SB Nation - Justin Woodall

Somehow, Someway, 'Bama Survives

outsidethesidelines — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:38:42 -0000

Ugly efforts produce ugly scenes.

For about three hours yesterday afternoon, all of the stars aligned for Auburn to pull off the biggest upset in Iron Bowl history. Alabama played very poorly, posting probably it's worst performance since the 2007 Louisiana-Monroe debacle. Auburn, on the other, easily played their best game of the season. And all of the little breaks that they needed to fall their way were doing just that.

For Alabama, it was effectively a trainwreck by the entire team. Heisman contender Mark Ingram was completely stuffed in the running game, missed an easy touchdown pass to Julio Jones on a trick play, and ultimately went out with an injury. The only thing he fared better than was the Thanksgiving turkey. Likewise, our offensive line was completely manhandled in the trenches by an inferior defensive line that they should have dominated. The passing game to receivers not named Julio Jones was completely non-existent. Greg McElroy passed up an easy first down on a scramble to throw an incomplete pass to a completely blanketed receiver in the red zone (a drive where we ultimately came away with no points). James Carpenter was whipped off the edge for a key sack late in the fourth quarter. The offense continued to fall apart in the red zone. They could not take advantage of great field position all day. There was no vertical element whatsoever in the passing game, once again, and the offense was almost wholly incapable of creating big plays. The Alabama defense was confused as hell all afternoon against Gus Malzahn's mad scientist offensive scheme. Eryk Anders made some terrible plays in run support leading to big Auburn plays. Nico Johnson dropped an easy interception at a crucial time. Mark Barron bought into a double move route by Darvin Adams like a dumb investor buying into the Bernie Madoff scheme. Justin Woodall played poorly, yet again, committing a costly unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that cost us at least four points, and then capped it off by giving up a touchdown pass after biting on the playaction fake. We missed an easy, crucial sack in the fourth quarter that ultimately cost us about 40 yards in field position. P.J. Fitzgerald had one of his usual 55-yard punts that sailed out of the back of the end zone. We were completely unprepared for an Auburn onside kick, even though it was clear they had something up their sleeve with their unusual grouping. Leigh Tiffin missed a field goal, and had another kick-off sail out of bounds.

And then all of those little breaks that Auburn needed kept falling their way. They were able to recover two muffed punts deep in their own territory. They had a critical interception erased by their own incompetence, i.e. a display of the Human False Start Machine himself, Lee Ziemba. The umpire found himself in the way of no less than three dump-off passes over the middle, effectively ending our chances on all three occasions. Clinton Durst's punt took the perfect bounce to pin us up deep against our own goal line in the fourth quarter. Julio Jones seemingly good catch on the opening drive was called incomplete and was not reviewed by the booth.

Somehow, someway, though, 'Bama survived it all and lived to tell about it. We did just enough -- barely -- to hang on in the first 52 minutes to give ourselves a chance to win it in the end and that is what we did. The final drive was just about as ugly as it got. It had all of the aesthetic value of a 1978 Datsun. We had to convert several third downs, gave up a crucial sack, and were unable to generate any explosive plays. It was the epitome of an ugly, dink and dunk drive, but fortunately we got it all done in the end. It wasn't pretty, but it was nevertheless ultimately a 15-play, 79-yard touchdown drive that will forever be cemented in Iron Bowl lore. Sometimes it is about functionality, not aesthetics.

For the most part, though, it was an ugly effort by the Tide. Plain and simple, Auburn wanted this game more than we did. They showed up with more emotion and more intensity, and they sustained at a higher level throughout the game than we did. Maybe it was just the short week, with Thanksgiving being one of the days for preparation. Admittedly, that hurt our effort, especially against Malzahn's highly complicated offensive scheme. Maybe it was something else altogether, but either way Auburn showed up with a vengeance and we showed up with the indifference of Jerry Seinfeld. That's a damning deficiency, and one that there can be no legitimate excuse whatsoever for.

Perhaps we thought it was going to be a cakewalk like last year's 36-0 route. Maybe that was it, but if so I hope our players saw enough yesterday to remove their collective heads from their rectums. I don't care how lopsided things are in this series, this is still probably the most physical game in the country and a game probably played with more emotion than any other in the country to boot. Iron Bowl victories rarely come easy, regardless of the circumstances, and if our players legitimately thought otherwise, they were fooling themselves. Repeat after me: Iron. Bowl. Victories. Do. Not. Come. Easy.

Of course, stepping back from the ledge a bit, it should be noted that in many ways this game was a lopsided affair in both directions. Auburn absolutely dominated early, gaining a 14-0 lead after the first four possessions and out-gaining the TIde in total yards a whopping 138 to 5. But we survived the shitstorm, as Saban would later call it, and from there we effectively dominated the game, out-scoring Auburn 26-7 and out-gaining them somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 to 180.

It wasn't so much that we played poorly all day as much as it was that we got off to the worst start we've had in many, many years, and then despite generally controlling the game from that point moving forward, we shot ourselves in the foot just enough -- Barron's big play allowed, Leigh Tiffin's blocked kick, Mark Ingram's missed touchdown pass, and another failure to convert in the red zone -- to keep this one going right down to the wire. If we stop shooting ourselves in the foot after the terrible start, we win this one easily somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-14, but obviously it didn't happen that way.

For Auburn, their players played a fine game and their coaches did a fine job to boot. They should all be proud of their collective effort. And frankly if their fan base wants to bask in the comfort of such a supposedly great moral victory, let 'em. As our Tennessee friend so accurately pointed out in his meltdown last month, "There are no f*cking moral victories." We look to hold the advantage in this rivalry for years to come, and if they want to get all cheery and jolly over a close loss at home, that's their problem, not mine.

In any event, though, it was an ugly day and we should all feel very fortunate to be headed back to Tuscaloosa as winners. Being brutally honest, most of the time you go out and play in the SEC like we did today, a loss is almost an inevitability. We played with fire and somehow avoided getting burnt. Doing so is a rarity in the SEC.

From here, we just have to regroup and play better. Florida would kill us given the way we played yesterday, and that's the harsh truth. We're a team that clearly has some legitimate problems right now, but we're going to have to find a way to fix those things in the next seven days. Fortunately, I've said for the past several weeks that all we really needed to do down the stretch was to (1) win, regardless of the circumstances, and (2) stay healthy doing so. And as heart-attack-inducing as yesterday's Iron Bowl was, we did both of those things and we lived to fight another week. For now, we're 12-0 yet again, and we can put all of our sights on Florida. No one ever said it would be easy to beat the Gators, and nothing we saw yesterday changed that harsh reality, but then again we knew all along that we would practically need the perfect game in Atlanta to stamp our ticket to Pasadena. Anyone who ever legitimately thought otherwise was fooling themselves.

For now, though, today is an off day for the Crimson Tide. We got back to Tuscaloosa late last night and today is an easy, leisurely day in the Druid City. Tomorrow, all focus and efforts will turn towards Florida. Our Iron Bowl performance was ugly as hell, but we survived and I'm sure it will be celebrated as such. I say we do the same thing. Enjoy another great day of football, savor yet another Iron Bowl victory, and then all eyes can turn to the rematch we've been waiting on for twelve months.

The Light of a Clear Blue Morning: Thoughts on the Iron Bowl

Todd — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:55:27 -0000

More photos » by Dave Martin - AP

17 days ago: Alabama's Roy Upchurch (5) catches a 4-yard pass from quarterback Greg McElroy (12) late in the fourth quarter of an NCAA college football game as Auburn's Neiko Thorpe (15) and Antonio Coleman (52) pursue at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala., Friday, Nov. 27, 2009. Alabama won 26-21. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

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OTS will have his initial impressions up later, but there's a few things I wanted to note after looking at the box score and thinking back on all the things we said about this game over the past week. Although the Tigers managed to outgain us in total yardage (332 yards to our 291) and hold us to only 73 yards rushing (and a horrible 2.1 ypc average), there were quite a few other factors that played heavily into the Tide's victory:

1. QB Play: All week long "taking Ingram away and making McElroy win the game" was considered the key if Auburn hoped to pull the upset. Well, they succeeded in both aspects but it didn't turn out like Auburn hoped. Compare the stat lines.

	Comp	Att	%	Yds	YPC	TD	INT	Sack	YdsL
McElroy	21	31	67.7	218	10.4	2	0	3	7
Todd	15	25	60.0	181	12.1	2	1	3	32

When it came down to it, McElroy completed at a higher percentage and moved his offense while Todd gave Alabama two scoring opportunities with turnovers. Barron's INT set up the FG that drew Alabama to within 1 point, and his fumble on a sack by Eryk Anders resulted in a missed FG. And while we're talking sacks, both QBs took three, though Todd managed to lose 32 yards when getting hit while McElroy gave up only 7. Further, McElroy operated the two minute offense to perfection on the final drive, leading the Tide down the field on a 15 play, 79 yard TD drive to take the first lead of the game, all while completing 6 of 7 passes and converting three 3rd downs (including the TD throw to Upchurch). The closest Auburn came to mounting a similar lengthy drive was the 12 play, 58 yard second TD drive (after the recovered onside kick), which was greatly aided by a false start penalty and a unsportsmanlike call on Justin Woodall's boneheaded tantrum.

2. Number of Snaps: Thought it might not have seemed like it, we did flip the script on Auburn, holding them to only 59 offensive snaps while getting 67 ourselves. It was the lowest number of offensive plays Auburn has run in conference play (with 61 against LSU being the second closest).

3. Cheap Scores: On the Radio Hour we talked about the need to keep Auburn from getting cheap scores on our defense. I said repeatedly that Malzahn's offense is so good at it's misdirection and causing missed assignments resulting in big gains that it would present a challenge for our defense, forcing us to stay at home and take proper pursuit angles all while playing at the same aggressive speed we've come to prize. Sure enough, two of Auburn's three* TDs came as a result of missed assignments and Auburn's players making plays in space that could have been stopped short but for a) effort on their part and b) poor technique on ours.

Cheap TD the First: Terrell Zachary rushes for a 67 yard TD on a reverse. How did it happen? As Bamagrad noted, Eryk Anders lost contain on the reverse and let the play get rolling, but two other players could have kept Zachary from the end zone. Kareem Jackson had a shot at a tackle after getting off of a block by an Auburn offensive lineman, though it would have been an ankle tackle at best. Arenas also had a chance but he overran the play, allowing Zachary to cut back inside and reach the end zone for the score. A missed assignment and a bad pursuit angle gave Auburn their first score of the game.

Cheap TD the Second: In the 3rd quarter, with Alabama having tied the game back up at 14 before the half, Chris Todd finds a wide open Darvin Adams for a 72 yard TD. It was a two play scoring drive (Kodi Burns had rushed for four yards on first down) that put the Tigers right back in the driver's seat, and it came on a missed assignment. We'd been having success with the corner blitz and went back to the well, but Mark Barron, instead of staying over the top, stayed shallow and allowed Adams to blow right by him, resulting in the second "cheap" score of the game. That's 14 points given up by the defense because of missed assignments.

4. Extending Drives: Alabama had 13 drives in the game (including the two play drive at the end of the first half with :39 left on the clock) and made first downs on 8 of them (62%), while Auburn managed 14 drives and managed a first down on only 6 of them (43%). That includes their two play, 72 yard TD drive. Going further, only 3 of their 14 drives resulted in a scoring opportunity, while six resulted in 3 and outs, two ended in turnovers, and the final drive...well, you know what happened there. Meanwhile, Alabama had four 3 and outs and a turnover on downs, but otherwise was generally able to extend their drives into scoring opportunities (punting only once after having previously converted a first down on the drive).

5. Taking Their Best Shot: Lost in the hoopla of Auburn's quick start and control of the scoreboard until late in the game is that Alabama won the final three quarters 26-7 and effectively stymied the Auburn offense through the latter half of the game. Credit the team's resilience and confidence for not panicking and continuing to grind away.

Putting it all together, the game played out like a lot of us expected. Auburn sold out to stop Ingram, threw everything they had at us early, and managed to catch us off guard for some easy scores. Thankfully, it also played out for us like we pretty well expected; we limited their snaps, took advantage of take aways and good returns by Arenas, and when it counted dug down and ground out a win against a thin and gassed defense.

