What is up with Christian Harris' play?

bamafaninbham

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I swear it was as if D. Moses had put on C. Harris' uniform this last game. He didn't seem to know what was going on, he was hesitant, he did not play with any physicality whatsoever, he whiffed on many tackles, he filled the wrong gaps, he was extremely slow in pursuit, and gave ridiculously little effort play after play. What gives? He is a third year starter. This should be his year to shine and it looks like he has regressed. Does anybody have any insights, ideas, inclinations or thoughts as to why his play was so lackluster? Is he hurt? Has he been sick? We can't have that kind of effort from what should be team leader.
 

Padreruf

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I swear it was as if D. Moses had put on C. Harris' uniform this last game. He didn't seem to know what was going on, he was hesitant, he did not play with any physicality whatsoever, he whiffed on many tackles, he filled the wrong gaps, he was extremely slow in pursuit, and gave ridiculously little effort play after play. What gives? He is a third year starter. This should be his year to shine and it looks like he has regressed. Does anybody have any insights, ideas, inclinations or thoughts as to why his play was so lackluster? Is he hurt? Has he been sick? We can't have that kind of effort from what should be team leader.
He and HT were totally confused after the 1st quarter. They seemed to me to panic and when you do that you're not able to play fast because you cannot make your proper reads. After a while they were also exhausted...that is never a good combination. I put this on our coaches...they should have subbed for both in the 3rd and 4th quarter -- just for a series or a few plays -- if for no other reason than to let them catch their breath and get a different perspective.
 

Bamabuzzard

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We will have the same issues with Ole Miss' offense as well, and I think this is where @crimsonaudio has an issue with Golding (and to some degree rightfully so). When playing against offensive coaches like Mullen, Kiffin, Sark, etc, you're going against offensive minds that are VERY, VERY good at what they do. They're not just "good", they're some of the best in the country at what they do offensively. So, any DC going against them has to be able to compete against them on their level or they will constantly be two steps behind, as we saw Saturday when it was basically Golding against Mullen.

It's not just about watching film, these guys are able to make in game adjustments and implement them without ever practicing them during the week. Things that didn't show up on the film during the prep week. That's when a DC has to be able to be creative and make the same level of adjustments but on the defensive side. I just don't think Golding operates at that level.
 

JustNeedMe81

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Harris will be fine. He had one bad game. Saban alluded to that they probably need to develop depth behind the starters..so I agree, this is on coaches for not trusting the depth behind the starters.

I don't think it's time to panic right now. I watched the films over and over, and the game plan Bama had was actually good. It would've worked if we had players trusting it little more. Gators threw something different at Alabama that they hadn't seen in a while. Kiffin runs the same offense as Gator does, but he use RPO more slanted toward passes. Bama defense should be more prepared for Kiffin because most of them saw what Kiffin does last year and they know what he can do. IMO, It is not Golding issue.. it's matter of executions that needs to be cleaned up.

AS I want to remind everyone, Peopel are so quick to blame Golding whenever we have bad performance in the game. But let's remember what happened after the Ole Miss game last year. Defense got better.

We got humbled in Gator game and It will help us a lot against Ole Miss.
 

4Q Basket Case

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We got humbled in Gator game and It will help us a lot against Ole Miss.
I hope you’re right. Sometimes, however, human nature is such that it takes actual adverse consequences (i.e., a loss to a lesser team) to change attitudes. Multiply that by some factor, I’m not sure how much, for 18-22 year old males.

For example, as painful as it was at the time, Saban marks the 2007 loss to La Monroe as the turning point in the rebuild — the point at which the players as a whole began to buy in.

We don’t have a talent problem. We don’t have that much of an experience problem. According to Saban we do have a problem maintaining focus.

And I’m coming around to CA’s longstanding opinion that Golding might be the greatest X and O guy in the country. But for whatever reason, he’s not translating that to players’ performance on the field. Keep in mind that, in addition to being the DC, he‘s also the position coach for ILBs….the very position group that looked lost Saturday.

I don’t think fans are concerned so much about a close game as we are about under-achieving our combination of talent and experience for two weeks in a row.
 
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TideEngineer08

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I have to believe he just had a bad game. It happens.

I really believe this team, as a whole, is learning who it is. Figuring out leaders. Figuring out how to lead. Yet they still pulled off a win in the Swamp.

We can talk about schemes all day but the fact remains this team has had it easy twice this year and has paid the price for allowing itself to letdown afterwards. Miami was too easy. We let down against Mercer. The 1st quarter against Florida was too easy. We let down during the game.

I believe we will know vs. Southern Miss whether or not the collective attention of this team has been gotten. If so, that bodes well for the rest of the year. If not, well then it may mean an L is going to be required to wake them up. Coach Saban seems happy. He knows what this team is made of more than anyone else.
 

