| GAME THREAD 2018-'19 National Title game: Alabama versus Clemson

[EasyTider]

I’m concerned about our defense. We seem thin on D line and the loss of Miller is big. Did Buggs look healthy to the rest of you? Davis played pretty well sans the unsportsmanlike penalty...DUMB! Williams was a load and took up 2 blockers most of the night but got gassed and looked to be banged up towards the end. Didn’t notice Ray doing much? Moses had solid game but again didn’t think Wilson was too impressive. Savion had a decent game and safeties played well other than the long pass where Thompson let receiver blow by. Great throw though. Surtain certainly wasn’t himself. Hopefully that was an anomaly and he is on lockdown come Monday. It’s been a while since he’s been targeted so perhaps he had gotten complacent with very few throws having come his way over last several weeks?

I’m pretty confident we can stop the running game of Klempsin as Notre Dame did for a while until their will was broken having to play so many plays thanks to their pitiful offensive performance. We must pressure Sunshine. He can carve up a secondary given time and that arm. 8 is a problem and I don’t even want to think about our past struggles covering 7th year senior Renfrow.

This game will be up to our offense to score points and sustain drives/run da bawl! Waddle was awfully quiet last night and needs a big game Monday. Hopefully defense can dig deep for 1 more game but the tank seems to be near empty.

Thoughts?

 

[planomateo]

 

[50+yeartidefan]

Clemson is deepand talented....
Be tough running on them
Hope the humidity didnt take a lot out of players to be gassed in 4th quarter...vs Clemson

 

[AirForceBamaFan]

I’m concerned about our defense. We seem thin on D line and the loss of Miller is big. Did Buggs look healthy to the rest of you? Davis played pretty well sans the unsportsmanlike penalty...DUMB! Williams was a load and took up 2 blockers most of the night but got gassed and looked to be banged up towards the end. Didn’t notice Ray doing much? Moses had solid game but again didn’t think Wilson was too impressive. Savion had a decent game and safeties played well other than the long pass where Thompson let receiver blow by. Great throw though. Surtain certainly wasn’t himself. Hopefully that was an anomaly and he is on lockdown come Monday. It’s been a while since he’s been targeted so perhaps he had gotten complacent with very few throws having come his way over last several weeks?

I’m pretty confident we can stop the running game of Klempsin as Notre Dame did for a while until their will was broken having to play so many plays thanks to their pitiful offensive performance. We must pressure Sunshine. He can carve up a secondary given time and that arm. 8 is a problem and I don’t even want to think about our past struggles covering 7th year senior Renfrow.

This game will be up to our offense to score points and sustain drives/run da bawl! Waddle was awfully quiet last night and needs a big game Monday. Hopefully defense can dig deep for 1 more game but the tank seems to be near empty.

Thoughts?

I think the D being gassed had a lot to do with 85% humidity and chasing Kyler Murray. Say what you want, but that dude is a freak athlete. He’s a mostly accurate passer too. Sunshine isn’t nearly that fast and I don’t think Clemson has a better O-Line than OK. I think we match up much better against Clemson than OK on that front. I’m honestly more concerned with our Offense against that Clemson front 7. They also have a much better secondary than OK. We have to eliminate the boneheaded mistakes or we lose this game. Should be another good matchup though. I believe the line is Bama -6 unless it has changed since last night.

 

[#80]

Bama installed as 6-point favorite over Clemson

 

[Bama Guy]

I think our dept on D is not up to our usual standards, same with LB play.

 

[Sgt. Lincoln Osiris]

Somebody's gonna make some MONEY on the - 6.5 line.

We win this one going away about midway thru the 3rd.

We'll get into their frosh QB's head early and often, and he'll have the yips after that. He'll still make a few plays, but our pass rush will be too much for his psyche to overcome.

 

[mando]

We win this one going away about midway thru the 3rd.

That limb you climbed out on didn't break in the Bama vs OU game lol?

You did look like a genius after the first quarter The lead did stay between 11 and 18 points most of the game so maybe you are Nostradamus.

 

[AirForceBamaFan]

Somebody's gonna make some MONEY on the - 6.5 line.

We win this one going away about midway thru the 3rd.

We'll get into their frosh QB's head early and often, and he'll have the yips after that. He'll still make a few plays, but our pass rush will be too much for his psyche to overcome.

Aside from Q...who is going to rush? If Miller is out...where do we get the outside rush? Jennings? Maybe...but they will help on that side unless we can figure out another rusher...

 

[Sgt. Lincoln Osiris]

We win this one going away about midway thru the 3rd.

That limb you climbed out on didn't break in the Bama vs OU game lol?

You did look like a genius after the first quarter The lead did stay between 11 and 18 points most of the game so maybe you are Nostradamus.

I said at the beginng that OU would be lucky to break 30 when everyone was saying we'd need 45-50 to win.

The only reason we DIDN'T win by 3+ scores like my earlier prediction is because we took our foot off their throats offensively. Saban sorta called off the dogs until OU tried to make it a game again..

 

[94 Grad]

Clemson Offense not as good or as dangerous as Oky... Oky scores 34 on us, but we gave them at least 14 on mistakes allowing drives to continue.

Clemson scores less... maybe 21-24 points.

