What I see as the biggest defensive problem

[Bamabuzzard]

Both ILB’s 0&11 miss a lot of tackles.

And they miss a lot of assignments. 0 has looked very bad the last two games. Missed tackles,bad angles, and wrong reads have been the story of his game the past two weeks.

 

[Windsortide]

And they miss a lot of assignments. 0 has looked very bad the last two games. Missed tackles,bad angles, and wrong reads have been the story of his game the past two weeks.

They have a lot to fix going in to UT.

 

[Slowpoke Catracho]

Getting back to the Pass Rush, we don't really have one unless we bring the house. I remember Gmac saying earlier in the year that we don't have an athlete that is a threat to pressure like we've had in the past.

 

[colbysullivan]

And they miss a lot of assignments. 0 has looked very bad the last two games. Missed tackles,bad angles, and wrong reads have been the story of his game the past two weeks.

Even so, Lawson was way better than Campbell yesterday.

 

[Bluegrasstide]

I am a former HS defensive coordinator and ran a similar 4-2-5 scheme. The inside lbers are the heart of the
defense and both are not playing well. Lawson often takes bad angles and mises tackles. Campbell
has become soft and catches everything. Jefferson is the best at running through and attacking down hill.
He should be starting.

That being said we need to be blitzing more off the edges to stop the run. This gets you into a 5-2 look
and takes away gaps. Our dline is solid but also not loaded with high draft picks. We need to pressure the
offense into mistakes.

I would add that 3 man pressure is an asinine choice when you cannot even be effective with 4. What is meant to "help" out the youngsters on the back end is actually putting more stress on them because there is "0" pressure being placed on the opposing QB. I would rather live and die by getting after someone's hind end than to drop 8 or 9 and turn into... well, what we are now. When did our defense become kinder and gentler? I would love to see the chart on missed tackles and YAC against us.

 

[Tideflyer]

I agree with the comments about our defense. Our ILB's have not played well in most of our games....they are hesitant in their reads and therefore slow to react. When they do play fast they often hit the wrong gap...or take bad angles. I am wondering if the change in defensive concept has been too much for them? We will see...

Our DE's often took inside movement against USC and allowed their QB to run to the outside. However, he is one heck of an athlete.

To be sure they are playing hard but they are not playing well. Not a criticism or complaint, just an observation. This is compounded by a DL which is solid but not great at this stage.

We are probably a 3 loss team unless the offense can get their act together and then we will outscore people. However, teams have a book on our offense and stopping us is no secret...stuff the run and put pressure on Jalen Milroe by taking away his first option.

I'm not complaining...just stating what I see as reality. We may make the playoffs...but that would be an overachievement at this stage. I also believe that the SEC is stronger top to bottom than I have ever seen in my lifetime. The blowouts of a few years ago are a thing of the past.

Just my opinion, but the very last statement concerning the conference is spot on. The gap between the ”haves” and “ have nots “ has narrowed astronomically. Losses to the Vandy‘s and 2 point wins over the S. Carolina’s of the world may well be the new norm going forward, all thanks to the portal. It’s a different universe now.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Even so, Lawson was way better than Campbell yesterday.

Brother man, that aint really saying a lot. Lol!

 

[colbysullivan]

Brother man, that aint really saying a lot. Lol!

Nope lol

 

[Foleybammer]

The free safety aligning at 15 yds depth narrows the passing seams. But he needs to
be able to come up and fill the run from that depth. If not move him closer to the ball.
I would like to know much zone they play on first down vs man. We would always play
Zone on first down to free up the inside lbers to play the run.

 

[PA Tide Fan]

I think we need to blitz more. I've read when Wommack was at South Alabama his defense had one of the lowest blitz rates in the country. Our young DB's just can't stay with receivers with a standard pass rush so I think his philosophy needs to change.

 

[Bama Lee]

The thing that makes me scratch my head….. we all see this, why aren’t the coaches seeing it? I sometimes see the ILBs not even scraping. They just dive into the line or flow past the lane

 

[Power Eye]

I am a former HS defensive coordinator and ran a similar 4-2-5 scheme. The inside lbers are the heart of the
defense and both are not playing well. Lawson often takes bad angles and mises tackles. Campbell
has become soft and catches everything. Jefferson is the best at running through and attacking down hill.
He should be starting.

