| FTBL A bit of a dilema

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imported_porkchop

Does anyone else feel like we have a bit of a dilema here when it comes to the 2-minute offense?

I guess what I mean is, we seem to be performing very very well in the 2-minute set. So well, that I wouldn't mind seeing us use it during the game more often. Sorta like a no-huddle attack.

The problem lies in the defense and our lack of depth. Although the hurry up offense has been very effective thus far we're in a bind because running it tends to put our already worn out defense back on the field quicker.

Stinks because we've moved it well in the hurry up. :( Maybe we will be seeing a little more of it from time to time in non 2-minute drill situations.

Any thoughts?
 
I would love to see a no huddle shotgun offense. Run a lot of delay gives and draw plays too. The shotgun also has the tendancy to open up a lot of quarterback around the outside plays. AU had a play like that when Stan White was there and punished a lot of teams in the red zone with it. Also, I remember that little draw that Spurrier kept running on us in the 92 SEC championship game and it drove me crazy. I could see our guys gaining a lot of yards using it.
 
You almost read my mind Chop! I was at my friend's wedding reception on Sat. watching the LSWho game and I told someone that I believe the only thing that I thought could give LSWho's defense fits is the no huddle offense. Just think about it for a second. :idea:
 
I'm right there with you chop. I think that it would be good to mix in more of a no huddle, especially early on. Set the game tempo in the beginning, while our defense is still fresh and catch their defense off guard. We could slow things down later on to help rest the D and to mix things up. For some reason JPW just seems more at ease in hurry up mode.
 
rammajamma said:
I would love to see a no huddle shotgun offense. Run a lot of delay gives and draw plays too. The shotgun also has the tendancy to open up a lot of quarterback around the outside plays. AU had a play like that when Stan White was there and punished a lot of teams in the red zone with it. Also, I remember that little draw that Spurrier kept running on us in the 92 SEC championship game and it drove me crazy. I could see our guys gaining a lot of yards using it.

Grant could really go nuts on Fran's smoke draw, and the quick pitch that they used to run for Hudson.
 
Wiseace615 said:
I'm right there with you chop. I think that it would be good to mix in more of a no huddle, especially early on. Set the game tempo in the beginning, while our defense is still fresh and catch their defense off guard. We could slow things down later on to help rest the D and to mix things up. For some reason JPW just seems more at ease in hurry up mode.

The no huddle approach has been used to see if they could get JPW into a rhythm. It didn't work Saturday.

There is a catch-22 here as well. If we did go to the no huddle type approach, we are creating another set of problems leaving our defense on the field more than with the approach we are using now.

'chop mentions depth in the original post and there is some truth to that. That being said, a lot of the problems we had Saturday were due to mistakes, no necessarily depth. Defensive calls moved in to too soon allowing Stafford to pick up on them was one area. The score late in the game was one of those calls. While RAM has done very well for a true frosh, some of his mistakes have been freshman mistakes. He hasn't made as many mistakes as Hall made during the game. I stopped counting at 5 and know there were 3-4 times where he just messed up. Therein lies a lot of the reason we were seeing RM and DM in the ILB positions.
 
TerryP said:
Wiseace615 said:
I'm right there with you chop. I think that it would be good to mix in more of a no huddle, especially early on. Set the game tempo in the beginning, while our defense is still fresh and catch their defense off guard. We could slow things down later on to help rest the D and to mix things up. For some reason JPW just seems more at ease in hurry up mode.

The no huddle approach has been used to see if they could get JPW into a rhythm. It didn't work Saturday.

There is a catch-22 here as well. If we did go to the no huddle type approach, we are creating another set of problems leaving our defense on the field more than with the approach we are using now.

'chop mentions depth in the original post and there is some truth to that. That being said, a lot of the problems we had Saturday were due to mistakes, no necessarily depth. Defensive calls moved in to too soon allowing Stafford to pick up on them was one area. The score late in the game was one of those calls. While RAM has done very well for a true frosh, some of his mistakes have been freshman mistakes. He hasn't made as many mistakes as Hall made during the game. I stopped counting at 5 and know there were 3-4 times where he just messed up. Therein lies a lot of the reason we were seeing RM and DM in the ILB positions.

Good points Terry, and i wasn't aware that we were tipping our hand so early and letting opposing QB's pick up our coverages/schemes. That would certainly answer a lot of the questions BAMA fans have been asking since the UGA game. What I was focusing on mainly though was that we don't really have the luxury of rotating guys in right now like a lot of teams do. On the front line we're extremely thin and even in the linebacking corps we seem to be missing our starters like Mustin when they are out. Don't even get me talking about the depth in the secondary. :(

So when we can't get our defense off the field (like in the last two games) whether it be due to mental misques or sheer lack of bodies we're hurting.

