| FTBL Offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien

I don't have a problem with BoB. I believe a competent TE/HB combo would really help BoB and we sure didn't have that last season and it's a real unknown if we have a pair for this season. That combo doesn't have to be All SEC but they have to be able to contribute when their number is called.
 
In the first game there was only one short yardage situation for a first down Bama completed with BRob; in the second game two. All three were on Bama's side of the field as I recall. They were getting more success on short yardage downs passing than running. (I don't think you're suggesting they should have tried something that wasn't as successful as what was called.)

When you're in the "money area" why would anyone call plays that were less successful? They couldn't rely on the line to get those short yards in the red zone, much less inside the ten. Going with BRob, or Trey, would basically be settling for field goals: after all, that's what happened when they did.

In these situations it wasn't about "BRob being dependable." It was not being able to depend on the line to allow him to do "his thing."

I respect and admire what Brian did in his time in Tuscaloosa as much as many players I've seen wearing Crimson. But, we're lying to ourselves if we're going to go with a narrative he was as talented as the guys we've seen in the past especially given the circumstances we've discussed. We've watched guys who could still get it done in spite of contact behind the LOS: BRob wasn't that guy as good as he was in other areas.

He had shown he could get them is the point. The fact we failed in two games, Texas A&M and Natty Georgia with three passes leaves you shaking your head. Just because you had success throwing doesn't mean it's always there. I mean, didn't that thread about the unreliable backup receivers just get posted here a couple days ago, yet we want to say there was success there now? All I'm saying is freaking try it once. Run behind your All-American left tackle, or crash him down to collapse on Davis and have Latu/Randolph blow Nolan Smith down the line. Plenty of opportunity, but we can't say for sure what happens with a run because we didn't try it.
 
IF I were in charge of the offense or calling plays, I would never call a RPO, 1st and goal from the five. If your offense can't score in 4 running plays, your OL and other blockers and their position coach should be shamed. I like BY, but if you give him the choice to hand off or try to throw for a TD, most likely he will throw hoping for another TD pass. I would either call a running play or pass play, not run OR pass; RPO.
 
He didn't override the calls, per se'. Picture it as an RPO: he had more than one choice and went with what he saw.
As footballer stated I was saying do not call a rpo. No option and no audible. Yes you are removing an option from your young Heisman Trophy winning QB early in the season when he was still figuring it out.
 
He had shown he could get them is the point. The fact we failed in two games, Texas A&M and Natty Georgia with three passes leaves you shaking your head. Just because you had success throwing doesn't mean it's always there. I mean, didn't that thread about the unreliable backup receivers just get posted here a couple days ago, yet we want to say there was success there now? All I'm saying is freaking try it once. Run behind your All-American left tackle, or crash him down to collapse on Davis and have Latu/Randolph blow Nolan Smith down the line. Plenty of opportunity, but we can't say for sure what happens with a run because we didn't try it.
He had shown he could get them is the point.

Just because you had success running doesn't mean it's always there. It wasn't against Georgia. If a team is running the ball and struggling to get two yards per carry, they are not having success.

The best chance for success was seen with passing plays.
 
IF I were in charge of the offense or calling plays, I would never call a RPO, 1st and goal from the five. If your offense can't score in 4 running plays, your OL and other blockers and their position coach should be shamed. I like BY, but if you give him the choice to hand off or try to throw for a TD, most likely he will throw hoping for another TD pass. I would either call a running play or pass play, not run OR pass; RPO.
The use of RPO as an example was just that: an example. They weren't calling RPO's in either game.

The point was Bryce had a choice of which play to run based on what he saw at the line. That's the reason I started my comment with "to blame O'Brien for the calls is also blaming Bryce."

In the case of A&M we are literally talking about a sophomore quarterback against a veteran defensive coordinator in Elko. One can't expect the former to win against the latter the majority of the time: especially with a guy like Elko.
 
