🏈 At some point, we are going to need to upgrade at offensive coordinator

['65 Cobra]

There can be no doubt that our defense held up their end of the bargain Saturday night against LSU - 6 points in regulation, no TDs, fewer yards, no 100 yard rusher, etc. The offense moved the ball quite well between the 30s and then repeatedly stalled. Mixed in with poor play-calling were delay of game penalties and too many men in the huddle among other things. Then we had a gimpy WR throwing a 30 yard pass to our TE, who almost caught it. Our called plays and our organization in OT isn't even worth mentioning.

I don't know that it is so much overall gameplanning as it is in-game playcalling. I know that ultimately it falls on CNS, but I have been very frustrated with McElwain for years. Sure he has a great overall record, it just seems like he is not getting the most out of his talent. It was the same for him in the NFL with the Raiders - very mediocre. I felt that we should have run some no-huddle against LSU for sure to neutralize their D-line depth. Also, is it really smart to continue to play a gimpy Marquis and a gimpy Barrett Jones? At what point is the back-up more effective? Maybe not in Barrett's case, but we have some really good young talent at WR.

Anyway... it's water under the bridge now, but it does get frustrating to see the same ole, same ole play-not-to-lose mentality on offense.

 

[ElephantStomp]

I agree. Some of the offensive playcalling is mind boggling

 

[TheChief]

Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.

 

[TideAlum05]

AJ was straight up garbage in this game. I like the Maze pass too, it was there. Too bad Williams got completely punked by a guy 50 lbs lighter. I'm fine with McElwain. Who is our really good talent at WR? Because none of the so-called talented younger guys do crap when actually in the game.

 

[gumboman]

Sure, the play calling was suspect. We never looked like we got into a groove, offensively. I'm not sure that was due to the plays. We drove the field several times and came away with NOTHING. That alone, took the wind out of offense's sail. You fight for every yard in a heavyweight slugfest and have a FG kicker yank three into the Tide Pride seats? That was probably enough to have our kids frustrated and second guessing everything.

 

[gumboman]

AJ was straight up garbage in this game. I like the Maze pass too, it was there. Too bad Williams got completely punked by a guy 50 lbs lighter. I'm fine with McElwain. Who is our really good talent at WR? Because none of the so-called talented younger guys do crap when actually in the game.

That's funny. "Straight up"

 

[Southern Bama]

I think asking two kids that cant kick 45+ yard field goals.....to kick those field goals is worse than anything our OC did. If Maze make the pass, everyone is a hero....if not...everyone gets to armchair QB. I do agree that he shouldnt have been in the game. That pass seemed like it had about a ten minute hangtime. All that fancy stuff is fine if it works, but we dont run it enough to be good at it. Im kinda of the opinion, do what you do and do it well until it doesnt work anymore.

 

[Southern Bama]

AJ was straight up garbage in this game. I like the Maze pass too, it was there. Too bad Williams got completely punked by a guy 50 lbs lighter. I'm fine with McElwain. Who is our really good talent at WR? Because none of the so-called talented younger guys do crap when actually in the game.

I thought he did ok for his first really big game. He did make mistakes but it is his first year, hes going to make some mistakes. He did seem to crumble in overtime though.....alot of pressure.

 

[bamagirl917]

and have a FG kicker yank three into the Tide Pride seats? That was probably enough to have our kids frustrated and second guessing everything.

speaking of, anybody notice the camera on maze after that 2nd or 3rd missed fg? can't remember which, but he was heated lmao.. i remember saying "i feel ya son" to the tv

 

[UAgrad93]

This sounds like ramblings from someone who never played the game TideAlum05. Saying a young kid is garbage when he goes 16-28 for 199 isn't garbage. How many sacks did he take? Did he throw the ball away to avoid more lost yardage? To say receivers don't do crap because they don't wind up on the stat sheet is ludicrous. A qb has progressions to make and often times the deep throw that everyone wants to see is a peek to see if he is wide open, then immediately down to intermediate and underneath. Ever take a snap and have 5-6 pissed off guys trying to rip your head off? You have 2.5-3 seconds to make the decision as to where to make the throw.