Clemson Defense most definitely better than Oky. We scored 45 taking knee at end of game.. so really 52. If we’re just half as effective we score 26-30 points.

My best guess... Bama 34 - Clemson 24; but I think we could score over 40 and hold them under 20 If we clean up mistakes.

 

[94 Grad]

The only reason we DIDN'T win by 3+ scores like my earlier prediction is because we took our foot off their throats offensively. Saban sorta called off the dogs until OU tried to make it a game again..

How do you figure that?

In the 1st half we had two drives we didn’t score a TD... one was a FG one was a punt.

In the 2nd half we had two drives we did not score a TD. One was a Punt, the other was taking a knee at end of game.

So where was the foot taken off the gas?

I might also add the FG and 2nd punt were more a matter of offensive mistakes than taking foot off gas. The first punt was a total lapse in a lot of area... starting with fair catch call on kick off and “lazy” execution for 3 plays and out.

We didn’t win by 3 or more scores because #1 our Defense didn’t make a stop in the 2nd half and #2 we took a knee at the goal line to end the game.

 

[mando]

The only reason we DIDN'T win by 3+ scores like my earlier prediction is because we took our foot off their throats offensively. Saban sorta called off the dogs until OU tried to make it a game again..

How do you figure that?

In the 1st half we had two drives we didn’t score a TD... one was a FG one was a punt.

In the 2nd half we had two drives we did not score a TD. One was a Punt, the other was taking a knee at end of game.

So where was the foot taken off the gas?

I do not think Saban called off the dogs. I think OU made adjustments on offense because they are really good on that side of the ball and you were not going to hold them down then entire game. We also shot ourselves in the foot on offense when we did have to punt or kick a field goal.

I also do not think our Defense has the depth that would allow them to maintain the level of energy they played with in the first quarter so it was inevitable OU would put some points on the board.

 

[Sgt. Lincoln Osiris]

The only reason we DIDN'T win by 3+ scores like my earlier prediction is because we took our foot off their throats offensively. Saban sorta called off the dogs until OU tried to make it a game again..

How do you figure that?

In the 1st half we had two drives we didn’t score a TD... one was a FG one was a punt.

In the 2nd half we had two drives we did not score a TD. One was a Punt, the other was taking a knee at end of game.

So where was the foot taken off the gas?

I might also add the FG and 2nd punt were more a matter of offensive mistakes than taking foot off gas. The first punt was a total lapse in a lot of area... starting with fair catch call on kick off and “lazy” execution for 3 plays and out.

We could've gone up 5 or 6 scores before trying to take the air out late in the 2nd quarter and into the 2nd half. We switched to about a 70/30 run/pass ratio for a few drives.

We could've named our own score.

We started playing not to lose.

How much more demoralizing for OU would it have been had we gone up 35-10 in 2nd quarter or 42-10 in the 3rd quarter? That would have changed their whole mentality.

 

[94 Grad]

The only reason we DIDN'T win by 3+ scores like my earlier prediction is because we took our foot off their throats offensively. Saban sorta called off the dogs until OU tried to make it a game again..

How do you figure that?

In the 1st half we had two drives we didn’t score a TD... one was a FG one was a punt.

In the 2nd half we had two drives we did not score a TD. One was a Punt, the other was taking a knee at end of game.

So where was the foot taken off the gas?

I do not think Saban called off the dogs. I think OU made adjustments on offense because they are really good on that side of the ball and you were not going to hold them down then entire game. We also shot ourselves in the foot on offense when we did have to punt or kick a field goal.

I also do not think our Defense has the depth that would allow them to maintain the level of energy they played with in the first quarter so it was inevitable OU would put some points on the board.

But that’s not what you originally said... you said we took our foot off their throat OFFENSIVELY. Which we did not do. If anything it was more conservative defensive calls to keep plays in front of us that allowed them to stay in the game. We took less risk defensively late in the 3rd and 4th quarters... understandably so...

 

[rick4bama]

Said last night on the SEC that this could go down by mid week?

 

[94 Grad]

How much more demoralizing for OU would it have been had we gone up 35-10 in 2nd quarter or 42-10 in the 3rd quarter? That would have changed their whole mentality.

Or how much more energizing for them if they had the opportunity to bookend the half with TDs?

Let remember, we took nearly 7 minutes off the clock going into the half and Saban was going for it on 4th down and only kicked a FG because of penalties on oline. That’s not taking the air out... that’s just plain smart and understanding who you’re playing against.

Again, our FG and 2nd punt were more to to player mental mistakes than play calling.

The 1st punt was a combo of thing, but really just poor execution and “cuteness” on play calling.

In reality we left a total of 18 points on the field. 2 punts and a FG. If we execute like that vs Clemson we’ll destroy them...

Let’s also remember we took a knee at the goal line to end the game. They only netted +3 on us in the 2nd half. With a 3 TD lead, the coaching staff did the correct thing in using clock to score TDs and limiting the number of possession in the 2nd half.

 

[rick4bama]

I would be worry about the Big 10 crew. Just look what two SEC teams has done to Purd. and Mich.

 

[JoseyWalesTheOutlaw]

Bama 28 Fighting Dabo's 24

 

[Sgt. Lincoln Osiris]