As footballer stated I was saying do not call a rpo. No option and no audible. Yes you are removing an option from your young Heisman Trophy winning QB early in the season when he was still figuring it out.
Read my reply to footballer. It was an example..."picture an RPO" isn't "they ran an RPO."

The TD to Latu was call made at the line. No problems there because it worked.

The scheme was wrong when it didn't work, but the scheme was __?_ when it did work?
 
Read my reply to footballer. It was an example..."picture an RPO" isn't "they ran an RPO."

The TD to Latu was call made at the line. No problems there because it worked.

The scheme was wrong when it didn't work, but the scheme was __?_ when it did work?
Yeah the old school in me will always say challenge your OL and if you can't get a few yards in 4 downs you do not deserve it. Old school thinking I know but I still believe it at my core. For sure we had seen enough by Bama and Georgia to know it would be a challenge to run.
 
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Just because you had success running doesn't mean it's always there. It wasn't against Georgia. If a team is running the ball and struggling to get two yards per carry, they are not having success.

The best chance for success was seen with passing plays.

Yet we failed countless times from inside the five. That's a fact. You can say all you want about our run game against Georgia, but what you cannot say is how we would have done if we had ran it against A&M and Georgia inside the five. Because we didn't try it.
 
IF I were in charge of the offense or calling plays, I would never call a RPO, 1st and goal from the five. If your offense can't score in 4 running plays, your OL and other blockers and their position coach should be shamed. I like BY, but if you give him the choice to hand off or try to throw for a TD, most likely he will throw hoping for another TD pass. I would either call a running play or pass play, not run OR pass; RPO.
Defensive alignments, you go with the numbers.
I’d be willing to bet BY never had stats on his mind when “changing/calling” plays at the LOS.
 
but what you cannot say is how we would have done if we had ran it against A&M and Georgia inside the five. Because we didn't try it.
If they can't run the ball between the 20's they're supposed to believe they can run the ball better inside the 10? That's literally what you're suggesting here. Why would a team, any team, try to run the ball in situations with such a closed field when they couldn't run it at mid-field?

The whole point of my comments here has been this: if you're upset with what happened the blame can't be all on O'Brien: Bryce had the freedom to make the calls. It's really an easy observation here:

Defensive alignments, you go with the numbers.
That right there is Saban's offense.
 
If they can't run the ball between the 20's they're supposed to believe they can run the ball better inside the 10? That's literally what you're suggesting here. Why would a team, any team, try to run the ball in situations with such a closed field when they couldn't run it at mid-field?

The whole point of my comments here has been this: if you're upset with what happened the blame can't be all on O'Brien: Bryce had the freedom to make the calls. It's really an easy observation here:


That right there is Saban's offense.

I'm not mad at O'Brien, I just asked if anyone knew who called the plays.

As far as your comment about running inside the 20's, we couldn't throw either, so your point is moot. The other thing is they still tried throwing and abandoned the run.

Your comment about "if we would have scored a touchdown no one would be talking". Well duh. That's a positive result. We're talking about two seperate instances in our two losses where they dis the exact same thing and failed both times. Why would you not mix it up and try the other?
 
From the 5 yard line you only have 15 yards of real estate to work with. You either line up man on man and take what you want or you try to pass through a sea of bodies. You have to have plays that the defense does not expect you to run, or just maul your way into the end zone. Oh, by the way, I guess we not being able to line up man on man and get 5 yards in 4 plays is most likely the reason that CDM will be coaching some where else this coming season. When I said they need to run plays the defense is not expecting, I not talking about trick plays, I mean plays that are not on film, that have been held back for special occasions.
 
Your comment about "if we would have scored a touchdown no one would be talking". Well duh. That's a positive result. We're talking about two seperate instances in our two losses where they dis the exact same thing and failed both times. Why would you not mix it up and try the other?
This is where you're losing me Casey.

You're suggesting they try something that's already not working. Alabama wasn't able to run the ball with any success between the 20's. Now, when they were in goal to go, the box is stacked even more than it was. They would have been trying to run against a stronger (more personnel) box while they weren't having success against a "weaker box" (less personnel.)