Is an up-tempo fast-paced offensive attack helpful for us in the long run? I'm not sure. I would say that at this point in time it probably is not.....although we've played well in that package and put up some points. It's kind of a double-edged sword. We want points but quick points only serve to further weaken our already out-manned defense it would seem.
 
TerryP said:
Wiseace615 said:
I'm right there with you chop. I think that it would be good to mix in more of a no huddle, especially early on. Set the game tempo in the beginning, while our defense is still fresh and catch their defense off guard. We could slow things down later on to help rest the D and to mix things up. For some reason JPW just seems more at ease in hurry up mode.

The no huddle approach has been used to see if they could get JPW into a rhythm. It didn't work Saturday.

There is a catch-22 here as well. If we did go to the no huddle type approach, we are creating another set of problems leaving our defense on the field more than with the approach we are using now.

'chop mentions depth in the original post and there is some truth to that. That being said, a lot of the problems we had Saturday were due to mistakes, no necessarily depth. Defensive calls moved in to too soon allowing Stafford to pick up on them was one area. The score late in the game was one of those calls. While RAM has done very well for a true frosh, some of his mistakes have been freshman mistakes. He hasn't made as many mistakes as Hall made during the game. I stopped counting at 5 and know there were 3-4 times where he just messed up. Therein lies a lot of the reason we were seeing RM and DM in the ILB positions.

Good points as usual, Terry. I think the answer is simple, and has been given to us all along by the Coach several times this season:" Do the right things all the time."

I think, that with all of the "experts" saying how much stronger our offense would be this year a lot of us are confused as to why we aren't seeing 600 yards and 70 points per game (exaggerating for effect there BTW), and we've forgotten that these guys are still learning a new offense. I believe that the players are buying what the staff is selling. I still believe that they lost a little focus this past week and learned a valuable lesson Saturday night. I guess that I, like a lot of fans, want to find an easy fix when the simple truth is that the only fix is time and repetitions. Once all of the players can get into the habit of doing the right things at the right time, then everything else will fall into place. We just have to be a little patient and trust in the coaches to do there job.

All in all, I've still never been more excited about our team and the direction that we are headed.

Roll Tide!

-Clayton
 
porkchop said:
Does anyone else feel like we have a bit of a dilema here when it comes to the 2-minute offense?

I guess what I mean is, we seem to be performing very very well in the 2-minute set. So well, that I wouldn't mind seeing us use it during the game more often. Sorta like a no-huddle attack.

The problem lies in the defense and our lack of depth. Although the hurry up offense has been very effective thus far we're in a bind because running it tends to put our already worn out defense back on the field quicker.

Stinks because we've moved it well in the hurry up. :( Maybe we will be seeing a little more of it from time to time in non 2-minute drill situations.

Any thoughts?

Hey I'll take a touchdown or a field goal over a 3 and out any day. The defense would probably like that as well :D
 
porkchop said:
Does anyone else feel like we have a bit of a dilema here when it comes to the 2-minute offense?

I guess what I mean is, we seem to be performing very very well in the 2-minute set. So well, that I wouldn't mind seeing us use it during the game more often. Sorta like a no-huddle attack.

The problem lies in the defense and our lack of depth. Although the hurry up offense has been very effective thus far we're in a bind because running it tends to put our already worn out defense back on the field quicker.

Stinks because we've moved it well in the hurry up. :( Maybe we will be seeing a little more of it from time to time in non 2-minute drill situations.

Any thoughts?


I was thinking about that during the game.

I think the 2 min O hurts us if we have to get a defensive stop later.

It does not allow our D to rest.
 
Wiseace615 said:
I think, that with all of the "experts" saying how much stronger our offense would be this year a lot of us are confused as to why we aren't seeing 600 yards and 70 points per game (exaggerating for effect there BTW), and we've forgotten that these guys are still learning a new offense. I believe that the players are buying what the staff is selling. I still believe that they lost a little focus this past week and learned a valuable lesson Saturday night. I guess that I, like a lot of fans, want to find an easy fix when the simple truth is that the only fix is time and repetitions. Once all of the players can get into the habit of doing the right things at the right time, then everything else will fall into place. We just have to be a little patient and trust in the coaches to do there job.

All in all, I've still never been more excited about our team and the direction that we are headed.

Roll Tide!

-Clayton

Through 4 games this year we are averaging 35 points a game, 436 yards offensively.

As compared to last season...

22.9 points per game, and 335 rushing.

There's improvement, without a doubt.

101 points last year against two SEC teams through 4 games.

130 this year versus 3 SEC teams.

