UT's run defense

Right. And good thing that Bama is going to show Texas what a power RB does. I mean, where would we have ever seen one of those before to gameplan?

I mean besides Helu, Burkhead, Michael, Gray...


Who???????

I must of missed them at the Heisman presentation.

Think what you want texas fans but with 2 stud RB's coming and our OL you will have your hands full and plenty of checks to cash that your mouths have written~!~ We shall see~!~
 
Right. And good thing that Bama is going to show Texas what a power RB does. I mean, where would we have ever seen one of those before to gameplan?

I mean besides Helu, Burkhead, Michael, Gray...

Just one problem, our "power" RB is faster than all of those guys, breaks tackles better (over twice the Yards After Contact that I could find, and the best RB in the country in that stat), makes more big plays (more 15+ yard plays than any other RB in the country), and won the Heisman trophy.

Here's some interesting notes on our offense compared to the offenses Texas' vaunted Defense has faced this year:

No team Texas has faced this year had the kind of balance and productivity on offense that we have - over 400 yards per game with less than 20 yards per game difference rush vs. pass.

Texas has faced one team (Texas Tech) with a higher Passing Efficiency rating than Alabama.

No team Texas faced had a higher average yards per rushing attempt than Alabama.

Texas played two teams (UTEP and Missouri) who had a higher average yards per passing attempt or average yards per completion than Alabama.

Texas played two teams (Texas Tech and Texas A&M) that scored more points per game than Alabama.

No team Texas faced held the ball (Time of Possession) as much as Alabama.

No team Texas faced held on to the ball (fewest turnovers in the country) as Alabama.

No team Texas faced was as disciplined (number of penalties or penalty yards per game) as Alabama.




Alabama is by far the best all-around offensive team Texas will have faced all season. Don't be surprised if our offense closes in on or racks up more than 400 yards on you guys.
 
True, but you aren’t painting the entire picture.

We had 3 games where we allowed 100+ yards in rushing:

LaMo- Starters pulled midway through the 3rd quarter
OSU- Starters pulled after Earl Thomas ran an INT back for a TD in the 3rd quarter.
Texas a&m- 97 of their 190 yards came from Jerrod Johnson, their QB, who runs a zone-read/option attack

In fact, out of 12 games played thus far, the defensive starters never got past the 11:37 minute mark of the 4th quarter in 8 of the contests. (ou, NU, a&m and Tech being the exceptions) Unless McElroy has converted from a pocket passer in the last month, I don’t see a repeat of the a&m game. (Dual threat between a power RB and a mobile QB to account for)

I’m not saying that it’s an apples to apples comparison. But don’t sell this defensive unit short. They are stouter than Auburn and Tennessee, two teams that kept y’all at bay.

If Bama is forced to beat us through the air, I like our chances. A lot.
Good. Glad you feel that way. Now, your guys will have to prove it on the field. This is the end of this discussion...
 
You're right. Ingram runs a 4.4 while Helu only runs a 4.42. Ingram racked up 1542 yards on 249 rushes while Helu only managed a meager 1139 on a pitiful 217 rushes.

My mistake.

As for the rest of your post...I'm too lazy to respond. I'd be interested in seeing your argument for Bama being so well balanced though. Would be more interested in seeing how it fares with the cupcakes taken out.
If you will look back through the threads, you will see numerous UT fans making the identical arguments you've made, over and over and over, etc. I'm getting tired of UT fans registering just to spar endlessly - which we have a policy against. Add something new to the discussions or quit posting...
 
In fact, out of 12 games played thus far, the defensive starters never got past the 11:37 minute mark of the 4th quarter in 8 of the contests. (ou, NU, a&m and Tech being the exceptions)


And in those 4 games, the UT defense gave up 5.4 yds per play in the 4th and 27 total points (6.75/game). Not exactly clamping down on defense in crunch time of those games. That said, three of those four offenses statistically rank higher than Bama. In those same four games, the UT offense scored 30 pts (7.5/gm) on 4.2 yds per play. Against defenses that are not as good as Bama's. So, in UT's four closest games, they were outgained in the fourth; but outscored their opponents by 0.75 pts.