* while the third TD came after an actual drive, that drive was forced to cover only 58 yards after a surprise onside kick that should have been tipped by the weird formation Auburn was using. I won't say Auburn didn't earn the TD, but I will say they caught us napping once again to set up the score.

Senior Day in Bryant-Denny

outsidethesidelines — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:00:26 -0000

by Ed Reinke - AP

Kentucky running back Moncell Allen is tackled by Senior Eryk Anders, bottom, Senior Javier Arenas (28) and Rolando McClain (25) during the first half of the Crimson Tide's victory at Kentucky.

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Saturday morning in Tuscaloosa will feature more than just the game against Tennessee-Chattanooga, for Saturday will also bring Senior Day, and for the senior class this will be their final game in Bryant-Denny Stadium. After spending years and years performing at 100 Bryant Drive, this will be the final time that this senior class will strap it up in front of the home crowd.

Given such an occasion, I think it's only fitting that we should pause for a moment and take a bit of reflection on this class and just how they got here. Things haven't always been easy for this group, and far from it in fact it has almost always been difficult. Most of them weren't very highly-touted recruits, and most of them signed with Alabama when our program was struggling. Adversity has really been a constant for them almost throughout their entire time at the Capstone, and what these men overcame to reach this level should not be forgotten.

Eryk Anders was a one-star recruit coming out of San Antonio that played nose guard in high school at a mere 195 pounds. He didn't get a single offer before Alabama swept in late, and was actually planning on being a walk-on at Ole Miss before Alabama came along in late June of 2005. Coach Saban himself didn't think he'd ever be a contributor when he arrived, and Anders actually told his father he was going to transfer in his hotel room the night of the 2007 Independence Bowl. His father encouraged him to stick with his commitment and get his degree, and he died later that night in his sleep with a heart attack. And Anders not only stuck around, but he came out of nowhere to thrive.

Cory Reamer was a two-star safety out of Hoover who drew little interest from most BCS conference schools. He actually grew up an Auburn fan, but the Tigers signed two more highly-touted safety prospects in the previous class -- Tony Bell and Lorenzo Ferguson, both of which eventually became busts -- and never really gave Reamer much of a look. He signed with Alabama, and then proceeded to blow out his left knee as a true freshman, and when Saban arrived he looked to be the epitome of a player that would get caught in the crunch of systems turnover. Yet Reamer turned into a starter at outside linebacker on an elite defense.

Mike Johnson was a two-star offensive lineman out of Pensacola. He participated on the camp circuits, but no one really ended up biting. Alabama offered and he was Tuscaloosa bound, which was just about the only major school recruiting him. He came out of nowhere in 2007, and will finish his career as a three-year starter and an All-SEC player. A lucrative career in the NFL awaits him when his tour of duty in Tuscaloosa comes to an end.

Javier Arenas was a late signee in the 2006 class. His only other offers were from Florida Atlantic and Florida International, and not only was he not a big deal on the national scene, he really wasn't even a big deal in his hometown of Tampa. Then UA special teams coach Dave Ungerer argued vehemently on his behalf for a scholarship as a returner, and after we missed on some other guys like in that class -- Peanut Whitehead, Tim Hawthorne, and others, most of which turned out to be busts -- we signed Arenas. We signed him thinking he'd be a returner, but since he has became arguably the greatest returner in Alabama history, and an All-SEC defensive back who will play on Sunday.

Drew Davis was a two-star recruit in the 2004 class. He played at a tiny private school, and drew really no interest whatsoever on the recruiting trails. Alabama, in fact, only gave him a greyshirt offer, despite a complete lack of depth along the offensive line, and more than a few 'Bama fans questioned his viability as a legitimate SEC caliber player. And in the first four years of his career, he was an afterthought. But in 2008 he burst onto the scene as a starter, and in 2009 he has been an All-SEC caliber player who has kept at least two five-star prospects sitting on the bench. So much for his viability as an SEC player, eh?

Others went through much of the same. Tyrone King was a walk-on transfer from Grambling... we never recruited him, but he decided to chase a dream anyway. Roy Upchurch has fought through no less than three major surgeries including two season-ending ankle injuries that threatened to end his career before it ever began. Mike McCoy turned down both of his home state schools to play at Alabama, had a redshirt year wasted by the previous coaching staff, and then watched arguably the biggest recruit we've ever had take away his role. Lorenzo Washington spurned his in-state Georgia Bulldogs for 'Bama, then endured a tour of duty at Hargrave, a redshirt year in Tuscaloosa, a major injury, played out of position at nose guard, and found himself relegated to the bench when Terrence Cody arrived. And speaking of Cody, he had to overcome poor academics and poor physical care of himself to be a star, but he conquered both obstacles. Marquis Johnson became the pin cushion for the entire fan base after he was forced into a situation that he never should have been in against Florida State in 2007, but he persevered and turned himself into a fine football player. Justin Woodall was put through pure hell when the hometown homers in Oxford realized he wasn't going to sign with the Rebels. Leigh Tiffin has endured more criticism than any kicker ever should. Ali Sharrief lost his role in the coaching turnover, but he remained a valuable contributor nevertheless. Colin Peek spurned 'Bama the first time around, but nevertheless still ended up in Tuscaloosa. Brandon Deaderick passed up on in-state Kentucky out of high school and turned into a starter at 'Bama. And then he got shot. Twice. And he kicked ass in the Georgia Dome four days later.

Obviously a lot of things have changed in Tuscaloosa the past several years. Most of these players actually signed with Mike Shula. When Lorenzo Washington and Drew Davis signed with the Tide, Alabama was coming off a 4-9 season, ineligible to participate in bowl games, and playing in a stadium that held all of 83,000 people. It had been a mere eight months since Mike Price was fired for his actions with Arety's Angels. Nick Saban, fresh off of a national championship, had signed what most LSU fans hoped would effectively be a lifetime contract to stay in Baton Rouge. Most 'Bama fans at the time were just hoping we could show enough improvement in 2004 to get somewhere like Shreveport or Nashville.

Now, though, Alabama finds itself at the opposite end of the spectrum. Nick Saban now resides in Tuscaloosa, and we look to play for a spot in the national championship game for the second year in a row. At the very least, we'll end up with back-to-back BCS game appearances, and we may very well find ourselves back in Pasadena for the first time an SEC team has made the trek since Frank Thomas' War Babies wrapped up an undefeated season by crushing USC in 1945. Recruiting is better than it has been since the glory days of the Bryant years, and shows no real signs of slowing down any time soon. We've got more top-end talent and quality depth in Tuscaloosa right now than we've had since the late 1970's. And Bryant-Denny Stadium? It will hold over 100,000 people this time next year.

Again, the times have changed in Tuscaloosa, and we should all acknowledge the role that all of these young men played in delivering us out of the dark ages. Our newfound recruiting juggernaut has helped tremendously, of course, but realistically recruiting has a very long lag time before it translates into on-field success -- rest assured, even for an elite recruiting class, players like Julio Jones and Dont'a Hightower are very much rarities -- and if you are going to have success in the interim, you are going to need some otherwise unknowns to turn into high-end players in their own right, and that is exactly what many of these young men have done. It has never been easy for them, but they have persevered in the face of adversity and played an immeasurable role in rebuilding our program.

Moving forward, I have no clue where we will go from here. We will thump Tennessee-Chattanooga and these men will walk out of Bryant-Denny for the final time as winners, that much I know, but after that I really haven't the slightest clue. We'll probably beat Auburn, but who knows? Maybe we fall at the hands of Florida in Atlanta again, maybe we pull off the upset. Maybe we beat Texas in Pasadena, maybe we lose to TCU in the Sugar Bowl. Who knows? Only time will tell for certain.

Regardless of how the season ultimately plays out, though, nothing should take away from what this group has done. They have literally played an instrumental role in rebuilding the Alabama football program back as a national powerhouse, and all those who bleed crimson and white ought to be forever indebted to them for that. If we have had a better senior class than this one in my lifetime, I'm not aware of it. And, moving forward, we can only hope that the senior classes to come can legitimately match what this group has done.

How to Win The Iron Bowl.

Acid Reign — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:00:12 -0000

Bama's last visit to the Plains didn't go so well!

War Eagle, everybody! Like the Auburn football team, I've taken a few days off from college football. For the team, it was all about the fatigue. Auburn has played 11 straight weeks in a row. Only Vanderbilt has it worse. The Commodores will have played 12 in a row, when this season ends. They'll be rewarded by a 2-10 season, most likely. For me, the time off has helped me purge the taint of a bad weekend all around. Auburn's loss was painful, but I salute the effort of a fatigued, undermanned squad. I can't say the same for my Dallas Cowboys. When the first frost hits, the Cowboys' collection of superstars and veteran free agents pack it in. Who would you rather have pulling the strings: Bobby Lowder, or Jerry Jones? Things could be worse, Tiger fans!

After some well deserved rest, it's time to gear up for a visit by the Alabama Crimson Tide. Many Auburn folks I've talked to this week are already conceding a Tide win. I say that it doesn't have to be that way! Auburn can play with anyone, when they are executing well. The Tigers can beat Bama, if they run the ball, stop the run, and don't turn the ball over. The Iron Bowl last year was a tight game, till Auburn handed Alabama the ball 3 straight possessions in the 3^rd quarter. We can't do that, this year at home!

Keys to Auburn victory, after the jump!

Auburn needs to effectively rotate defensive linemen. There was a Zach Clayton sighting in the Georgia game, and here's hoping he's healthy for the Iron Bowl. We need to rotate both the tackles and ends, and keep them fresh for Bama's 4^th quarter push. If we have Antonio Coleman and Antoine Carter playing every snap of the first three quarters, we won't be able to stop Bama in the 4^th with the game on the line.

At linebacker, Auburn SORELY needs Eltoro Freeman back. It's no coincidence that Georgia outscored Auburn 31-10 after Freeman left due to injury. With Freeman, Auburn stopped the run. Without him, Georgia moved the chains. Craig Stevens, and Josh Bynes need to have career games. Auburn's linebackers must attack, and shut down Bama's running game.

Rotation in the secondary will be important, too. Safeties WILL have to come up and make tackles, in this one. Bama gets a lot of successful blocks out of their receivers, tight ends, and fullbacks. While I applaud the efforts of young Darren Bates and Demond Washington, we need meaningful snaps out of Mike Slade and T'Sharvan Bell, too. Neiko Thorpe MUST keep his man in front, this game. Alabama WILL try a few play-action bombs at Thorpe, and he's GOT to be ready! If Bama tight end Colin Peek returns for this game, I wouldn't be surprised to see Alabama throw some passes in the flat to him. Auburn safeties will have their hands full trying to cover Peek. Walter McFadden must continue his excellent play. Last season in the Iron Bowl, McFadden limited Julio Jones to 3 catches for 36 yards. If Jones is held to 36 or fewer yards this year, Auburn has a great chance.

Clinton Durst needs to have a great game in this one. His numbers may not be helped, but he should avoid punting the football where Javier Arenas can get it. Arenas is averaging over 13 yards per return. A 35-yard kick out of bounds is an improvement over letting Arenas possibly break the game open. Likewise, this might be the one game where I'll approve of the squib kickoff strategy. On returns, we've got to find some way to keep Demond Washington fresh for these. Did you know that Bama is dead last in the SEC, in kickoff coverage? Bama averages 38.6 net yards per kickoff, which is even worse than Auburn's 39.7.

Auburn's offensive line will have a tough task in this Iron Bowl. Bama has three HUGE defensive linemen, and big backups as well. All three linemen nearly DEMAND a double team block, then Bama usually sends an outside linebacker (Eryk Anders, Cory Reamer) as a rush-end. You don't know till the snap which side that end is coming from. The double team on Terrence Cody is probably inevitable, with the other guard pulling, for Auburn. I'd expect Alabama to attack Andrew McCain, who's been very vulnerable to the speed rush this season. On passing downs, McCain MUST get that first step back with the correct foot, and get his shoulders turned. On run downs, he's got to get his head across. Auburn must get the front four blocked, to get the running game going. Bama is number one in the league in run defense, giving up only 2.4 yards per carry. Please! No false starts or illegal shifts! Lastly, if we've got 3^rd and 1 or 4^th and 1, we've GOT to STOP trying to pull linemen!