CajunCrimson

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When you are holding in order to set the edge, you begin forcing our guys to have to go wider. That creates lanes. 4 lanes, 2 ILBs. You just need one to guess wrong and you can gash it.

toss in an option. It’s hard to defend.

call a few holding calls, this gets cleaned up
 

JustNeedMe81

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NOt linking to the other board... but someone posted defensive snap count for Alabama defense and Wow.... DB/ILB starter played 100 percent snap in the game while OLB played around 85 percent in the game.

Would explain why the team was exhausted. What's weird is that Saban spoke about that after Clemson national championship game where we lost and he said same thing, and yet we're dealing with this again.
 

CajunCrimson

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NOt linking to the other board... but someone posted defensive snap count for Alabama defense and Wow.... DB/ILB starter played 100 percent snap in the game while OLB played around 85 percent in the game.

Would explain why the team was exhausted. What's weird is that Saban spoke about that after Clemson national championship game where we lost and he said same thing, and yet we're dealing with this again.
Young young team.

but I agree. Moody is more than capable of taking 1/4 or more of the snaps.
 

B1GTide

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NOt linking to the other board... but someone posted defensive snap count for Alabama defense and Wow.... DB/ILB starter played 100 percent snap in the game while OLB played around 85 percent in the game.

Would explain why the team was exhausted. What's weird is that Saban spoke about that after Clemson national championship game where we lost and he said same thing, and yet we're dealing with this again.
When a team goes fast, you can't substitute.
 

CB4

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When you are holding in order to set the edge, you begin forcing our guys to have to go wider. That creates lanes. 4 lanes, 2 ILBs. You just need one to guess wrong and you can gash it.

toss in an option. It’s hard to defend.

call a few holding calls, this gets cleaned up
I tend to go this direction with both Christian and Henry. First two games they were "read and reacting" well, playing inside out, taking the correct angles. First quarter of Florida game was that way as well. When the Gators started stressing the LB's with throws to the TE's in behind them in the short passing and combined it with the old fashion option game, both literally got "frozen'.

CNS basically said the option game caught them by surprise. It was troubling that Golding and the defensive coaches couldn't make adjustments on the fly.
 

TIDE-HSV

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When you are holding in order to set the edge, you begin forcing our guys to have to go wider. That creates lanes. 4 lanes, 2 ILBs. You just need one to guess wrong and you can gash it.

toss in an option. It’s hard to defend.

call a few holding calls, this gets cleaned up
After Saturday, I'm not holding my breath. It may have been the worst yet of the disparate games...
 

bamafaninbham

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I get that he may have been confused on some plays but what I can't understand is the lack of effort. Once he finally realized where the ball was on plays, he gave a good bit less than maximum effort to get to the ball carrier. I know he isn't slow, but he looked like a DT trailing plays.
 

UAH

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We will have the same issues with Ole Miss' offense as well, and I think this is where @crimsonaudio has an issue with Golding (and to some degree rightfully so). When playing against offensive coaches like Mullen, Kiffin, Sark, etc, you're going against offensive minds that are VERY, VERY good at what they do. They're not just "good", they're some of the best in the country at what they do offensively. So, any DC going against them has to be able to compete against them on their level or they will constantly be two steps behind, as we saw Saturday when it was basically Golding against Mullen.

It's not just about watching film, these guys are able to make in game adjustments and implement them without ever practicing them during the week. Things that didn't show up on the film during the prep week. That's when a DC has to be able to be creative and make the same level of adjustments but on the defensive side. I just don't think Golding operates at that level.
It has been too many years since I played football in a much simpler game. I would say however that every team in football has misdirection and run, pitch, pass option plays in their playbook. I would also believe that the four starting linebackers at Bama should most likely play in the NFL. Take Henry To'oTo'o for example he appeared to be one of the best ILB's in football under Jeremy's scheme at Tennessee. He comes here and there are numerous comments about him appearing lost on the field Saturday.

When a coach accepts a DC position at Alabama for $1.5 Mil. plus incentives it does not come with excuses such as "we didn't work on the QB option". In my mind PG has to convert blackboard knowledge to on the field performance and force the opposing QB to beat him with a throw in the back of the end zone versus gashing your front seven up the middle for easy touchdowns.

I will be very happy to be proven wrong, but as somewhat of a student of human nature, I do not believe that PG will ever achieve having the defense consistently play up to its potential.
 
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Saban4Ever

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NOt linking to the other board... but someone posted defensive snap count for Alabama defense and Wow.... DB/ILB starter played 100 percent snap in the game while OLB played around 85 percent in the game.

Would explain why the team was exhausted. What's weird is that Saban spoke about that after Clemson national championship game where we lost and he said same thing, and yet we're dealing with this again.
Yep, too many plays for our defense in addition to the high temps and humidity. So glad Bama won!
 

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