We Have A Major Problem That We Must Address

[BigGunn]

Well guys this one was not easy to read. And I feel the need to lay my 2 cents down. If we take a look around we see that teams that lost a lot of experienced players, Texas, Florida, etc; are not having their way as they were accustomed to. Ask NC about losing all their great players off that bb team. Well, we lost a lot of experience and leadership last year. CNS has kept us at the edge of greatness while trying to replace it. Our OL was the biggest weakness this year, IMO. Sure some of the backs were hurt but they did not see the holes open up for them like they saw last year. We lose only one O lineman to graduation this season and next year the experience factor there is much better. Same with the secondary. Next season we hopefully get Robby back and with the infusion of more talented kids to the mix our backfield will most probably shut down every body we face.


We were a young team this year and some folks had to grow into it during the heat of battle that the conference provides each week. Milliner and Mosely are much better now than they were in September. And there are many other examples, like Barron and Kirkpatrick and Steen and Jordan and Sentimore and Johnson and Lester and not many believed, hoped as I did maybe, but really didn't believe, we would go undefeated this season. I was holding out for 10-2 like others here. Just think! This season was the first in many years we were at full strength numbers wise and had to replace lots of guys who now play on Sundays. I believe also that we are going to have to accept that when we get 5* players, a lot of them will be gone after 3 years. So that factor is not just with graduation now. Some are just going to follow opportunity.

And predictability isn't that big of an issue either. Last year every team we faced knew what we were going to do. But our guys executed and it didn't matter that they knew, they just couldn't stop it. Coach Lombardi told everyone in an interview just exactly what the Packers were going to do on offense one week, which was to run the ball down the opponents throat, and then they did it. Taylor and Hornung running behind a meat grinder offensive line just did what coach had told them. The other team just couldn't stop the execution.

I'm real, REAL, disappointed that we blew that lead yesterday and especially since it was the barn but I do believe that as long as Coach Saban remains here, he will strive to improve on "Major Problems That We Must Address". It may be within reason for some to think that we can and should go at full speed, full focus, full intensity every play, every game, but I think it's hard, real hard, to get kids to do that when so many of them are so young and lacking the experience. So I think there is room for the "they're only human" thought as well. I'm tickled with where the program and process is right now. Coach Shula held the program together during the 2nd harshest term a school has ever faced with it's football program and I'll always think he did it with a lot of class and I thank him for that. But Coach Saban came and picked up the pieces and has put us back among the elite where we belong. Now, next year, I'm expecting the gold ring.

I remember '66.

 

[THE BAMA IRISHMAN]

I have to agree with you. Our team this season and in the past has had trouble finishing games, or not playing for stretches. No I am sure, some of that is by virtue of the other teams making plays. We have not played a complete game this season. It is very unfortunate that we will never know what this team could have been if it had ever played for 60 minutes.

Mental toughness is missing. The first half was not duplicated in the second half and by all that is real it should have been. If you can push the other team around for two quarters you can for the entire game. The killer instinct and mental toughness are missing. :BigA:

 

[BamaSkins]

Selma you nailed it...this team does not finish teams off...we seem to go into a shell or something...our play calling goes underground and our defense looks lost...there is no way that we should have lost that game yesterday...up 24-0 in complete control and then boom, we disappear...I haven't gotten over that loss and probably won't for a while...bummer (and it did remind me of a shula coached team - mercy I thought we were through with that)

 

[HitMan54]

I am strongly confident that if "we" the fans are pointing to the obvious, it is very fair to say that the ALUMNI are not happy with the way things have shaken out.

Some people also fail to remember that we lost to three top 25 teams with a combined score of 18 points!

Yes it is very frustrating that we had our biggest rival down and we didn't put our foot on their neck. But IF TR would have caught that ball or MI wouldn't have had that ball knocked out of his hands, we would have scored on both of those plays (or either one) and we would have won.

The point is, this is a game of inches and even though we have a young defense, we looked pretty good at shutting down Auburn.

The second half offensive play calling was very vanilla and because CMS left such a bad taste in our mouths, we get that sick feeling again.

This is the part when we as fans support CNS and his staff because we have the best coach in college football. Come people, look at what he and his staff have done in THREE years! Just saying

 

[BAMAFEVER50]

I'm going to throw this in. I normally can predict around 90% of our play calls. Hell, even my wife, who's really just a casual FB fan can. In the first half yesterday - I couldn't. Neither could Auburn. In the second half, we went into our protective shell offense and became almost totally predictable again. When we do that, it has a ripple effect. GM became uptight and started holding the ball too long. The backs and receivers became tentative. Worst of all, Auburn's confidence soared as they made plays on both sides of the ball. I see complaints of lack of toughness, but it's hard to play tough, when you're playing not lose. This is not a CJM problem. This problem lies squarely at the feet of the HC. Saban was criticized for it at previous stops. To be fair, this is true of many defensive minded HCs. I'd still rather have him than any other HC I can think of, but I'm not going to say that he's perfect. Last season, we were able to make that mold work, because our OL performed at a much higher level and MI and TR were at peak form for much of the year. Of course having starters on the bench late didn't help much last night, but the three major fails made us tighten down (and become more uptight) even more. Our best hope would have been to continue with the first half gameplan. We didn't do that...