Guess which Bama player leads the team in tackles for loss? Would you believe that it's Javier Arenas? Nick Saban LOVES him some corner blitz! Arenas is tied for 3^rd in the SEC, with 10.5 tackles for loss. How do they DO that? Well, safety Mark Barron slides over when Arenas blitzes. Barron has 7 pass breakups and 4 picks, which ties him for the lead in the SEC in passes defended. Justin Woodall, the other safety isn't bad either. Auburn needs some sort of "automatic" check when Arenas slides down the line just before the snap, both the receivers AND Todd. Bama always tips it, a second or two before the snap, AFTER you've meercatted to the sideline and changed the play. Auburn needs a two man route and quick throw underneath, to defeat that Arenas corner blitz. No one blends coverages like Alabama. Auburn's going to HAVE to be patient, and rely on crisp throws under the coverage. The Tide defends from the inside-out. To attack that, you've got to throw successfully to the outside. Auburn's greatest offensive failure in last year's Iron Bowl was only TRYING two passes to the sideline. Bama will bait quarterbacks into trying deep balls. Chris Todd must choose his times carefully.

For Auburn backs, it's really simple, this game. Eric Smith and Mario Fannin have to block like they've never blocked before, and Ben Tate and Onterrio McCalebb have to run like there's no tomorrow. Extra hard fought yards move the chains, and are the difference against really good defenses like Alabama. There won't be big holes and lanes. The backs are going to have to create. Above all else, Auburn must hold onto the ball no matter what! A deep interception is kind of like a punt. But even a single fumble in Auburn's own end of the field could lose the game.

Chris Todd, this is it. This is your big chance! Todd has had an amazing story this season, coming back from the brink to lead this team. It's been an up and down year, but now Todd can cement his legacy. If Auburn beats the Tide, Todd will go down as a legend. Todd needs crisp, accurate throws, and must avoid throwing into coverage. We'll certainly need that 5^th year senior maturity and leadership, in this tough ball game.

In other strategy notes, I'm not sure we need to run the Wildcat at all. Alabama has a series of defensive packages for it, including a two deep zone that still manages to overload the sweep side of the formation. A counter might work against that, but a Kodi Burns lob ball against that zone could be disaster. One thing I'd like to see occasionally is a flipped offensive line, and a Todd half roll to the right. With Ziemba out front, and McCain somewhat protected by the motion, Todd can do some damage throwing to the right, especially on the wide side of the field. I'm not sure about the hurry-up offense, in this one. I think it backfired, last week. We got tired on the line faster than Georgia got tired on defense, it looked like. Bama's not really a team you can wear down, defensively. We need to run some reverses to Fannin, Zachary, and McCalebb. Bama will not likely be vulnerable like some teams, but we need those plays to keep the Tide defense honest. Defensively, we've got to use more run blitzes. We're not going to be able to sit back in cover-two all day with Josh Bynes dropping in the middle. Bama will run it till we stop 'em.

It's soon to be Iron Bowl week, folks! I'm fired up already! I'm looking forward to a great week of analysis and fever pitch!

Initial Impressions from the MSU Game

outsidethesidelines — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:40:01 -0000

A few thoughts from the initial aftermath of the Tide's 31-3 win over Mississippi State:

From the outset, you really could not ask for anything more than we did against Mississippi State last night. Considering that we control our own destiny, all we really needed to do was find a way to win, stay healthy, and if we could win in a route then that was all lagniappe. And, sure enough, we found a way to do all three of those things against the Bullies. Again, you really couldn't ask for anything more.
Credit Mississippi State for showing up ready to play with an intense crowd. It was the biggest crowd MSU has ever had in Starkvegas, and it was a very good atmosphere from the outset. Moreover, MSU came out firing on all cylinders and gave us some legitimate troubles early. We obviously took control as the game moved on, but it certainly wasn't from a lack of effort on their part.
Defensively, we had a really slow start to this game, and for whatever reason MSU gave us a lot of trouble. On their first two possessions, Mississippi State had 85 yards on only 11 total plays and had a few legitimate big plays to boot. I still don't know exactly what happened, but they gave us a lot of problems early and we were fortunate that they ultimately shot themselves in the foot on both occasions. Fortunately, though, after Mark Barron's interception, the defense simply became dominating. After that, MSU had four possessions the rest of the way in the first half, all of which resulted in three and outs (twelve plays combined for a net of four yards).
Speaking of Mississippi State shooting themselves in the foot, that was something they consistently did all night and it was to our great benefit. They had a touchdown on the first play of the game with a decent throw, they stopped themselves on the fourth down try on the first possession, and the interception was a terrible throw by Lee. And that was just in the first six minutes of the game. From there, it really didn't get any better. Bumphis stepped out on a would-be kick return for a touchdown, they missed a chip shot field goal, and had a busted coverage that led to an easy touchdown for 'Bama. All in all, we played pretty well for the most part, but MSU did a lot to help our effort.
Offensively it was really a boom-or-bust night. Overall things look very good -- 31 points, 440+ yards of total offense, and 7.7 yards per play -- but those numbers are inflated by a lot of big plays. We had five really big plays in this game that combined to generate at least 21 points and about 230 yards of total offense. Outside of those five big plays, we really had very little success offensively... around 53 snaps offensively for about 200 yards (fewer than four yards per snap). We were basically either hitting huge plays or getting shut down.

Largely the same story goes for Mark Ingram. His raw stat line of 19 carries for 149 yards and 2 touchdowns looks great, but he earned it the hard way last night. The big 70-yard touchdown run inflates everything, but when you factor that out he had 18 carries for 79 yards (only 4.3 yards per carry). He played very well, as is usually the case, but the stat line doesn't really do his performance justice. This was far from an easy romp for him, and far from it he had to fight like hell to get everything that he did.

And not surprisingly, the same thing goes for the passing game. We had three big plays in the passing game, but aside from that we had 15 passing attempts net only 57 yards (3.8 yards per attempt). Again, the general theme of the night offensively was that we were basically either getting huge plays, or MSU was shutting us down. No real in-between to be found.

The touchdown pass to Darius Hanks was a blown coverage by Mississippi State. We had two receivers to the left of the formation -- Hanks and Julio Jones -- and they blitzed a cornerback from that side. That left two defenders matched up against our two wide receivers, and for some reason the Mississippi State safety just kind of lingered out there in no-man's land and didn't really cover anyone. That left Hanks wide open, and a good throw and catch resulted in a touchdown.

Hat tip to Trent Richardson for good pass protection on that play. He came across from the other side of the formation and did a good job picking up the blitzing defensive back, and that allowed this play to develop. Without that, this play likely ends in a sack.

The touchdown pass to Julio Jones was a blown coverage, too, but it honestly wouldn't have mattered one way or the other. Even without the blown coverage, Julio would have been manned up on a safety and McElroy delivered an absolute strike. The blown coverage made it easier, of course, but in reality this would have been a touchdown either way.

Both touchdown passes came on a variation of the same play, and in both cases Mississippi State blew it. It was a post / corner route combo in both situations, and they couldn't cover it either time.

Marquis Maze had another good night, and we targeted him more often than any other receiver, something that is becoming a bit of a trend. His long catch and run was an absolutely incredible play, and it alone gave us three points. Even with Julio, he may very well be our best playmaker on the outside now.

Offensively, I really don't get why we aren't throwing the football down the field more often. We only threw the football beyond 15 yards from the line of scrimmage a grand total of two times all of last night -- both of which came on busted coverages -- and that really had a very big effect on us offensively. Mississippi State compressed the hell out of everything, and that was really the big reason that we struggled to move the ball outside of those big plays. I just don't get it at all, really. It's one thing to not be able to throw the football vertically, but to not even try to throw it vertically? That I don't understand.

One of the biggest positives for the offense was that we had a complete lack of negative plays. We didn't commit a single offensive penalty, did not turn the football over, and did not give up a single sack. Any time you can do that, particularly against a team with a struggling offense, you move a lot closer to victory.

Defensively, Anthony Dixon had a fair amount of success, but as a unit we did what we really needed to do. Any time you face a team with very few weapons offensively, all you really need to do is relatively limit what little weapons that they have, and we did that with Dixon. He had a decent amount of success, as expected, but again we did what we needed to do.

Something to keep in mind, we spent a lot of time in nickel package defending the Mississippi State version of the spread option. Keep that in mind when we face Florida.

Marquis Johnson played a fine game last night and made several big plays. Interestingly enough, though, MSU kept going after him time and time again, something we should all keep our eyes on. It is clear that opposing offensive coordinators generally consider him the weakest link we have at corner, and they try to go at him accordingly. That means that he will have to step up and get the job done in key situations, and that is exactly what he did against MSU. It's really just shows you what kind of a defense we have when a player of this caliber is the nickel back.

Kareem Jackson... I don't think MSU threw a single pass in his direction all night long. I think that speaks volumes about his level of play.

Justin Woodall had a rough night, and I hate to say it but he has struggled in recent weeks. We're going to need him to play better football against Auburn and Florida.

Mark Barron, on the other hand, is becoming an absolute standout at safety. He gets better and better each week, and his amazing athleticism is showcasing itself even more as he gets more and more comfortable with his role. He's already one of the best safeties in the conference, and at this point the sky is the limit for him.

Kick coverage... what kick coverage? We effectively gave up the equivalent of two touchdowns on kick coverage breakdowns, yet MSU shot itself in the foot to the point that they didn't get a single point out of either one of them. Again, MSU was its own worst enemy for most of the night. As for us, well, we'll never beat Florida giving up yards like that, and they've got a much better returner than anyone the Bulldogs put on the field last night.

P.J. Fitzgerald did a nice job punting last night. He netted over 40 yards per punt, had no touchbacks, and downed two inside the twenty yard line.

Another 10-0 start for the Crimson Tide, it's 17th in school history. If that doesn't tell you all you need to know about our tradition, nothing will. It's incredibly hard to win football games in this conference, and to reel off 15 straight wins in regular season conference play really is an incredible feat.

All in all, it was a good night for the Tide. As I mentioned from the outset, all we really need to do until we get to Atlanta is to win and stay healthy, and we did that against Mississippi State. Tennessee-Chattanooga won't seriously challenge us -- the only thing that can get us there is injuries -- and that really leaves only Auburn left. I do think that Coach Saban is right... our best football is still out there, and we're going to have to play up to that level if we are indeed going to knock off Florida in Atlanta. For now, though, it's all a matter of positioning, and we are doing the things we need to do in order to put ourselves in the position we want to be in come the first week of December.

Final thought... Again, it's hard to win football games in this league, very hard. And any time you can start off 10-0 and go on the road in conference play and spank someone 31-3 in a game that their entire program had marked on their calender, that's just a great night. Again, it's very hard to win in this league, and it's even harder to do what we're doing. We basically wandered the wilderness for eleven seasons from 1997-2007, so just be glad that we are back where we want to be. Enjoy the spoils of success while they last.

The Film Room: Looking At LSU

outsidethesidelines — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:03:15 -0000

This week in the film room I want to do a bit of a blurb piece, looking specifically at several of the bigger plays in the Alabama v. LSU game. Unlike in past weeks in which we have focused specifically on individual players with a specific point of evaluation in mind, this week we're going to bounce around a bit and just take a bit more casual look at some of the biggest plays in the game this past Saturday, looking for anything we can find.

First off, let's look at the first snap that we took out of the Wildcat. You will recall that in the Initial Impressions piece I said that, with Earl Alexander (a former high school quarterback) going in motion, we were almost certainly looking to throw the football. Let's look at the play again:

Notice the LSU cover package here. They have clearly manned up the three receivers, with safety Chad Jones over the top. I still think that this play was intended to be a pass, but given LSU's defensive response, it's hard to see how we would have successfully thrown the football. The only way it could have been done is if Alexander had thrown the football to the left and hit either Ingram or tight end Michael Williams slipping out of the backfield in the opposite direction.To be sure, the fumble was certainly disappointing because even with the recovery we were still faced with a third and long, but it's hard to see this one being a success through the air. We may have called a pass option on this one, but I imagine that it would have likely ended up being a run had the fumble not occurred.

