coach.
Yeah really. They look fast, strong and assured of themselves. They way we have looked in the past. We can get back, pro lem is the puppydogs are next. No time to dilly-dally as they say.
IDK I seem to remember our defense winning us championships way more recent than 1980.
That was not the Alabama football I have followed for the past 30 years yesterday. It looked like the Pac 12 or Mountain West. And that style of football does not win championships. The defense looked lost out there. Lots of confusion. And I agree Golding is a big part of the problem. But I don’t look for him to be sent packing anytime soon. I think he is Saban’s vanity project. He wants to take Golding and turn him into a great coach. Apparently he sees something in Golding that is not apparent in his game day performance
Our tackling was horrible. To be fair, CPG didn't miss a single tackle in this game... 
Not to single out one player, but, heck, Jess’s recap already does it ...
Dylan Moses, God love him, still appears lost on about half the plays. Last night, he looked like a fighter trapped in the corner, not knowing where the next punch was coming from.
The sad truth of the matter is this: We have not had consistent linebacker play since the 2017 season. DM was hurt one of those years, that’s true. But as heralded as he is, he still appears to have problems with his basic assignments, much less getting his teammates to line up in the right spots.
Dylan Moses, God love him, still appears lost on about half the plays. Last night, he looked like a fighter trapped in the corner, not knowing where the next punch was coming from.
The sad truth of the matter is this: We have not had consistent linebacker play since the 2017 season. DM was hurt one of those years, that’s true. But as heralded as he is, he still appears to have problems with his basic assignments, much less getting his teammates to line up in the right spots.
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why are we talking about past accomplishments? I'm talking about the way our defense looks. What i saw in the 2nd half of the dog-vol game was vintage bama defense. Not only did they tackle, they put some STANK on it when they arrived.IDK I seem to remember our defense winning us championships way more recent than 1980.
Tackling bad because it was wet? Maybe could attribute that to a few, but what I continue to see is very poor angles and a failure to square up and wrap up. It's been a problem in more than just this game.
Also, when they show PG on the sideline he doesn't have the personality of a defensive coach. He almost looks passive and disengaged. Compared to Muschamp, Kirby or Pruit he looks more like a fan than a coach. It makes me wonder if he understands defense in theory, but when it comes to game situations it's going too fast for him. If I guys look confused on the field is this not because they aren't getting clear and timely instructions from the sideline??? You can't play any sport being timid and uncertain. That seems to be coming from PG and the sidelines.
Also, I wonder if PG should go to the press box so he could see how pitiful we look.
Also, when they show PG on the sideline he doesn't have the personality of a defensive coach. He almost looks passive and disengaged. Compared to Muschamp, Kirby or Pruit he looks more like a fan than a coach. It makes me wonder if he understands defense in theory, but when it comes to game situations it's going too fast for him. If I guys look confused on the field is this not because they aren't getting clear and timely instructions from the sideline??? You can't play any sport being timid and uncertain. That seems to be coming from PG and the sidelines.
Also, I wonder if PG should go to the press box so he could see how pitiful we look.
OM ran through what was considered the strength of our defense for 268 yards. UGA has a more than adequate offense and, without question, the best defense in the conference. Scoring won’t be as easy for us. I’m not sure the same can be same for them.
I wonder if our players knew our defensive play calls. It wasn’t a matter of us calling a blitz and them knowing it was coming or us slanting our defensive line one direction and them running another. It was a matter of our defensive linemen standing the o lineman up and getting no penetration. It was a matter of us only blitzing one time from the cornerback position and getting pressure and then not doing it again the rest of the game. It was a matter of not sending the house to try to stop a 3rd and 10+. So I call BS on Ole Miss knowing our defensive calls. It was pure and simple poor defensive play calling. I guess every good offensive team has known our play calls the last two years.
Worse yet, one drive of 11 plays, they NEVER THREW A PASS. Even average defenses generally decide one aspect of the offense has to be slowed or stopped in order to force the offense to be one dimensional. Example, after the thrashing of LSU, the Pirate’s offense at MSU as struggled because Arky and Kentucky ran a base 3-2-6 dime almost the entire game. Basically saying, “okay run it...you won’t beat us throwing.”
That is the big takeaway for me. We didn’t shutdown any aspect of their offense, especially the run game where we usually make a living defensively.
Okay, one more of many one more final thoughts - the mush rush is a failure. Time for Saban to realize it and throw it in the dumpster. Most teams do not do this. Alabama started doing it because of the Manziel game. It is time to stop. It does not work.
You made some good points that I agree with. It is frustrating and sad to see our defense look like this. Bama will not win another championship anytime soon with this defense, in my opinion. The UGA game is going to be a concern. Luckily our offense is awesome and we have no injuries.
I just wonder if Saban is so stubborn that he is just not going to change the defense scheme? Or any coaches? He has talked a few times the past month about how great it is that we did not have coaching turnover this past year and how it has helped recruiting. It took him a few years to change the offense... it is now time to do something about the defense. RTR
We have a Pelini...his name is Golding. The only difference is that our offense is much better.
We actually started it vs. Florida in the 2009 SEC championship. But Tebow, as good as he was, he wasn't nearly as fast and athletic as 80% of QBs today. He was more like a fullback in his athleticism, whereas these guys today are WRs.
The mush rush never worked against Manziel, either.
The defenses I see having success against these offenses and QBs are defenses able to get pressure on them from their front 7s, whether blitzing or not.
It has been a problem long enough to be given any excuses, other than something is fundamentally wrong.
That confusion rubs off on the players, and leads to the mess we are seeing every game.
If he needs to do that to see how pitiful we are, then that explains why we are pitiful.
No, it means they have looked at enough film to know all the stupid things we would do, and how to exploit them. And they did.
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