Yes, I think that's a lot of it. There's definitely something in the team preparation that is lacking.
Also, Re: Saban and his thoughts on this year's team... I think most everyone here has at least some degree of respect for Josh Pate... don't forget, he went to Bama's 2nd scrimmage then immediately declared the Tide as his national champion pick.
Additionally, I know of 1 scout that visited during fall camp and walked away impressed with the team as a whole. That tells me, they either had a lot of smart people fooled or today's performance was simply some weird unexplainable one-off that was totally out of character for them. I'd easily believe the latter if not for seeing the exact same issues last season. So, just put me in the, people were fooled category.