Next, let's actually go back a play to the snap immediately before that. It's a first and ten near midfield and we decide to take a shot downfield to Maze early in the game. You'll probably remember this play well, but nevertheless you can get the jist of what happens with the following .gif (note, you need to click the .gif to make it work):

Disappointing, eh? I don't know exactly what route Jai Eugene was looking for, but he was clearly expecting that route to be broken off at the intermediate level somehow. He certainly wasn't expecting Maze to try to beat him deep, and as a result he ended up getting turned around and Maze blew right by him. This one just makes you want to throw the remote through the TV, plain and simple. Even with a semi-decent throw this is a touchdown, and not only does McElroy overthrow him he throws it out of bounds to boot. Double negative. This one hurts.

I guess we'll go ahead and knock out all of the negative McElroy stuff now, so let's take a look at the second Wildcat snap that we ran, this one coming late in the third quarter with 'Bama trailing 15-10.

I loved this play design from the outset. When Julio Jones comes down on the jet sweet and McElroy steps back, you know that every single LSU defender is looking for something on the frontside to Julio Jones. So what we do? We slip Brad Smelley out on the backside and we get them with it. The LSU defense isn't expecting it at all, and Smelley gets behind the secondary. A good throw and this is a touchdown, and even with a decent throw we probably have a first and goal. Unfortunately, this one sails long too, incomplete pass. We eventually settle for the field goal to cut the lead to 15-13.

Do, however, pay close attention up front on this one, particularly with regard to LSU defensive tackle Drake Nevis. The junior from Marrero whips William Vlachos at the point of attack, and he hurries the throw. It's still clearly a throw that McElroy should make, mind you, but nevertheless Nevis does a great job of getting into the backfield and making it a more difficult throw. The more you watch of the film, you see that Nevis played a whale of a game. I bet he graded out really high when Miles and company reviewed the film.

At any rate, let's close up the negative McElroy stuff here by taking a closer look at the safety:

First off, notice how we come out here guns a blazing, to paraphrase Saban. Not only are we throwing the football out of our own end zone on a third and long with a narrow lead in a low scoring game, notice that we are doing so with only five men in to protect the quarterback. Both Mark Ingram and Colin Peek go out on pass routes, and we are left with only the five linemen to get the job done. This one is as gutsy as it gets.

Unfortunately, Mike Johnson whiffs on the block of... guess who? Drake Nevis. Once again Nevis gets into the backfield and forces the safety, a fine play on his part. Again, though, McElroy shoulders a lot of the blame here. Even with the whiff by Johnson, McElroy still has approximately three seconds to get rid of the football, but for some reason -- even though everyone is covered -- he keeps holding onto the football for dear life. Predictably, the pressure eventually gets to him and the safety is the end result. He should have just thrown this one away. Thankfully, we lucked out that it was only a safety.

Now in all fairness to McElroy, while he did make a lot of bad plays, he also made his fair share of good plays too, and that is what we'll look at next. The following is McElroy's touchdown pass to Darius Hanks:

For all of the criticism of the passing game the past few weeks (and rightly so), here is a textbook example of where everything is executed perfectly and the play is performed exactly like you draw it up on paper. And this is also a textbook example of the type of things that you must do when an opposing defense loads the box to stop the run. Notice that after Ingram's previous success on the ground that LSU practically commits eight defenders to stopping the run this time around. That forces man to man coverage on the outside against all three receivers.

For McElroy, this is a simple read. We roll the pocket to the right to avoid the pressure, and it's obvious that he has a man-to-man match-up of Hanks on a safety. For McElroy, he either throws it downfield to Hanks if he is open, or checks it down to Earl Alexander. Fortunately, Hanks runs a fine route and gets good separation on the defender, and McElroy delivers an absolute strike. Just how you draw it up... touchdown 'Bama.

Next, let's look at a couple of defensive plays, specifically focusing on the two big runs that LSU had after the safety in the end zone. First, let's take a look at Charles Scott final run where he rips off a big gain to put his Bayou Bengals deep in 'Bama territory:

Notice that we come out and defend this effectively in our base 3-4 set. Eryk Anders has his hand on the ground, but even so this is pretty typical base 3-4 stuff, and also notice that we've got Mark Barron creeping up into the box. We've effectively got the back-up defensive line in the game for this snap -- Marcel Dareus, Luther Davis, and Josh Chapman -- but even so we have eight men ready to stop the run.

And in all fairness both Scott and the LSU offensive line does a solid job, but what really kills us here is poor tackling. Mark Barron is really playing the outside here and isn't in position to stop an interior run, but the real disaster is in the middle with Cory Reamer and Justin Woodall. Those two may be seniors, but they looked like freshmen with this effort. Instead of crashing down hard and making the tackle, the best Reamer can muster is a weak arm tackle attempt, which of course the powerful Scott blows right through, and then after that Woodall completely whiffs in the open field on a tackle. With a good play by Reamer this is a two-yard gain, and with a good play by Woodall it's an eight-yard gain, but unfortunately those two whiff and Scott is off to the races.

With LSU driving, Stevan Ridley comes off the bench and gives the Tigers a lead with his touchdown run. Let's take a closer look, particularly keeping a very close eye on the match-up of LSU center T-Bob Hebert on Terrence Cody:

Well, now that is certainly one for those conspiracy nuts, now isn't it? This is a run right into the heart of the line on second and short, and we have it snuffed out pretty well. Cody is in position to make the tackle, and looks to do so with Ridley trying to cut it to the outside. He ultimately misses the tackle, of course, simply because Hebert flat out tackles Cody in the open field. This should have been a holding penalty setting up a 2nd and 13, but alas no such flag came about.

Of course I'm not going to complain too much about the officiating because you do also need to focus on your own effort, and that certainly falls short here. Keep your eye on Eryk Anders, he has outside contain to the offensive right, and he basically just blows it. He gets sucked too far inside, and Ridley beats him to the outside. Touchdown LSU.

Finally, let's wrap this piece up by taking a closer look at the gamechanging touchdown on the screen pass to Julio Jones:

Notice how odd it is that LSU is actually in really good position, before the snap, to stop this play. They've got a base 4-3 look, and the linebackers are playing a bit soft. A safety is manned up against Julio Jones, to be sure, but this is the short side of the field and there is also another safety over there for help, plus a linebacker. I don't care who you are covering, someone between Brandon Taylor, Danny McCray, and Kelvin Sheppard should stop this play.

At any rate, we feign something of a pass to the right, and then McElroy wheels back around to throw to Julio. The entire left side of the Alabama offensive line, plus the center, all move out to the second level to block. Now, Brandon Taylor, knowing that he is a safety in man coverage against Julio Jones, plays it very safe, and leaves a massive cushion between him and the 'Bama wideout. And that, in many ways, costs him here. He sees the screen and runs in very hard, right by James Carpenter, who was supposed to block him -- and for what it's worth, the Auburn fans complained of a block in the back on this play by Carpenter on Taylor because there is a photo showing him blocking the LSU defensive back from behind, but if you watch the film, naturally the Auburn fans are wrong as Carpenter whiffs so badly that he barely touches the back of Taylor so lightly that Taylor himself probably never even noticed.

Unfortunately for Taylor, with him racing in, he loses body control, and Julio makes a quick, nifty cut to the outside to sidestep the LSU safety. Kelvin Sheppard effectively takes himself out of the play by biting on the fake to the right, and when Danny McCray tries to come in to make the tackle, he takes a poor angle and there William Vlachos gets just enough of him to knock him out of the play. And with the LSU defense firmly in the review mirror, Julio is off to the races. Touchdown 'Bama.

Initial Impressions from the LSU Game

outsidethesidelines — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:03:58 -0000

Almost 24 hours removed, a few initial impressions from the LSU game:

First and foremost, it was obviously a huge win for the Tide yesterday. We came in absolutely needing to get the job done, and with LSU giving us their best shot we answered the bell. We played the best we've played since late September, and truth be told there was absolutely what was required. Credit goes to LSU for playing well in their own right, and they made us take our game to the next level to get the win.
Mark Ingram logged another unreal performance yesterday. LSU was highly physical on the defensive side of the ball, and Ingram racked up 177 total yards. He averaged 6.5 yards per run and the way he powered the opening drive of the second half really changed the game. As I mentioned in a fanshot earlier, the Heisman is an "award" for tools... it's based more on glamor than anything else, and it's given by a collection of idiots. Ingram will probably never win it, but I wouldn't trade him for any other player in the country, and we just need to enjoy him while we have him. He's a three-year player, and someone will be paying him big bucks to do this come 2011.
Julio Jones had his best performance of the year, and it was very interesting how things were discussed in the post-game. Based on what everyone is saying, it's clear that only in the past week or so has Julio gotten back to near 100%, and he looked very different yesterday than he had the rest of the year. His explosiveness was back, and he was a difference-maker in this game. Even aside from the long touchdown run off the screen, he had a huge first down on the final drive, had a couple of other nice grabs, and the pass interference on Peterson was yet another big play. And, of course, that's not counting the throw in the first half that should have been a touchdown. Nice to have you back, Julio.
Greg McElroy played the best game in at least a month, and was clearly improved over the course of the past few weeks. We needed every bit of what he did, and we could not have won had he played anything like he had the past three weeks. Unfortunately, McElroy still has a long ways to go, and he left a lot of points on the board today. He did some good things, but he did a lot of bad things too. He missed Julio on an easy touchdown throw, costing us four points, and the dumb interception before halftime cost us at least a field goal. He held onto the football too long on the safety, and he missed an open Smelley on the trick pass out of the Wildcat that could have been a touchdown, and of course that is to say nothing of the terrible decision to try to force the ball to Julio late on the controversial incompletion. Bottom line, McElroy played pretty well and he clearly showed some progress, but he still did some things to cost us a lot of points and he clearly still needs to play better.
Speaking of passes out of the Wildcat, remember the first Wildcat snap we had that resulted in a fumble? Did you happen to notice who was coming in motion at the time of the snap? It was none other than Earl Alexander, and that was one of the few snaps he saw in the game. And if you will recall correctly, Alexander was a quarterback in high school, and Ingram was very upset after the fumble. I'd about bet the farm that we had a trick play called in that situation with Alexander getting the ball looking to throw a pass.
The offensive line played an incredible game today. Both James Carpenter and Drew Davis were nothing short of outstanding protecting the edge in pass protection, and we beat up LSU in the trenches in the running game. It was a complete effort by the big uglies, and I don't have any doubt that we played better along the offensive line yesterday than we have at any point in the year. Joe Pendry deserves a lot of credit for what he has done with this group. We don't have any real dominant players out there, but we consistently play good, solid technique and just get the job done.

Bamagrad had it right in the fanpost... we're throwing the football to set up the run. That was clearly the plan offensively, and it worked very well.

All in all, it was certainly nice to see us moving the football again. McElroy's mistakes and the illegal substitution penalty kept some points off the board, so it wasn't exactly a perfect day, but again it was clearly an improvement over the past month. LSU has a good defense, and any time you average almost 6.5 yards per play against a defense of that caliber, you're certainly doing something right. Hopefully we can just continue to build off of this effort.

Marcel Dareus, for all intents and purposes, is unstoppable when we move him inside in pass rushing situations. He consistently takes the manhood of every guard they line up over him, and he did the same thing on Saturday with senior right guard Lyle Hitt. I can guarantee you this much... come April of 2011, that young man will be getting a lot of money from an NFL team. Enjoy him while we have him.

Defensively, we really had some struggles at time stopping the option. We had things set up defensively pretty well most of the time, but the execution looked ugly a good bit of the time. In particular, Jefferson made Justin Woodall look pretty bad on one option play. That's something we're going to have to fix before we leave for Atlanta.

Jordan Jefferson played a fine game yesterday, and that young man has a great upside. He has all the physical tools you would ever want, and he is a legitimate dual threat to boot. He clearly still needs to progress, but if he ever puts it all together then he is going to be a legitimate superstar.

And speaking of Jefferson, what in the world was the deal with him not going back in the game? The CBS broadcast reported that word had came from the LSU sideline that he could have gone back in, and he looked okay on the sideline. I have no clue what the deal was there, but Lee was clearly a drop-off. And here's the thing on Lee... he has great physical tools, and he can throw the football down the field with the best of them. But in terms of having to hit receivers over the middle on crossing routes, he cannot hit the broad side of a barn. If he could ever gain some accuracy on crossing patterns, he'd be one hell of a quarterback.

LSU really does have some unreal talent at the skill positions. For whatever criticism you can make of Miles, this is certainly not one of them. Even with Florida, there is probably not another team in the country that has the kind of athleticism at the skill positions like LSU does.