Conversely, in Bama's four closest games (VT, UT, LSU, AUB), the Bama defense gave up 3.4 yds/play in the fourth quarter and 3.5 pts. That said, only Auburn's offense ranks with Texas statistically. In those four games, the Bama offense averaged 6.3 yds per play and 10.25 pts in the fourth quarter. Three of those defenses are ranked in the top 30 in the country. In Bama's four closest games, they outgained (+2.9) and outscored (+6.75) their competition in the fourth quarter. In essence, the Tide has owned the fourth quarter this season. The defense clamped down and the offense picked it up.

IMO, if this game comes down to the fourth quarter, I like Bama's chances of winning the game. Of course, I'm wise enough to know, too, that if it comes down to the fourth quarter, anything can happen. But the trends say otherwise.
 
You're right. Ingram runs a 4.4 while Helu only runs a 4.42. Ingram racked up 1542 yards on 249 rushes while Helu only managed a meager 1139 on a pitiful 217 rushes.

My mistake.

As for the rest of your post...I'm too lazy to respond. I'd be interested in seeing your argument for Bama being so well balanced though. Would be more interested in seeing how it fares with the cupcakes taken out.

As for comparing your defensive success against Helu to Ingram, that's laughable at best. All you had to do was stop Nebraska's run game. You guys could literally have kept 8-9 men in the box the entire game without having to worry about getting beaten by their passing game. Wait, isn't that pretty much exactly what you did? You won't have that luxury against Bama. If you stack the box, we'll throw for first down after first down. If you play back, we'll average 5+ yards a rush. It's a pick your poison with our offense.

As for taking out the cupcakes, there's very little difference, actually. In the major offensive stats, Alabama's productivity dropped against conference foes, but not much. Rushing Offense, Scoring Offense, Total Offense, and TOP were all within 10% of our season average. The rushing ypg versus passing ypg balance was almost identical.

Compare that to your offense, against conference foes.

Texas' Offense averaged in total:
432 total ypg
153 rushing ypg
280 passing ypg
41 ppg

Against Conference foes you averaged:
371 total ypg (-15%)
136 rushing ypg ( -11%)
235 passing ypg ( -16%)
37 ppg (-10%)

Add to that the fact that the average defensive ranking for teams Bama faced was 46.92 while the average defensive ranking for the teams Texas faced was 59.38 and the difference becomes larger. Bama had a noticeably smaller drop-off in performance versus conference foes than Texas did.
 
Right. And good thing that Bama is going to show Texas what a power RB does. I mean, where would we have ever seen one of those before to gameplan?

I mean besides Helu, Burkhead, Michael, Gray...

There is this guy on our team, number one running back out of high school, SEC all-freshman honors, I'd say his name is more well-known than all of those guys. Unfortunately he doesn't get much playing time because he's only the backup to the Heisman trophy winner.
 
Also spanky, you might want to try a pair of these:

hanes-bikini-panties-775245.jpg


They're wedgie free, so you'll never have your panties in a twist!
 
Running at will? Really?

Let me tell you guys something. I know I'm on a Bama board and I expect some hyperbole, but rest assured that there will be no running at will on the Texas D. Depth is not a problem either.

Bama will have a very difficult time moving the ball IMO, as will Texas. There might be some unexpected scoring early, but when the defenses settle in, it will be tough sledding. Special teams and turnovers decide this game. It's going to be close. I like having Colt in a close game.


I severely doubt Alabama will have any problems handling Texas. I could be wrong, but I haven't been all year... so I'll stick with my gut. If Texas wins, then I'll still run my mouth as Texas fans stick it to me. If we win, then I'll run my mouth as Texas fans take it from me. In either case, it's a win-win for me. Although at the end of the day I expect it to be a win situation for AL and a lose situation for TX.

On a side note, if Alabama loses I miss out on a grand. If they win, then I'll be laughing all the way to the bank.
 
I'm too lazy to respond. I'd be interested in seeing your argument for Bama being so well balanced though. Would be more interested in seeing how it fares with the cupcakes taken out.

This is for the lazy people . . .