It's our strong point, no doubt. Two different stories, completely. 4 games into a system versus 4 years in a system. I could go on...

Ironically, both teams were 3-1 at this point in the season. Last year our 5 game was against UF, this year FSU.

The biggest thing I see is last year we knew what we had as a team. This year, still a ton of questions left unanswered.

One good point...we should see Motley back in the lineup soon...perhaps, at full speed by UT. He's said he would be back this weekend, but I doubt it. Probably limited action versus Houston.
 
Yeah UT is the week I'd always heard he should be back at. Atleast back to full strength anyway. It would be nice to get him a few snaps beforehand to get back into the swing of things though providing he's healed up and feeling good. last thing I would want is to rush him back and he get's injured again.
 
TerryP said:
Through 4 games this year we are averaging 35 points a game, 436 yards offensively.

As compared to last season...

22.9 points per game, and 335 rushing.

There's improvement, without a doubt.

101 points last year against two SEC teams through 4 games.

130 this year versus 3 SEC teams.

It's our strong point, no doubt. Two different stories, completely. 4 games into a system versus 4 years in a system. I could go on...

Ironically, both teams were 3-1 at this point in the season. Last year our 5 game was against UF, this year FSU.

The biggest thing I see is last year we knew what we had as a team. This year, still a ton of questions left unanswered.

One good point...we should see Motley back in the lineup soon...perhaps, at full speed by UT. He's said he would be back this weekend, but I doubt it. Probably limited action versus Houston.

Let me clarify that I was not meaning to say that the offense is not our stronger asset right now. I am very happy that we are perfoming overall much better than we were at this time last season. The point that I was trying to make was that , with so much press about the offense and the Coordinator coming into the season some fan expectations may be causing people to overlook how well we are doing resulting in the over-anylization of mistakes that are common within a new system. Therefore, we try to come up with an answer for the issues that only time will resolve.

On the Motley topic, I believe that once he gets back into the mix the defense will look completely different. We've got Washington with some experience now, so that should allow us a little bit of rotation keeping a fresh NG in the game.
 
BamaJay73 said:
Having a stronger running game would help both our passing game & our defense.

We didn't have as good of a showing vs Georgia, but out of the offensive yards we are putting it, it's close to a 50/50 split between the two. Avg 205 a game vs @230 in the air. Fact is, JPW has lost about as many yards as all 4 running backs combined. Those 5 sacks pretty well account for the difference.

It's a valid point Jay. Heck, one could also say if JPW was consistent our running game would be a lot stronger.

Honestly, with JPW it's the 3 int's versus 4 TD's that jump out at me.
 
I understand this argument completely. The one time I think we could have gone quick huddle was in OT though. I hate to keep harping on it but quick huddle on that play where Upchurch was open could have produced much better results. Then again, that is probably a bad example since JPW never even saw him open.

In OT or 2-minute drives I think no huddle could be effective. For whatever reason this just doesn't happen at Alabama though.
 
BamaDelta said:
I understand this argument completely. The one time I think we could have gone quick huddle was in OT though. I hate to keep harping on it but quick huddle on that play where Upchurch was open could have produced much better results. Then again, that is probably a bad example since JPW never even saw him open.

In OT or 2-minute drives I think no huddle could be effective. For whatever reason this just doesn't happen at Alabama though.

Mainly because the success we've enjoyed in that scheme has come between the 20's, not inside of the 20's. It's easier to spread the field in the first case, not a lot of room in the second case.

While we talk about the defense and lack of numbers, it's important to also note it's tiring on the OL as well.

I don't know if it has been mentioned or not, but a valid point when speaking about the OL is they are having to be re-taught how to agressively and physically block and in some of these guys cases, they are still learning. Just like JPW is needed to recognize the blitz, we've got other players that have difficulty picking up their assignments as well.
 
jpw

Ya know, I sat around thinking of all the different things that were off on Sat... that is until I heard a grade-school kid say something pretty simple. He said, the QB had a bad day. Bingo. Really, it is as simple as that. Nothing else, and no one affected that game more than JPW having a bad day. If he had went through all of his reads, set his feet, and calmed down so that his accuracy improved, The game would have been drastically different. (Re: Upchurch wide open in OT with plenty of room for a TD) JPW is a young person learning a new system, and carrying a LOT of weight on his shoulders. I have faith he'll nail it soon enough. Time really is the answer for this one.
 
Optimus said:
I woundn't mind seeing us try to run the spread offense... Just a thought..

I can understand that, but it seems logical to get the basic packages of the new one executable, no?

FWIW, we've ran 4 wide, single back sets this year as it is...which, besides the OL play, is one of the staples of the spread.
 
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