Colin Peek misses the game for 'Bama, and Richard Dickson didn't play either. Pretty much a balancing effect, really.

The more I watch of the LSU offense, the more I think that it is really just too complicated for its own good. It can certainly create some issues for defenses, mind you, but it certainly does create a lot issues for the offense, too, and that was the big catalyst behind all of the false starts, the illegal formations, and the wasted timeouts. With all of the talent that those guys have, I really just cannot help but think that they would be better served just by simplifying the offense and letting all of the raw talent just go to work for them.

Chad Jones didn't have much of an impact yesterday, and his mobility wasn't particularly impressive. On both the long pass to Maze out of the end zone, and the drop by Julio out of the end zone in the third quarter, Jones was tracking the ball the entire way and at first sight I was almost convinced that he was going to snag an easy pick. In both cases, though, he never really got close enough to make the play. I don't know if he was hurt or perhaps just a tad bit overrated, but either way he didn't exactly blow me away yesterday.

The LSU linebacker corps is a very underrated group. Those guys played a fine game, and Kelvin Sheppard in particular really looked good. I tell you, he's probably not quite in the same league yet as Rolando McClain and Brandon Spikes, but he's not far behind. Outside of those two and Hightower, he might be the best linebacker I've seen in the SEC this year.

Patrick Peterson is an incredible player, and he played a great game yesterday. Unfortunately, he really shot himself in the foot by never being properly hydrated in the first place, always a tell-tale sign when you're cramping up by halftime in a game where the temperature never rises above 70 degrees. I know he had some flu-like symptoms earlier in the week, but that had cleared up by mid-week and at that point you just have to make sure you get plenty of fluids. Once the game started, of course, it was entirely too late and you simply lose entirely too much fluids to get them back to where they need to be. Peterson played great when he was in the game, but really he was his own worst enemy.

Charles Scott deserves a lot of credit for playing a fine game. His drop on the busted pass play was a big one, but he ran the ball really well and played a physical game. It was a shame to see his collegiate career likely ended on such a fine run, but such is life sometimes. Best wishes on the recovery, Mr. Scott, and we'll see you on Sunday next year.

DeAngelo Peterson was huge on LSU's first touchdown drive, and their coaching staff really got us there defensively. He's a wide receiver, regardless of what you call him, but when they lined him up at tight end we covered him with a safety (Barron) and then a linebacker (Reamer), and he ate our lunch both times.

Are any of you guys familar with ROBO-PUNTER, the theoretical punter whose punts are downed at the opposing team's one-yard line every time? Well, that was pretty much LSU yesterday. I swear, those guys did an unbelievable job punting the football. If they weren't pinning it against our goal line, they were kicking it a mile and eliminating any chance of return for Arenas. Ill be perfectly honest, it was the most impressive display of punting that I've seen in many years.

Look at it this way... LSU punted the football eight times yesterday, and Javier Arenas ended up with 11 return yards. And that is not counting the penalty on Smelley, and when you take that into consideration we ended up getting a grand total of one return yard on eight punts. And if that's not getting the job done, I don't know what is.

And speaking of punt returns, why in the hell is Brad Smelley in the game? He has to lead the conference in penalties committed in the return game, and his penalty yesterday was one of the dumbest I've seen in a while.

The punt that LSU rolled inside the one-yard line was touched at around the four. Refs missed that one, I believe. And it had a big impact on playcalling, too, no doubt about that.

All of this hoopla over the interception is ridiculous, and it's mainly just a bunch of homer fans looking for an excuse for a guy that they otherwise got their asses beat. It was a close play that could have legitimately gone either way, to be sure, but the ruling on the field was an incomplete pass and there was no indisputable evidence on the replay that would command the play be overturned. And I'll be frank, even if you give him the interception, it doesn't matter. LSU would have been 61 yards away from the end zone, and those guys ended up with 17 total yards on three possessions in the fourth quarter. The end result would have been the same regardless. The only difference would have been that 'Bama might not have covered the spread had it been called an interception.

Two huge plays in the fourth quarter have been overlooked in the wake of all of the talk of the incomplete pass, and they were the stop by our defense on 3rd and short early in the fourth quarter, and the running into the punter penalty. We scored on the screen to Julio immediately after the defensive stop, and the running into the penalty not only gave us three points but also took another three minutes or so off the clock. The incompletion is getting all of the attention, but those two plays are really the ones that broke LSU's back.

And speaking of the running into the punter penalty, that was one gutsy call on the fourth down after that. We're literally three inches from a first down and we decide to motion McElroy out wide and snap it five yards behind the line of scrimmage to Ingram in the shotgun, when we fumbled a snap in the Wildcat earlier in the game? Hell, that might be more than gutsy, it might even be stupid, but fortunately it worked out for us in the end.

Leigh Tiffin is a fine young man, a wonderful kicker, and we should all feel fortunate to have such a valuable asset on our team. And, again, I'm just going to shut up about him.

The way we dominated this game physically was nothing short of amazing. We were much more physical than LSU, and their players were dropping like flies. Moreover, we absolutely dominated this game in the fourth quarter, and that was ultimately the difference. In many ways, we didn't so much win this game yesterday afternoon as much as we won it last summer in the S&C program. We were clearly the more physical team and better conditioned to boot. If there is an unsung hero of this team, it's strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran. That man clearly deserves a raise.

POST GAME - Alabama

The Ghost of Jay Cutler — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:18:37 -0000

More photos » by Rogelio V. Solis - AP

You wanna bright spot? How about a Rebel secondary which kept Julio Jones from scoring.

Browse more photos »

Alright, I'm no Whiskey Wednesday, and he's already gotten his post game up but I'm still going for this as per WW's post which steered clear of football and focused on Ole Miss fandom in general.

It was fantastic, don't get me wrong. It just doesn't talk about the game.

I realize this is late--as well as things like the Rebel Roundup, RotW, and UAB HATE WEEK--but I hope you all are cool enough to understand that between our inclination towards partying far too hard and my travel schedule that we were still really going to have a tough time bloggin'.

Oh, and I killed Juco's computer yesterday. That also has something to do with the dearth of action around here. Juco, I'm not sorry. Your computer sucks anyway.

Alright, so, enough with the apologies and excuses. It's time for football.

I feel that, in order to give me the strength I'll need to finish this, I will approach this by making a series of observations in descending order from "bright spot" to "damn you Snead."

The brightest spot of them all was our defense as a whole. Not only did the defensive line play well, as per the status quo over the past two seasons, but the linebackers worked their asses off and the secondary played inspired ball. Hardy wasn't the force he was against the Tide two seasons ago in Oxford, but his presence was certainly felt. Powe made some great plays, Tillman was his typically consistent self, and Lockett made some serious bids on the ball.

I was not unpleased with Allen Walker and Jonathan Cornell which is somehow more than I can say thus far this year. There was only one big run given up (the game's lone touchdown) which was the result of our 'backers being in the right places at the right times. Seriously, these guys played tough. Patrick Trahan and DT Shackleford have still not forgotten how to tackle which is a plus-ish.

The secondary though. Wow. Marshay Green, who is approximately 4'3", made Julio Jones look average. Cassius Vaughn went up against him as well and did the same. The fades to the endzones were the right playcalls by Saban and company. With a guy like Jones and his 90 foot arms with eight-fingered hands, why not run that play in the red zone? Still after three (right?) attempts at that play, Julio came up with nothing. Nada. Zilch. Johnny Brown was our team leader in tackles and Kendrick Lewis was constantly in a ton of plays. For a unit which was supposed to be one of the weakest in the SEC, they have really turned we at the Cup into believers. They play every single play with their motor revved up as high as it can go.

Unfortunately, sometimes amplified play like that can lead to bad news. Sorry Rebel fans, Marshay cracked a rib and lacerated a kidney and is out indefinitely. He could be back in a week or a month, it's just one of those things.

Keep this in mind: up until Saturday, Alabama was averaging 40.5 points a game. Think about that and tell me you aren't very, very proud of our D. The Landsharks held the--per the Cup's opinion--best team in the nation to 18 points below their average. Alabama ran 78 plays. Seventy. Eight. With their extremely physical style of football, it really is a testament to our defensive strength to have made it out alive, let alone hold the Tide to one successful trip into the endzone. It really is a damned shame that their hard work was all for naught come 0:00.

And, this comes as a shocker to nobody, it's Snead's fault! BOO JEVAN SNEAD! Okay, maybe not, but still Snead; no excuses, play like a champion. You made the former and didn't do the latter. I know there are rumors surrounding your lady-situation 'n' shit but dude, man up. No explanation necessary. The offensive line played well (To the gentleman standing two rows behind me--you know who you are, you have fat cheeks, bucked teeth, and talk like a sailor with epilepsy--not every single play that doesn't work out is the fault of Bradley Sowell. And his name is pronounced "SOW-ell," not "SOAL".) when considering the caliber of defense they were facing. The running backs didn't have much room to work with regardless though, so really we needed big gains in the passing game.

We didn't get them.

True, some of the poor plays were the result of badassery on the part of the Crimson Tide, and others were the result of bizarre play calling. But, if my memory serves me well (iffy, I know), we had several good plays called which were for nothing due to piss-poor execution, most of which from Jevan Snead. I can vividly recall three therrible passes into the flat which, for those of you who aren't terribly football savvy, is a generally easy throw to make. I also recall a play where Dexter McCluster was wide the hell open on a crossing route with a good fifteen yards of green space in front of him, only to have Jevan throw it high and behind.

Speaking of high and behind? That first pick Jevan threw was such, allowing it to cruise right into the hands of Justin Woodall.

He, as he tends to do, turned it on in the 4th quarter, making some great throws and even reeling off some impressive runs (Snead did, in fact, lead the team in rushing... eesh) but it was way too little and way too late.

As an aside: why don't we run Jevan more? The guy can run quite well. We really need to utilize that more, especially if we plan on having pocket trouble for the rest of the season.

Anyway, if it seems I'm being rough on Snead, it's because I am. Our defense put our team in a position to, at the absolute least, be very competitive against the best team in the entire nation. Our offense couldn't capitalize, and a very disproportionate amount of the inability to capitalize resulted from something Jevan Snead did or did not do.

But, I'm with Whiskey on this. I'm over my anger and frustration. I still had a kickass time Friday night, despite losing my favorite Ole Miss cap in the back of some girl's car on the way home from the Rib Cage (if you find it, holla at cha blogga). I'll be back in Oxford town in time for the LSU game. I hope to see all of you there.

The Virginia Tech Preview: Tide Defense v. Hokie Offense

outsidethesidelines — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:00:18 -0000

Editor's Note: This is the second installment in a four-piece series that will give an in-depth preview of the individual unit match-ups, as well as a special teams preview, and finally ending on Friday with a final wrap-up before the two teams face off on Saturday night.

Part 1: Tide Offense vs Hokie Defense

The Virginia Tech Offense

Any in-depth analysis of the Virginia Tech offense must begin with proper consideration given to one man: Tyrod Taylor. What makes the Virginia Tech offense unique really has nothing to do with it's formations, it's passing concepts, it's run blocking schemes, or anything of the sort. No, what makes the Virginia Tech offense unique is because the entire offense completely and totally revolves around Taylor. When you watch the film of this unit, it's almost nothing short of amazing just how much of a linchpin that Tyrod Taylor is to the entire unit. Everything is predicated upon him; even when he performs the most fundamental of duties -- handing off to the tailback, direct snaps that go to other players, etc. -- the offense nevertheless somehow goes through him.

And with Taylor as the centerpiece, the Virginia Tech offense has changed quite a bit in recent years. Offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring is still in Blacksburg -- he was given the title of defensive coordinator in late 2001 -- and has remained a constant for almost a decade, but his offense is fundamentally different with Taylor at the helm. In years gone by, the Hokies tended to be a run heavy team that operated out of very conventional formations. They spent much of their time either in the I-formation or with two tight end sets, trying hard to establish the interior running game, and much of the passing game became a by-product of the playaction pass. But again, that's all different now with Taylor at the helm. They still spend a good deal of time in the I-formation and also with two tight end sets, but they are not limited in that regard any more. With Taylor, they also really like to spread the field and put Taylor back in the shotgun, thus taking full advantage of Taylor's athleticism in space.