Bingo!

 

[Bama1970]

I don't expect a team to dominate every game...I don't expect a team to win every game. I do expect that a mostly well coached, and mostly talented team can hold a 24-0 lead at home against it's biggest rival. I also expect that a team can play with some kind of consistency from the first half to the second half most of the time.

Amen!

 

[bamanix]

i remember the beginning of this season, that our well oiled offense, will have to carry our youth ridden defense in the early part of the season. well, our offense became very generic. 2 of the best running backs in the country, and they failed to get a total of 100 yards, in the big games. our offensive line which was suppose to be the answer to controlling the game, was basically a bust, except for a quarter here and there. i agree. our offense did not play to dominate anyone. i think we spent to much time which we were playing easier opponents worrying about running up the score. well look whats happening now. teams are scoring all they can to qualify for the bcs. i also agree we seem to lose focus, and fire frequently. coach saban states this as well. i watched several games today, and they haad players at lsu, arks, south carolina, full of enthusiasm. we spent most of the season, passing for first downs, slants of 5 to 7 yards, the occasional medium ball to jones, hanks, and maze. i cant believe these guys cant be deep threats. i believe our off coordinator lacks faith in greg throwing the deep ball. maybe its because our off line cant hold the line to pass the ball downfield. did you notice even in the early part of the game, that auburns pass rush was a half step of hitting greg on those short passes. i hope next year, with a new qb, the offense will be offensive again. i also hope that our youth in the secondary, learn to cover better, and be more physical.

 

[Gallowglas]

Wow...you have what most would judge a successful season in a very competitive SEC - with a LOT of genuinely good teams that are loaded with talent, mind you - and some of you start acting like it's time to go after CNS with a pitchfork? No, our boys didn't play a complete game. Perhaps some of that comes down to play calling, but a lot of it comes down to execution. Either of two poorly executed plays in which we lost the ball in the red zone and that game was ours...against a team that may be the best team in college football right now.

Folks, let's not start calling that the sky is falling just yet. Yes, the loss to Moo U was a bitter pill to have to swallow. However, the problems we've seen this season are correctable.

I have contended all season long that our Achilles heel lies in our O-line not executing blocks effectively, which impacts how our RB's look and the efficiency of our QB. That can be corrected pretty easily with the talent we have on deck. So can our lack of a pass rush. Our young secondary is already starting to show a glimmer of what they will be like next year with some experience under their belts. For that matter would you rather be like Auburn and have an unbeaten season (to date), but have the impending threat of win vacations and possible sanctions? Give me our three-loss season over that stress for sure.

Honestly, we can blame our losses on our coaches. We can also thank them for a national championship and what to most would be a very good season. It's easy to focus on the negative when you have a season where you are predicted to repeat a national title, but it's not like we're in danger of losing our competitiveness. Look at Florida if you want to see how that looks.

 

[aerospace_ray]

I'm going to throw this in. I normally can predict around 90% of our play calls. Hell, even my wife, who's really just a casual FB fan can. In the first half yesterday - I couldn't. Neither could Auburn. In the second half, we went into our protective shell offense and became almost totally predictable again. When we do that, it has a ripple effect. GM became uptight and started holding the ball too long. The backs and receivers became tentative. Worst of all, Auburn's confidence soared as they made plays on both sides of the ball. I see complaints of lack of toughness, but it's hard to play tough, when you're playing not lose. This is not a CJM problem. This problem lies squarely at the feet of the HC. Saban was criticized for it at previous stops. To be fair, this is true of many defensive minded HCs. I'd still rather have him than any other HC I can think of, but I'm not going to say that he's perfect. Last season, we were able to make that mold work, because our OL performed at a much higher level and MI and TR were at peak form for much of the year. Of course having starters on the bench late didn't help much last night, but the three major fails made us tighten down (and become more uptight) even more. Our best hope would have been to continue with the first half gameplan. We didn't do that...

I concur with this analysis.

 

[MVKTR2]

First a note:
This is a good thread I read the first 3 pages and this page b4 posting. Lots to chew on here.

As for having a problem, essentially not finishing or EVER playing complete games, the 2010 Crimson Tide is guilty as charged... as was the 2007 but that's easily explained as a Shula hangover & is common to most all programs in a first year under new management. Having said this, I'll be worried next year if we still aren't playing complete games.

