Don't read too much into me not posting about it. We could be averaging 800 yards a game or 80 in the last 4 games, and I wouldn't have had many comments either way... reason being is what Argo alluded too.
My opinion on the matter doesn't count for much anyway, but if you want it, I'll give it to you.
-Greg McElroy has admitted that he has had some issues reading defenses in recent weeks and also has had issues with mechanics (stepping into his throws). Both of those are 2 major reasons for his struggles. The good news is, both are correctable... the mechanics issue looked better in the Tennessee game to me. He still got rid of the ball late a few times, which can go back to having issues with coverages, but the more of it he sees the better he is going to get.
-Like some, I'm not worried about Julio. I don't think we need to force things to him though.
-Along those same lines, I've taken issue with some of the play calling, but hindsight being what it is, that's pretty easy to do. When you have Mark Ingram back there though, I kinda like running it for the score down inside the 5, or running playaction off of him to a TE or H-Back into the flat. I'm not a huge fan of the fade...
-I'm loving the wildcat and some of the wrinkles that are starting to appear with it. Before the season started, I said on this very board that I wouldn't want us to go wildcat in the redzone... I'd now like to step into the RTB.com time machine and take back that comment. Not every time, but on some of the longer drives and late in games, I'd like seeing it more down in the red zone.
-I like the screens to Julio... he's so good at making the first couple guys miss (or bounce off him). I'd enjoy seeing that from now on, about 3 times a game.
-If Saban said publicly last week that we needed to start attacking vertically, then there is no telling how he expressed it privately. He is right though, we need to get back to that... even if we don't hit them, it changes the way they play us, and #22 will be the beneficiary.
-I think one of the major contributors to the decline in production though is that some of the guys are simply worn out. Like last year, some are playing banged up and need to get some rest and heal. This off week came not a moment too soon and will be a tremendous benefit to the offense AND the defense.
-In all, I'm not too concerned about the offense. The staff will do some self scouting this week and look for ways to capitalize on things that have been successful (like the wildcat) and fix things that haven't been (like redzone scoring). Frankly, I'm more worried about the time of the MSU game... which is looking more and more like an 11 am game... and that my friends, irks me.