Given Taylor's extreme importance to the offense, we should take a closer look at him as a player. From the outset, Taylor was a bona fide super recruit coming out of Hampton, Virginia's Hampton High School, a dynasty in Virginia high school football circles, with seventeen state football championships. When he came out of Hampton High on 2007, Taylor had been a three-year starter and was a consensus five-star recruit. Rivals.com had him as the #1 dual threat quarterback in the country, and he chose to stay in-state with the Hokies, turning down a scholarship offer from the Florida Gators, whose head coach Urban Meyer recruited him heavily to run his spread option.

The reason everyone wanted the 6'1 and 215 pound Taylor was simple... his legs. In a day and age where 40 times are often outright lies, Taylor is a legitimate 4.40 player, and it is his unbelievable speed and athleticism that makes him the player that he is, and it is also what makes him the focal point of the Virginia Tech offense. Because of his ability to make big plays with his feet at any given time, opposing defenses must always be aware of his positioning on the field, and that is why the Virginia Tech coaching staff ensures that their entire offense runs through him. Stinespring and company love to always make you account for Taylor even when the ball doesn't go to him. For example, in simple dive plays out of the I-formation, after giving the hand-off, Taylor generally makes very, long sweeping retreats from the location of the exchange as if he's keeping the ball and going out for a run. This is done, of course, to ensure that one defender must account for Taylor, even though it's an inside hand-off to a tailback. This is just one of many ways in which the Virginia Tech coaching staff constantly keeps the offense running through Taylor, regardless of what is actually going on.

And no Alabama fan should underestimate just how deadly Taylor's athleticism can be. Many like to paint Taylor as a typical run-happy quarterback with no real passing skills, and in all fairness that might be true, and in many ways is true. Still, nevertheless, even if that is completely accurate, Taylor is nevertheless such an elite athlete that he is still a very dangerous player. In today's game we often have mobile quarterbacks playing the position with good athleticism, but Taylor isn't just a mobile quarterback, nor does he just have good athleticism. I've been following Alabama football closely since 1990, so this is my 20th year, and I feel confident in saying that we have never faced an opposing quarterback with the kind of ultra-elite speed and athleticism that Taylor brings to the table. Again, he's not just a mobile quarterback, he's the kind of elite athlete who will certainly play in the NFL one day -- and probably be a fairly high draft pick at that -- thanks to that athleticism.

Soundtrack Warning: Crunk

Fortunately, the good news for Alabama fans and our coaching staff is that for all of Taylor's frightening athleticism, he's still a very incomplete player as a pure quarterback, and the rest of the Virginia Tech offense is riddled with holes and shortcomings. This unit finished 90th in the country last year in scoring offense, and 103rd in total offense, continuing a downward trend in recent years in their ability to move the football. From 2005, when Tech finished 17th in the country in total offense, they have fallen to 49th, to 53rd, to 103rd. Far from being a one year anomaly, the Hokies are a team that has seemingly struggled to move the football almost forever.

The Hokie Offense: A Critical Look

Given the struggles of the Tech offense, you don't have to look far to find its weaknesses.

Since we gave Tyrod Taylor so much focus in the overview, perhaps it's best we start with him, because for all of his greatness as a runner, he really struggles throwing the football. Truth be told, as a passer, he's just not much, period. Last year as a passer he completed only 57% of his passes, averaged under 6.0 yards per attempt, threw two touchdowns against seven interceptions, and his QB rating of 103.2 put him somewhere around 110th in the country. Making matters worse, the coaches have really simplified the passing game as a whole to help Taylor, effectively reducing it to a smattering of dink and dunk passes. You watch the Hokie offense and you see countless curls, hitches, screen passes, square-ins, and the like, and even so he cannot complete 60% of his throws. Furthermore, the few times that Taylor did actually play pretty well as a passer, it was predictably against bad defenses. The four highest individual game quarterback ratings that he posted in 2008 came, not so surprisingly, against a Division 1-AA team (Furman), a team still trying to make the jump to Division 1-A (Western Kentucky), a 5-7 ACC team (Virginia), and a team that finished 89th in the country in pass defense (Nebraska). Factoring out those four games and looking at the rest of the season, Taylor had a paltry QB rating of 82.0, averaged under five yards per attempt, and didn't throw a single touchdown pass (though he did throw seven interceptions).

And the vertical element of the Hokie passing attack with Taylor in the game is simply non-existent. By my count, only about six of his passes went for more than 20 yards a year ago, and in the rarity that he does hit a deep pass, it's usually ugly and even then not exactly ideal. For example, in their Orange Bowl victory last year against Cincinnati, Taylor hit receiver Danny Coale for a 34-yard completion, but a closer look reveals that Coale had gotten wide open on a post, and a ball that even hits him remotely in stride is a touchdown. Unfortunately, the ball sails wide, Coales has to lay out to make the catch, and the sure touchdown turns into a 1st and 10 at the Cincinnati 14. Unable to pick up a first down from there, the Hokies have to bring on the field goal unit, and with a missed kick a sure touchdown becomes a turnover on downs thanks to an inaccurate, though still completed, pass.

The results, though terrible, shouldn't be the least bit surprising. This time a year ago, Frank Beamer announced that the Hokies were actually going to redshirt Taylor in 2008, so truthfully had the coaching staff had their way Taylor wouldn't have played at all last year. Unfortunately for Tech, though, Sean Glannon was terrible in the opener, and after a surprising loss to East Carolina in Charlotte, the Hokie coaching staff had to reluctantly take the redshirt off Taylor and put him into action.

Of course, as should probably be expected, many Hokie fans are drinking the Kool-Aid talking about the incredible progress Taylor has supposedly made this off-season. In an objective light, though, there's little reason to expect any real, considerable improvement. From the outset, Taylor has never been a particularly accomplished passer, even in high school. Even as the quarterback for Hampton High -- where, again, he was playing on a very high caliber team with a lot of talent surrounding him -- he still only averaged about 125 yards per game as a passer, and barely completed 50% of his passes. Moreover, in terms of physical skill set, Taylor doesn't have a great arm, and is not very accurate to boot, plus he's short for the typical pocket passer. His delivery is a tad bit odd, and he's very inconsistent with his footwork. And his route progression, well, there is no route progression. As a general rule, he looks immediately towards his primary target, and if he's not open he takes off running. Anything might happen, of course, but I see no objective reason to believe that Taylor will take a major step forward this year as a passer. He has never been a particularly good passer before, and truth be told he will probably never be one in the future either. All such Hokie hopes to the contrary are just that, hopes, unsupported by any other objective factual basis.

Unfortunately for the Hokies, the problems are even worse up front with the offensive line. As a group, the offensive line seemingly run blocks well (though that's somewhat up for debate, too), but the pass blocking has been so horrendously atrocious the past couple of years that even an Alabama fan who lived through the Chris Capps / Kyle Tatum era could not understand. Last year the Hokies gave up a whopping 42 sacks on a mere 291 passing attempts for an adjusted sack rate of 14.43%. That literally put them dead last in the country in terms of adjusted sack rate, 119th out of 119 teams. And it wasn't just a one year anomaly, either. The year before -- despite having Duane Brown starting at left tackle, who would be a first round NFL Draft pick the following April -- they gave gave up 54 sacks on 379 passing attempts, for an adjusted sack rate of 14.24%. I'm not positive that was dead last in the country, but for the sake of the all the other quarterbacks in the country, I certainly hope no one struggled to protect the passer more than that. And perhaps not too surprisingly then, offensive line coach Curt Newsome had to undergo a double bypass heart surgery on June 19th. He himself said stress played a role in the near 100% blockage of his arteries, and while he was almost certainly addressing that more towards the high amounts of stress inherent in being a collegiate football coach, I'm sure as hell that having to watch this unit play for two consecutive years did no favors for his health.

Moving forward to the 2009 season, three starters return, but returning starters from a unit that has been consistently that terrible is rarely a good thing. I wouldn't expect it will be for this year's Hokies, either. Ed Wang returns at left tackle, and Blake DeChristopher returns at right tackle, plus Sergio Render returns at guard (though he has swapped guard positions). Those guys look physically okay, but obviously something is not right. Jaymes Brooks, a redshirt sophomore, is taking over at right guard, with an undersized Beau Warren taking over at center. Warren is listed at 288 pounds, and frankly just looking at him that might be a bit of a stretch.

What the Hokie offensive line did well in 2008 was run block, or at least it would seem that way on the surface, even if it's not necessarily true. Darren Evans ran over 1,200 yards a year ago, averaging almost 4.5 yards per carry, and put together a great season. Before really watching the Hokies on film, I thought it was just the typical case of a decent back behind a good, mauling offensive line, but seeing Evans on film I was very impressed with him as a player. He displayed good speed and a good short-yardage bust, but he also had good balance and field vision to boot. Perhaps most impressive of all, he could consistently drive his hips low for a quick change of direction, something quite rare for a back of almost 220 pounds. To put it mildly I became impressed, and he exceeded my expectations.

TE Greg Boone

Which brings us to a pressing question, did he do well because of the Hokie offensive line, or did he do well in spite of the offensive line? In most cases I normally give the credit to the offensive line because their importance to the running game tend to get undervalued a bit, but if you look closer at the splits, the Hokies have a huge drop-off in rushing production when backs not named Darren Evans were given the ball. Kenny Lewis, Jr. and Josh Oglesby combined to get 102 carries for only 325 yards, right at 3.1 yards per carry, a significant step down from the production that Evans posted. On the surface, it seems like there was a very big gap between Evans and the rest of the tailbacks on the roster, and it certainly seems like Evans' torn ACL was indeed a huge injury for the Hokies. Perhaps Frank Beamer was being all too honest when he spoke of the impact that Evans absence would have on the Tech offense.

The rest of the Hokie offense looks to be generally solid, even if not spectacular. The wide receiver corps is nothing overly special, and there are no Julio Jones type players. That said, the group as a whole is a solid one, and several players have the ability to get the job done. Their biggest problem, honestly, more than anything else is that they simply haven't had a quality quarterback to be able to consistently get them the football. Also, one more weapon does exist on the roster, and he's one to keep your eye on, Greg Boone. A truly massive player, Boone is a 6'3 and 280+ pound tight end with good athleticism, and naturally he's as strong as a bull. The Hokies can often use him in a variety of ways, too, including even in the wildcat.

All in all, though, despite Taylor's elite athleticism, plus having a very unique player on the roster in Boone, this Tech offense simply isn't a very good one. Taylor can indeed be deadly with his legs, but aside from that there is just generally very little to fear. Taylor has the track record of a terrible passer, and the offensive line probably couldn't pass block competently if their lives literally depended on it. The running game would be pretty strong with Darren Evans, but he's not going to be playing this year, and if the track record from a year ago holds up, they may very well be struggling to run the ball this year. Not much else needs to be said... you finish at the bottom of nearly every statistical offensive category for a reason.

The Alabama Defense

Nick Saban brought with him to Tuscaloosa a reputation as a builder of big, physical defenses built on speed and aggression, and just over two years since he arrived, Saban is well on his way to building exactly that kind of monster. The roster that he inherited in January of 2007, built for Joe Kines 3-3-5 scheme, was nowhere near the type and / or caliber of personnel Saban needed to operate his 3-4 scheme at a high level, but thankfully a renewed focus on the S&C program and a recruiting juggernaut have allowed Saban to quickly construct his defense.

The Nick Saban 3-4 scheme is, for all of us 'Bama fans, are pretty well known commodity at this point. In many ways it's a typical 3-4 scheme, one that relies heavily on zone blitzes and the inherent lack of unpredictability built into the scheme. The 3-4 is a highly flexible scheme, and Nick Saban takes full advantage of that by constantly changing his fronts, cover schemes, and blitz packages. Making things even better, Saban's specialty of coaching defensive backs generally makes his unique version of the 3-4 that much more effective once it actually takes the field.

After experiencing some struggles at times in his debut 2007, the defense quickly came together for the 2008 season. Saban found the space eater he needed to play the nose in Terrence Cody, Rolando McClain carried his game to the next level, Dont'a Hightower made a huge impact as a freshman, and several other players improved as well. The impact of it all quickly became evident. The Tide run defense was nearly impossible to run on with a healthy Terrence Cody in the lineup, and very stout against the run even when he was out with less than 100% with his knee injury. The pass rush never materialized, but even so the Tide led the SEC in pass efficiency defense, and allowed a stingy average of 5.8 yards per passing attempt.