That being said we need to be blitzing more off the edges to stop the run. This gets you into a 5-2 look
and takes away gaps. Our dline is solid but also not loaded with high draft picks. We need to pressure the
offense into mistakes.

Great post, and to my untrained eye I’m seeing bad angles off the edge. It seems like we’re taking inside angles and we’ve been killed the last two weeks by QBs that can escape to the outside and around those edge defenders.

 

[jasongilbert69]

Kane Wommack is the problem

 

[Cruloc]

Heupel will be watching game film and licking his chops. If there is a guy on our schedule that can eviscerate this weak D, it's him.

 

[bamaslammer]

I could blame Womack but that's the low hanging fruit. Everybody knew the DC position was open last year and plenty of bigger names could have had it but in my opinion they saw how depleted we were after Saban left and wanted no part of it. So Womack was either ballsy or stupid and took the job and we are seeing now we don't have enough good players and the players we have are struggling to adjust to the new defense. These events were put in motion the day Saban walked into that meeting and announced his retirement. I know he didn't want this but in todays environment there was no way it was not going to happen.

NIL and free movement has changed college football. Teams like Vandy can shore up their rosters with good players. Not top players, good solid players and if they can all have a fantastic game they can beat better teams.

I think the good of the NIL for most college fans is that talent has spread out. Virtually every team has a good set of 1's. Many of those 1s were previously depth on teams like Alabama or Georgia. Now every team is a few injuries from trouble. That's a stable program like UGA or UT. We are not a stable program. We are a program in flux and flux is bad. The bad part of the NIL is that teams with unlimited funds like Texas and Ohio State are in a position to have a significantly more talented roster than everyone else. The NCAA currently has nothing in place to prevent them from raiding all of college football. Wait till our season is over and see how much they offer Ryan Williams. Alabama does not have the wealth to match what he's going to be offered and if he is with us next season it will be because he loves Bama, not because we could afford to compete with billionaires. We have no billionaires. For the sake of the game college football needs to find a way to cap the salaries or earnings of a player or it's just going to be 2 or 3 teams winning the title every year. It might have seemed that way before when Saban was at his peak but trust me this is going to be far worse if nothing is done

We are going to have to recruit/buy our way to a better roster. Players that suit this system are going to have to come in and learn the system well enough to play fast and not think. It's going to have to take time. Another thing I'm going to be looking at is staff evaluation. Many here are too young to remember Mike Shula. He was not a terrible coach. He had one flaw though, he was loyal to his staff to a fault. He had possibly the worst excuse for an OC and OL coaches and everyone knew it. He refused to fire them. It was so bad the AD basically said fire them or you're fired. He refused, we fired him. Saban was his replacement.

I don't know if DeBoer will let anyone go but just from a matter of fact during a transition like this your first staff is probably not the staff that's going to take you to where you want to go. I do not mean to say Womack needs to go. I don't think we can make a judgement on him with a bunch of freshmen in the secondary and linebackers who might not be all that.

 

[crimsonaudio]

Heupel will be watching game film and licking his chops. If there is a guy on our schedule that can eviscerate this weak D, it's him.

I mean, maybe?

In their last three games (the only games against teams with a pulse), Nico has gone a combined 46/76 (.605) for 521 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT. That offense isn't exactly carving people up.

 

[JustNeedMe81]

Kane Wommack is the problem

DL and LB is the problem. not his scheme.

 

[Cruloc]

I mean, maybe?

In their last three games (the only games against teams with a pulse), Nico has gone a combined 46/76 (.605) for 521 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT. That offense isn't exactly carving people up.

I don't give our D much hope against air at this point.

 

[gtgilbert]

DL and LB is the problem. not his scheme.

I dunno - I watch a lot of teams running 4-2 alignments, but very few play it like he does and I think that's causing some of the challenges.

 

[Probius]

What I don't understand is where all of these elite pass rushing recruits have gone. Keon Keely was a top 5 recruit last year, yet where is he? What has happened to these guys?