 

[Bo]

This sounds like ramblings from someone who never played the game TideAlum05. Saying a young kid is garbage when he goes 16-28 for 199 isn't garbage. How many sacks did he take? Did he throw the ball away to avoid more lost yardage? To say receivers don't do crap because they don't wind up on the stat sheet is ludicrous. a qb has progressions to make and often times the deep throw that everyone wants to see is a peek to see if he is wide open, then immediately down to intermediate and underneath. Ever take a snap and have 5-6 pissed off guys trying to rip your head off? You have 2.5-3 seconds to make the decision as to where to make the throw.

I myself have been one of the 5-6 pissed off guys trying to rip a QB's head off.
You're correct. A QB has very little time to decide what to do against a good defense.

 

[UAgrad93]

Bo, I have been on the receiving end of those guys like yourself. I got to sample it against an SEC defense for 2 seasons as a walk on at UA. I coached the position for 13 years before deciding I'd had enough. I get so pissed off at people that have no idea what goes through a qb's mind before the snap and then after the snap. I'll never forget the 90 season when Gary Hollingsworth was struggling at qb. Everyone wanted to complain about how bad he was. No one looked that we had changed our offense, lost 3 dynamic playmakers in 3 consecutive weeks, moved an All-SEC TE to WR. It took everything I had to not slap the living crap out of someone each time I heard that "our QB is terrible"!

 

[Bo]

HS was the highest level I ever played, but even there as a LB on a blitz happy defense, our job was to hurry the QB, get a hand on the ball, or sack the QB. And in my mind, making the QB rush into a bad decision is as good, and better at times, then sacking him. I've always said a QB has a tough job, and the quicker he thinks, the better a QB is. And IMO, Hollingsworth was one of the best I've seen at Alabama (He could pull a play fake off better than anyone I've ever seen).

 

[LBS]

I have a hard time with this, considering the statistical, winning, and draft success that we have had.

 

[Argo]

Sigh.

 

[bamaupsman]

I thought he did ok for his first really big game. He did make mistakes but it is his first year, hes going to make some mistakes. He did seem to crumble in overtime though.....alot of pressure.

Jarrett Lee was garbage. We own his ass.
When it comes to the play calling, I don't understand why the pass to Richardson out of the backfield wasn't used more. It was there all night.
As I've said before, I'm a truck driver, not a football coach. What do I know?

 

[musso]

i'm the most critical and pessimistic Bama fan i know. i come away from every game with at least a few questions of why we did what we did at certain moments. given everything i knew about our opponent and our team (including our accumulating injuries), i didn't have many complaints with the play calling and other coaching decisions. i mean, we played a good team, arguably the best team. we need to deal with it.

having said that, the closest i came to questioning any particular decision was when LSU was punting from their end zone, and a hobbled Maze was selected to field the punt. unable to get to the ball, the punt becomes the punt from hell. why not put in a receiver or anyone mobile enough to at least fair catch it to prevent a major swing in field position?

the other question i had was why Saban didn't start using his time outs during LSU's final possession of regulation, at least calling a time out after LSU's failed 3rd down attempt. this would have given AJ more time to at least throw a few bombs ... so that we could miss another field goal attempt. :headscratch: maybe Saban didn't trust a banged up OL to give AJ enough time to go deep. who knows. but it just seemed like we gave up before overtime even arrived.

 

[Bo]

the other question i had was why Saban didn't start using his time outs during LSU's final possession of regulation, at least calling a time out after LSU's failed 3rd down attempt. this would have given AJ more time to at least throw a few bombs ... so that we could miss another field goal attempt. :headscratch: maybe Saban didn't trust a banged up OL to give AJ enough time to go deep. who knows. but it just seemed like we gave up before overtime even arrived.

This was really the only question I had.

 

[UAgrad93]

This was really the only question I had.

Agreed! I will add that I really thought when Shelley went in, we were going to direct snap it to him to pooch kick it down to pin them deep.

 

[psychojoe]

A question I had came a little bit earlier. With around four minutes left in the fourth quarter we had the ball on our own 48 and had fourth and two. We punted, they punted, we ran out the clock. I thought we should have gone for it there. Punting, unless LSU makes a mistake, pretty much sends the game to overtime. The way the two defenses were playing overtime was going to be a battle of field goals. As the first 55 or so minutes had shown, we would not win a battle of field goals.