Moving into the 2009 season, things continue to be on the rise in Tuscaloosa. Eight starters return from the 2008 defense, and quality depth has increased dramatically everywhere. As of this writing, we legitimately have somewhere around 25 players who can legitimately be contributors to this defense. With little doubt, if we can stay even remotely healthy, this should be the most productive defense we've had in years.

The Alabama Defense: A Critical Look

At the risk of being deemed a homer, I must nevertheless objectively say that when taking a critical look at this defense, there are really just very, very few flaws to even legitimately address. Bottom line, it's a very well coached defense, and one that is loaded with not only experience and top-end talent, but quality depth throughout the roster at almost every single position. If you were looking for an ideal defensive unit, you'd be hard-pressed to find one much more attractive than this one.

In the short-term, the biggest problem the Tide has is overcoming the likely loss of Brandon Deaderick, who was tragically shot outside his apartment Monday night in Tuscaloosa. Fortunately for Deaderick and the Tide, the shooting effectively went as well as it reasonably could have -- just puncture wounds in the arm and hip; no damage to bones, arteries, or nerves, no surgery required, and released from the hospital approximately 16 hours later -- but even so I imagine he's unlikely to play against the Hokies. Deaderick was going to start in 2009, just like he did last year, at defensive end, and his loss is not what anyone hoped to see. Fortunately, if there was any year to have this sort of a tragedy, it was this year. His back-up, Luther Davis, is good enough to start for about any other SEC team, and he should transition into the starting role without any real trouble, if needed, but don't discount the possibility of Marcel Dareus -- who normally backs up Lorenzo Washington at the end-tackle combo position -- moving over and starting in Deaderick's absence. Dareus has the best long-term upside of any defensive lineman we have, and he is likely the #3 defensive end on the pecking order, regardless of position, so he may very well move over to the natural end position. Either way, as much as Saban and company rotate the defensive linemen, Davis and Dareus were going to see a lot of meaningful playing time regardless, so this won't be a major transition for either one. Darrington Sentimore now has a much better chance of playing as a true freshman, and Damien Square will likely be moved back from Jack linebacker, and both should provide quality reps at the position as well. Time will tell, but rationally speaking it seems we should be able to pick things up in Deaderick's absence with no major drop-off in production.

LB Eryk Anders

Aside from the Deaderick shooting, the Tide defense has remarkably few concerns. Pass rushing was a major problem a year ago, but even so we still played very effective pass defense, and things look improved this year. The linebacker corps is more athletic than a year ago, we're getting our best edge rusher (Eryk Anders) on the field more often, and Sal Sunseri has brought with him a renewed focus on pass rushing techniques. Thus, our pass rushing attack ought to improve this year, and frankly even if it doesn't, we showed last year that an inability to rush the passer was not fatal to the success of our overall pass defense.

Our biggest weakness, of course, assuming that we continue to be unable to rush the passer with any degree of consistency, is probably against spread teams with accurate quarterbacks who can consistently spread the field with quality receivers to boot. But again that may be a problem we fix anyway in 2009, and even if not, the Hokies don't have anywhere near the pieces in place to power such an attack. Yes they do spread things out occasionally, but it's to maximize Taylor's running ability, not to emphasize the passing game. Taylor isn't a very accurate quarterback, Tech might not have the receivers in place to do it effectively, and even if they did the offensive line probably wouldn't be able to hold up regardless, so even that is a moot concern in this particular game.

Aside from that, the rest of the concerns are really more nit-picking and the luxuries of riches than anything else. Many 'Bama fans would probably still complain about Marquis Johnson, but what is that really? At worse, it's a complaint that we only have a serviceable SEC level player (and a senior to boot) as our nickel corner, and a player that at any rate who will see his playing time getting major challenges from two five-star recruits currently on the roster. Geez... how will we ever manage to get by? Again, it's basically nit-picking from that point on.

The truth of the matter is that unless 'Bama gets unexpectedly hit very hard by a run of injuries, there is absolutely no reason to expect that the Tide won't field a great defense in 2009.

What To Look For

In the aggregate, this looks to be an good match-up for those who bleed crimson. The Hokies do not have a very good offense, and the Alabama defense should at the least be in the discussion with regard to who has the top defense in the country. It doesn't take any real, in-depth analysis to figure out that when two units of those respective abilities collide, it's likely to result in the offense scoring very few points and the defense dominating the day. When factoring out defensive and special teams scores, the Hokies offense only averaged 19 points per game last year, and it would probably be a surprise to see them score that many against what should be a very stingy Alabama defense. And making matters worse for the Tech offense is that the one true weakness of the Tide defense -- which, it should be said, is something that might not even be a weakness this year at all -- is something that the Hokies do not have the right personnel in place to exploit.

The Virginia Tech running game, in particular, seems to be in for a long night. With Darren Evans out for the year, it's a running game of arguably questionable quality to begin with, and going up against the Tide's incredibly stout run defense is a tough task for even a team with a strong rushing attack in their own right. The Hokies might try to run the football inside a good bit on the Tide -- then again, if Beamer and company think it's futile, they'll probably move away from it pretty quickly -- but it's highly unlikely that it will yield any real success. Beau Warren, at least 60 pounds lighter than Terrence Cody, will need help with the gargantuan nose guard, so Cody should command double teams every single time the Hokies plan to run inside. That alone plays right into our hands. Moreover, even without Brandon Deaderick, our deep rotation of big, strong, and physical defensive ends -- Lorenzo Washington, Luther Davis, Marcel Dareus, Damien Square, and others -- will be able to hold their own at the point of attack throughout the course of the game. That alone will eat up the bulk of the Hokies' blocking unit, and it will largely allow a great linebacker corps to roam free all night long, looking to make plays, and the same goes for two good run defenders at safety in Justin Woodall and Mark Barron. Making the match-up even more advantageous for the Tide is the Hokies' complete lack of a vertical threat in the passing game, which will allow the Tide to stack the box when needed. Bottom line, if the Hokies can have any considerable degree of success in the running game, it will come as a legitimate surprise to any objective observer.

The Hokie passing game looks to fare little, if any, better. The Tech passing game will likely be one of the worst in the country yet again, and the Tide pass defense will likely be one of the best. Again, do the figurative math. Taylor is a below average passer, and while the Virginia Tech wide receiver corps is a solid group filled with more than a few quality targets, they likely aren't as good or as experienced as their counterparts in the Alabama defensive backfield. All in all, it's simply a match-up that heavily favors the Tide.

All of the aforementioned, though, is pretty basic stuff. No real analysis is needed to discover that a very good defense is likely to shut down a bad offense. The real strategy in this game will be how the Tide chooses to defend Tyrod Taylor and his abilities as an elite runner.

Many would advocate playing man coverage on the receivers and trying to rush Taylor with all you have. Given how much Nick Saban loves to give different looks from his 3-4 defensive scheme, I'm sure we will do that a few times, but as a general strategy it's probably not as ideal as many would initially think. To begin with, from the outset, bringing a lot of pressure on Taylor isn't necessarily a good strategy. Taylor is unbelievably elusive, and if you bring a lot of rushers and he slips out of it -- which I can guarantee you he will do on more than one occasion -- you have very few defenders left downfield, and he's going to turn it into a very big play. Don't misinterpret what I'm saying... getting pressure on Taylor is a good thing, but having to bring a lot of defenders on blitzes in order to generate it quickly becomes a very risky strategy with a runner like Taylor that can get you burned. Furthermore, consistently playing man coverage against the Hokie wide receivers fails to exploit one of Taylor's biggest weaknesses as a quarterback, which is reading defenses. If you predictably play man on the outside, Taylor's almost complete inability to read a defense completely goes away because he can correctly assume the overwhelming majority of the time that he will be throwing against man coverage.

Spying Taylor is also an attractive option to many, but again it's probably not ideal as a general strategy. Putting a spy on a mobile quarterback is generally a good strategy, but that generality only holds up well against quarterbacks who have good mobility, not great mobility. Trying to spy such an elite athlete like Taylor is a fundamentally difficult task because you really don't have an equal caliber athlete to put on him. To be sure, we have some guys with Taylor's athleticism, but they are playing corner, and it's very difficult to spy with a corner. Corners are forced to line up so far away from the quarterback (and that goes even for the nickel corner) that the spy himself can effectively be eliminated by the offensive coordinator just sending the play in the opposite direction. What you need in order to have an effective spy is someone who is going to be able to consistently line up relatively close to the quarterback -- without giving away his responsibilities with his pre-snap alignment -- someone like a safety or a linebacker. But, again, who do we have at safety or linebacker that can legitimately go toe-to-toe with Taylor in the open field? Arguably no one. Jerrell Harris, Mark Barron, and Robby Green would probably be our best candidates, but even they would likely face a speed and agility deficit to Taylor. Again, it's an attractive option to many as an initial matter, but a closer look reveals such a strategy can be problematic when dealing with a truly elite athlete like Taylor.

A better strategy, and one I expect we will probably be using frequently, is to employ a wide variety of zone and rush packages. Playing a wide variety of heavy zones against Taylor is an ideal option because it great limits his ability to run with the football, which in truth is when he is at his most dangerous. At the end of the day, what we really want is for Taylor to throw the football, and even Rolando McClain explicitly said yesterday that the assignment of the defense is to contain Taylor and make him throw the football. Playing a heavy zone helps accomplish that because it largely removes the possibility of a big run, and also helps to ensure that when Taylor does take off to run, he'll quickly be met with a host of defenders arriving with bad intentions, both of which are incentives for him to stay in the pocket and throw the football. Furthermore, by constantly mixing up zone blitz packages, we can more effectively exploit Taylor's inability to read defenses. Also, it should be kept in mind that with Tech's complete lack of a vertical threat in the passing game, and it's reliance on short, dink and dunk throws, we can play heavy zones that almost solely attack the short and intermediate routes, thus creating some very narrow windows for Taylor to throw the football into, which can easily lead to a slew of incomplete passes and a chance at interceptions. Truth be told, we could probably play Cover Zero most of the night and still not give up a big passing play, and that alone provides us with a competitive edge over the Hokie offense.

Now, to be sure, I do imagine we will see some spying on Taylor, and I also imagine we'll see some heavy blitzes. The base defense, I think, will frequently use the heavy zones that I described earlier, but Nick Saban likes his defenses to be multiple in their approach and inherently unpredictable. That alone will ensure that Taylor sees a little bit of everything come Saturday night. Either way, in terms of individual assignments and responsibilities, three words must be effectively tattooed into the foreheads of every Alabama defender... contain, contain, contain. Keep Taylor in the pocket, limit his big runs, and make him beat you throwing the football. If you can consistently do that, you've won the battle.

On the other side, the Virginia Tech offense will probably have a few things up their sleeve, and they might not operate exactly how we think. Even though they haven't been a very good offense, the Hokies are a well-coached football team, and they are perhaps a bit more imaginative than you would at first think. If we really can shut down their interior running game with no problem, this isn't a staff dumb enough to keep futility running it straight into the line. They will mix things up and try something else, probably with Taylor operating almost solely from the shotgun. Moreover, again, they have used Boone in the Wildcat in the past (even with him throwing a pass once), and have at times lined Taylor up out wide and brought him down on jet sweeps. And, of course, with a mobile guy like Taylor, a bit of the option game is never out of the question. One way or the other, If things aren't going well, don't expect this coaching staff to just lay down and take it, they'll probably try a few things outside the box in an attempt to muster some offensive production.

That notwithstanding, though, it nevertheless looks to be a very tough night for the Hokie offense. For all of Taylor's dynamic athleticism and Boone's unique physical skill set, this is still a poor offense, and one that struggles to move the ball effectively. They have no real big play ability aside from Taylor's runs, and they cannot muster the kind of consistent production needed to methodically march the football down the field to put points on the board. Rest assured Taylor will make some big, incredibly frustrating plays -- at least frustrating for the 'Bama fans -- he's just too good an athlete not to. Likewise, Boone could be a tough match-up, and a few more guys in the Hokie rotation can get the job done. That will result in some good things happening, but again it's hard to see this unit having the consistent success needed to put any considerable number of points on the board. By all objective measures, this is a bad offense going up against a potentially great defense, and the strength of the Crimson Tide defense should dominate the night.