I'm with some others, I would like to see more innovation in the play calling. The first half yesterday was quite good. However a bigger concern is not controlling the LOS, do that and the play calling takes care of itself as it had through 2008-2009.

With the above in mind however it's worth stating what should be obvious to Alabama/Coach Saban observers. Btw I really enjoyed Verne refering to coach as 'Lou Saban' to start the telecast yesterday. Back to topic, Coach Saban's philosophy is essentially to have better players (recruit) execute whatever play is run (out work/execute) in a way that the opposition can't stop it (again outwork with superior talent). Fact is any play that works is a good call and any that doesn't is a bad call. This applies to this year's Bama O. We needed more of a change of pace, more scheme, etc. because the OL simply wasn't out executing the opposition most of the year. Yet the Saban plan is as stated above but this wasn't occurring with enough regularity to dominate/achieve perfection.

I can't say what Coach is thinking, why he and the offensive staff wouldn't run more outside, run more misdirection, etc. to try to jump start the running game. They were certainly willing to throw a good bit more this year, and effectively when the pass protection was there. I kept waiting to see the faked throw (bubble screen that's not a true bubble screen) out to Julio all season with a pass over the top to the SE/inside WR who faked the block and runs a fly pattern instead. It was there in several games and easy as pie to execute/bait the S into because of the original play's success. There is simply a lack of creativity within our offensive scheme. I think it goes back to CNS's philosophy. Hopefully we'll work on changing the playbook a little, about 15%, & dominating along the LOS. Those 2 things alone pretty much solve our offensive woes.

Starting a new QB in 2011 makes it intriguing. The natural inclination will be to double-down on the OL especially if young Lacey comes around as a complete back capable of being the 2 punch to Richardson's #1 punch. However in McCarron & Sims we've got more arm talent than at any time in my lifetime of following the Tide. Both of those guys have NFL arms and it shows. Which one the coaches trust the most will be the one that starts next season.

Schlante & Roll Tide,
Phillip

 

[Bamafan78]

Wow...you have what most would judge a successful season in a very competitive SEC with a LOT of teams who have genuinely good teams that are loaded with talent and some of you start acting like it's time to go after CNS with a pitchfork? No, our boys didn't play a complete game. Perhaps some of that comes down to play calling, but a lot of it comes down to execution. Either of two poorly executed plays in which we lost the ball in the red zone and that game was ours...against a team that may be the best team in college football right now.

Folks, let's not start calling that the sky is falling just yet. Yes, the loss to Moo U was a bitter pill to have to swallow. However, the problems we've seen this season are correctable.

I have contended all season long that our Achilles heel lies in our O-line not executing blocks effectively, which impacts how our RB's look and the efficiency of our QB. That can be corrected pretty easily with the talent we have on deck. So can our lack of a pass rush. Our young secondary is already starting to show a glimmer of what they will be like next year with some experience under their belts.

Honestly, we can blame our losses on our coaches. We can also thank them for a national championship and what to most would be a very good season. It's easy to focus on the negative when you have a season where you are predicted to repeat a national title, but it's not like we're in danger of losing our competitiveness. Look at Florida if you want to see how that looks.

Thats exactly right. Just looking around the country at other teams should put things in perspective, and make people realize how fortunate we are to have the head coach that we have. I have full confidence in Nick Saban that he will correct anything that needs to be corrected. I appreciate what this staff has accomplished in a very tough conference in terms of us winning our division twice, the SEC Championship, and a National Championship. I'm excited about the future, and I hope coach decides to stay in T-town for a few more years! Roll Tide!

 

[JDCrimson]

To me he probably thinks it has more to do with lack of execution than it does with the actual gameplan itself. I mean look at it like this. The lack of execution on three td killing drives kept us from ending the game in the first half. Trents dropped pass, Ingrams fumble and Gmacs fumble. All were potential td's but due to lack of execution killed us.

Then all of a sudden the the secondary doesn't execute and gives up two td's due to lack of execution. So in his mind the lack of execution potentially cost us 21 points on our end and gave them 14 pts on their end from our lack of defensive execution. So he's not ready to fall on his offensive philosophical sword and say that's it.

You're right but you are not going to hit on every play 100% of the time and the other team is going to make a play from time to time. THAT'S WHY YOU HAVE TO KEEP PLAYING! But what do we do in the second half, we shut the playbook and hoped for the best.

 

[p'colabamaman]

Well unfortunately it is a very common and traceable pattern in football. Though you have your exceptions most defensive minded coaches do not run a wide open, no holds barred offense and vice versa. Most offensive minded coaches struggle with fielding good defenses.

Not flaming, but your post just doesn't make much sense to me. Sounds like you believe that a defensive minded coach doesn't strive to have a good offense, or vice versa. Both types recruit for both sides of the ball and each has a OC and a DC. I just believe than any HC worth his salt wants, as well as coaches, to have a good team on both sides of the ball.