Taking the "cupcakes" out (comparing UT's and Bama's schedule -- I'm using your term loosely), let's look at just FL, VT, TN, SoCar, and Ole Miss (almost half Bama's schedule). All five schools had winning records, are going to bowls and have defenses that rank in the top 25 in total defense.

In those games, Bama ran for an average of 280 yds and passed for an avg of 167 yds. In those games, Bama ran an avg of 42 times versus 26 passes. Not really 'balanced'; but it must be noted that in 4 of those 5 games, Bama was protecting a two-score or larger lead going into the fourth quarter. Thus, naturally, you're going to run the ball more to drain time off the clock.

For those Longhorn fans hoping to shut down the run and put the game on McElroy's shoulders, consider this. Against these same five teams (all ranked in the top 20 passing defenses in the country), McElroy averaged 167 yards passing and 12 yds per completion. This includes his season-worst performance against South Carolina. He is more than adequate throwing the ball.

The last thing I'll add --- and this doesn't really deal with balance --- is that against these five 'top 20' defenses, Bama averaged 12.1 yards per completion and 5.3 yards per carry against some TOUGH defenses. That's just SICK!!!
 
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The last thing I'll add --- and this doesn't really deal with balance --- is that against these five 'top 20' defenses, Bama averaged 15.2 yards per completion and 6.6 yards per carry. That's just SICK!!!

Outstanding info, thanks for the post!!!!:BigA:
 
The last thing I'll add --- and this doesn't really deal with balance --- is that against these five 'top 20' defenses, Bama averaged 15.2 yards per completion and 6.6 yards per carry. That's just SICK!!!

Outstanding info, thanks for the post!!!!:BigA:

Note my edit above. I went back and found an error in my calculating. Egg on my face; but the point is still pretty valid. 12 yds per completion and 5.3 ypc is still pretty crazy when you consider the caliber of those five defenses.
 
Note my edit above. I went back and found an error in my calculating. Egg on my face; but the point is still pretty valid. 12 yds per completion and 5.3 ypc is still pretty crazy when you consider the caliber of those five defenses.

When we were playing those great defenses back to back I knew it wasn't that we weren't getting better it was because we were playing some great defenses (ie. Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, LSU).
 
True, but you aren’t painting the entire picture.

If Bama is forced to beat us through the air, I like our chances. A lot.

How many times have we heard these goofy comments like this? And how many has it happened?:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin: Sometimes you get what you asked for!
 
Here's another random fact since they seem like the thing of the hour. In the five toughest games Texas has played (TT, OU, OSU, A&M, and Nebraska), the disparity between the yards of Texas and their opponents is 153...in favor of Texas' opponents.

On the other hand, that disparity for Alabama against VT, Tennessee, LSU, Auburn, and Florida is 572 in favor of Bama...and I think most would agree we play tougher defenses.

So how has Texas been winning? They've been getting turnovers and capitalizing on them. TT had 3 turnovers, OU had 5 turnovers, OSU had 5, A&M had 2, and Nebraska had 3. They barely managed to beat an Oklahoma without Bradford despite the fact that OU turned the ball over 5 times.

Here's a scary thought for Texas. Alabama has only turned the ball over 10 times the entire season. 4 of those were in one game (SC). Including that game, we average less than a turnover a game. Excluding the game we average less than half a turnover a game. That rounds down to zero. Texas has been crippled when they don't get turnovers. They managed 537 yards on UCF but only scored 35 points, and they kept Colt in well into the fourth quarter.

And btw, the most yards Bama has given up this season was 341. Just saying.
 
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I'll add some more interesting stats as well:

1) Bama went though a stretch this season were we played and beat 5 SEC teams in a row, without an off-week, and without an out-of-conference opponent somewhere in between. The only other team to do that in the SEC and get through it unscathed in this ENTIRE decade was the Alabama team from 2002. That means that those other 3 or 4 teams that won NC's from the SEC this decade did not accomplish that feat. Throughout that 5 game stretch, we played some pretty good SEC defenses.

2) Alabama played more opponents with off-weeks prior to us than any other team in the SEC. In fact, our two biggest rivals who both played us close, Tennessee and Auburn, and an extra off week to prepare for us. Also, Auburn didn't have another game to prepare for after the Iron Bowl like we did.
 
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