Wrapping Up Fall Camp

outsidethesidelines — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:44:51 -0000

With the start of Fall semester at The University of Alabama, Fall camp finally came to a close for the Crimson Tide. The grueling two-a-day sessions are now over with, and with a return to the classroom, life for the football players returns to essentially the "normal" in-season daily grind of early morning workouts, followed by classes all day, and evening practices almost to dusk. The Tide will scrimmage once again tomorrow, once again the following week, and after the completion of the final scrimmage, all eyes will officially turn to the season opener against Virginia Tech. Believe it or not, kick-off in Atlanta is a mere fifteen days away. Before we focus in on tomorrow's scrimmage, however, let's do a final wrap on Fall camp.

On the positive side of things, the most surprising thing to me about Fall camp was Nick Saban's particularly positive demeanor. Yes he did complain about a lack of effort in a couple of practices, and he did go nuts on a reporter a time or two, but all in all when Saban spoke of his team as a whole, as well as with regard to individual players, he was much more positive and optimistic than I've ever seen him. Part of this should be expected considering the team as a whole is still improving over what we were when he arrived, but nevertheless the reviews given by the ol' Nicktator seemed to be particularly glowing. He consistently talked about how many players were doing very well, and how talented they were, etc. If nothing else, it's hard for me or any other observer to overly complain about this team considering how highly Saban has spoken about them to date. It goes without saying that Saban himself is notoriously a harsh critic, so to please him requires a player (and a team) to meet a particularly demanding standard.

On a more somber tone, Injuries, of course, are everyone's major concern during this period, as nothing is ever more disheartening that losing a player for any extended period of time when we are, frankly, just playing with ourselves. Unfortunately, as Lombardi said, football is a collision sport and injuries are not a possibility but a certainty. To that end, Jeramie Griffin went down for the year with a torn ACL, and his loss is an unfortunate one because he is a very talented player. Fortunately, aside from Griffin's knee injury, the rest of the Tide remained quite healthy throughout the course of camp. There were some nagging injuries, but nothing major, and nothing expected to keep anyone out for an extended period of time.

At the quarterback position, Greg McElroy is clearly the starting quarterback, but the back-up job is still very much up in the air. In the first scrimmage last Saturday, all three candidates vying for the back-up job received approximately the same number of reps, and there is little separation. If I had to wager right now, a decision has not been made, and likely will not be made until after the third scrimmage. With no disrespect intended to Thomas Darrah, the battle is likely between A.J. McCarron and Star Jackson, but in all fairness it would be no major shock to see Darrah win the back-up job. On way or the other, though, performance in the coming eight days will decide who is the back-up, and to date all Fall camp has done is to underscore the uncertainty that we have with regard to who is actually going to win the back-up job.

The tailback position is likely just as much of an uncertainty. Clearly Mark Ingram is the starter, but from there it's hard to figure. Roy Upchurch will see a lot of playing time in some capacity, but even if he can stay healthy all year (something that he has never done before), there will still be a lot of carries to go around to another back, and to that end both Trent Richardson and Eddie Lacy have had very impressive showings to date in Fall camp. Moreover, Saban has even said that Terry Grant has also done well, so perhaps he can find a niche role here as well. One way or the other, it's just really hard to say how things will shake out from here. Ingram will start and Upchurch will play a lot, but aside from that we have a great deal of uncertainty. Both Richardson and Lacy look excellent, but one of those likely will (and probably should) get a redshirt this year, and right now we simply do not know how that will play out. They are two very similar players in terms of physical skill sets, and they have both impressed. It could go either way, and again Grant remains a bit of an x-factor. Much like with the quarterback position, once we get past the starter at tailback, we really do not know how things will play out from there.

The offensive line looks to be relatively set. There is no doubt that James Carpenter has locked up the left tackle job, and likewise there is no doubt that Mike Johnson will start at left guard. William Vlachos was thought to be in a position battle coming into Fall camp, but if all indications we have are even remotely true, he has won that battle and is now effectively the unquestioned starting center moving on to Virginia Tech. Furthermore, Drew Davis seemingly has the right tackle job locked up, and those four linemen seem to be pretty much set in stone. D.J. Fluker has looked solid thus far, but he still needs some refinement, and barring a late surge, he may very well be looking at a redshirt season. At the very least, a starting job does not seem likely for him early in the season.With others who were expected to compete for a starting job, like David Ross, they seemingly have not been able to make much progress one way or the other towards a starting job. That may be bad news for them, but in all honesty it's probably a good sign for the Tide. Our back-up line now consists of the likes of John Michael Boswell, David Ross, D.J. Fluker, Tyler Love,and others, and frankly the second string figures to be better than any we've had in Tuscaloosa in ages.

The big opening on the offensive line has been at right guard, where Alfred McCullough spent most of the early part of Fall running with the first unit, and where Barrett Jones has spent the latter part of Fall running with the first unit. As of right now, most expect that Jones will win the starting job, but I'll be brutally honest... all of this has came as a major surprise to me. Coming into the Fall, it was thought to be a three-way battle for the starting job between Chance Warmack, Bryan Motley, and John Michael Boswell, with the possibility of David Ross joining the fray if he moved back from center. McCullough wasn't even in the picture, and neither was Jones. In fact, I specifically wrote that I felt that Jones was still a year away from making a major contribution. I really have no idea as to what to make of this development, and I'm not even going to feign for one second that I do. For better or for worse, the starting line going to Atlanta will seemingly be (going left to right): James Carpenter, Mike Johnson, William Vlachos, Barrett Jones, and Drew Davis. That seems to be the starting five that we will sink or swim with.

The wide receiver position has underdone a massive overhaul in the past year, and the quality depth at the position is really starting to show off. Julio Jones will be the cornerstone of the corps, of course, but Marquis Maze, Darius Hanks, Earl Alexander, and Mike McCoy are all seemingly progressing very well in their own right, and the incoming group of true freshmen have been very impressive as well. This Fall, I think, has shown us that Chris Jackson probably had good reason for transferring... it's going to be very hard for anyone to crack this group and get some legitimate meaningful playing time in the near future.

Of the true freshman at wide receiver, seemingly the most likely to earn playing time at this point is Kevin Norwood. The Mississippi native has had a very productive Fall camp, and Saban himself even explicitly said after the first scrimmage that he was the most consistent of the true freshmen receivers. Moreover, in the media session shortly thereafter, Norwood was spotted working with the first unit at wide receiver, something that we have not seen out of any of the other three true freshman wide receivers, Kendall Kelly, Michael Bowman, and Kenny Bell. Now, to be sure, both Kelly and Bowman have impressed to date, and both are physically ready to play at the college level, but at some point a redshirt becomes an increasingly attractive option. In other words, those guys may play, but unless you figure that they can do enough to play a significant number of snaps, a redshirt is probably the better route to go. For now, Norwood seems to be the only true freshman wide receiver almost guaranteed to play from the start.

And speaking of Kenny Bell, expect him to redshirt. Saban recently said that he was suffering from shin splints and that he was going to be in a boot for about a week. That injury is particularly difficult for a guy like Bell who relies so heavily on his raw speed. Shin splints usually just need a lot of time off to heal, and I imagine that is what the doctor will order for Bell. Combine that with the inherent difficulty in cracking the line-up with the quality of this receiver corps, not to mention the unanimous opinion that Bell needs to add some weight in the S&C program, and I think you can almost be entirely certain at this point that Bell will redshirt.

The defensive line just continues to get better and better, and depth is just continuing to grow even further. The starting front three boasts three high-end players, and the back-ups at the end positions really do not consitute any real drop-off. Marcel Dareus and Luther Davis are probably the two best back-up defensive ends in the conference, and those two would probably be starting on at least half of the other SEC teams. Furthermore, the rest of the rotation has filled out as well. Damien Square continues to impress, and incoming true freshman Chris Bonds has finally gotten healthy (big news for someone with his raw ability). Darrington Sentimore has already drawn rave reviews from the upperclassmen, and Brandon Moore looks good as well. Furthermore, Kerry Murphy -- despite the setbacks stemming from the recent tragic murder of his brother -- has done a great job in the past year in the S&C program, and a role can be found for him somewhere. The truth of the matter is that this line looks incredibly good. Even with it being only a base three-man front, we nevertheless still have around ten different high-quality players that we can rotate in and out at will.

Despite talk of Dont'a Hightower moving to Jack linebacker, that does not look to be coming to fruition. He will be moving outside in passing situations, no doubt there, but his base alignment will nevertheless come inside at the Will position, where he will once again be starting alongside Mike linebacker Rolando McClain. Chris Jordan has continued his development this Fall, and with the addition of Nico Johnson at inside linebacker -- not to mention the possible contributions at the position from Tana Patrick and Jerrell Harris -- we have a deep rotation at the inside 'backer position.

With Hightower staying inside, that essentially creates a battle between Courtney Upshaw and Eryk Anders for the starting job at Jack linebacker. Without doubt, Anders is clearly the team's best pass rusher off the edge, and he is going to play a lot this year regardless. However, the smart money is probably on Upshaw being the starter and more of the every-down player. For all of his edge rushing abilities, Anders is definitely on the small side, and Upshaw likely presents a better option on running downs. And, of course, it should go without saying that Upshaw is a talented pass rusher in his own right. I doubt it matters a whole lot one way or the other considering that both are going to see a lot of playing time regardless, but from the looks of things, the smart money is probably on Upshaw being the starting Jack linebacker for the bulk of the season.

The Sam linebacker position, however, has been pretty quiet all throughout camp. Cory Reamer returns and he can certainly play the position, but honestly with guys like Nico Johnson and the continued development of Jerrell Harris, we have better athletes who can play the position right now. Reamer is a smart, hard-working kid who is going to get a good deal of playing time regardless, but I expected to hear more out of this position. Chavis Williams is likely facing a now-or-never situation, and the aforementioned Harris looked like the prototype player for the position this Spring. Again, I think Reamer will play a lot regardless, but I wouldn't be surprised to see his playing time get chipped away at somewhat throughout the course of the season.

The defensive backfield has largely remained the same, particularly with the corners. Kareem Jackson and Javier Arenas look to start yet again, and Marquis Johnson also looks likely to continue being the most underrated player on the team, as he continues to generally give solid play despite vast outcries from fans completely shocked that Saban hasn't forced him to transfer to the Institute of the Blind, Deaf, and Disabled. All three of those players are upperclassmen with a plethora of experience, and they will see lots of quality playing time this year, no doubt about it. However, do expect Dre Kirkpatrick to make a contribution immediately. The consensus opinion is that Kirkpatrick has, without doubt, had the most impressive Fall camp to date of any true freshman, and he's going to play a lot this season. I look at it this way: right now we have five good, quality cornerbacks on this roster... Kareem Jackson, Javier Arenas, Marquis Johnson, Dre Kirkpatrick, and Burton Scott. When was the last time we could legitimately say that?

The safety position also looks to be quite settled, as Coach Saban explicitly came out and said recently that we effectively have three starters at safety: Justin Woodall, Robby Green, and Mark Barron. Woodall will play the strong safety role, whereas Green and Barron will play free. And, frankly, based on what we have seen lately, I think that Barron will probably get the start over Green against Virginia Tech and for most of the year as well. Though Barron is a great athlete in his own right, his tendencies are likely suited slightly more to the run, while Green would specialize slightly more against the pass. Both will see a ton of meaningful playing time either way, but the smart money is Barron being in the game more in running situations, with Green playing more in obvious passing situations. Now, with that basic insight, do the math... Virginia Tech was a horrendous passing team last year, and probably won't be very good in that regard this year either. And most of the other teams on the schedule are likely not going to have great quarterback play either, and will also look to establish the run. I think that probably leads to Barron starting most of the time, and getting slightly more playing time than Green.

All in all, when looking back on Fall Camp '09, it's hard to complain too much about the things going on in Tuscaloosa. We probably have more raw talent on the field than we've had since 1992, and quality depth is emerging almost everywhere. The incoming true freshman class looks incredibly talented, and even Coach Saban is pleased. No one knows exactly what the 2009 season will bring, and make no mistake about it, success is still by no means guaranteed. Nevertheless, with Fall camp now in the rear view mirror, things have seemingly gone as well as we could have reasonably expected.