Bama was able to run the ball for a touchdown against Georgia once: Bryce, scrambling after he was flushed from the pocket. As much as it pains me to say, Bama wasn't going to be able to score running the ball in these situations. They weren't good enough.

As we discussed all season long the key to beating UGA last season was dynamic quarterback play. We saw that come to fruition. It wasn't running right at 'em. No one was able to do that last season with any degree of success: teams with better run blocking than the Tide included.
 
This is where you're losing me Casey.

You're suggesting they try something that's already not working. Alabama wasn't able to run the ball with any success between the 20's. Now, when they were in goal to go, the box is stacked even more than it was. They would have been trying to run against a stronger (more personnel) box while they weren't having success against a "weaker box" (less personnel.)

Bama was able to run the ball for a touchdown against Georgia once: Bryce, scrambling after he was flushed from the pocket. As much as it pains me to say, Bama wasn't going to be able to score running the ball in these situations. They weren't good enough.

As we discussed all season long the key to beating UGA last season was dynamic quarterback play. We saw that come to fruition. It wasn't running right at 'em. No one was able to do that last season with any degree of success: teams with better run blocking than the Tide included.

We weren't good enough in the redzone to throw it either! You keep getting caught up in the fact we had trouble running, but when we needed yardage in the SEC Championship game Robinson was there. We couldn't pass block either!!! You and no one else can say for a fact we wouldn't have scored if we ran. We were good enough, and Georgia wasn't perfect, hence why we beat them for 7.75 quarters of 8 this past season. Robinson's ling run was 16 yards. What's to say he can't pull off a five yarder, or a three and two yarder? Come on now, you can dig your heels in all you want, but even you can speak with certainty, because we never tried. Robinson ran for 124 against Texas A&M, so what's the reasoning there? Couldn't get it then either?
 
We weren't good enough in the redzone to throw it either! You keep getting caught up in the fact we had trouble running, but when we needed yardage in the SEC Championship game Robinson was there. We couldn't pass block either!!! You and no one else can say for a fact we wouldn't have scored if we ran. We were good enough, and Georgia wasn't perfect, hence why we beat them for 7.75 quarters of 8 this past season. Robinson's ling run was 16 yards. What's to say he can't pull off a five yarder, or a three and two yarder? Come on now, you can dig your heels in all you want, but even you can speak with certainty, because we never tried. Robinson ran for 124 against Texas A&M, so what's the reasoning there? Couldn't get it then either?
In the SECCG, outside of one 15 yard run, he averaged 2.5 yards per carry: 15 for 40.

One time in the SECCG Robinson converted a short yardage down. It was early in the third.
 
From the 5 yard line you only have 15 yards of real estate to work with. You either line up man on man and take what you want or you try to pass through a sea of bodies. You have to have plays that the defense does not expect you to run, or just maul your way into the end zone. Oh, by the way, I guess we not being able to line up man on man and get 5 yards in 4 plays is most likely the reason that CDM will be coaching some where else this coming season. When I said they need to run plays the defense is not expecting, I not talking about trick plays, I mean plays that are not on film, that have been held back for special occasions.
THIS!!!

I'm not here to castigate Bill O'Brien, Doug marrone, or Bryce Young. But the fact remains that, if you bunch three receivers on one side, you're basically letting two to three guys cover them for the first two to three seconds while they've got their eye on Bryce Young. And that's a really easy defense to run with a short field!

You can look what different commentators, during the game, right after the game, and then on YouTube video reviews, said about those. And they all said that very thing. Obviously any pattern can be run from those formations, but it's a lot easier for Bryce to assess the situation if you have two wide outs on each side, for instance, I tight end, and one running back. The defense, inherently, has to be more spread out, and there are more options.

On the other hand, I also have to agree with other posters on this subject, that, at least on first down at the four or five yard line, you can run behind the left side and crash down with a guard pulling and see what you get. Brian Robinson, despite any deserved criticism here, is a bruising running back. What happens if he gets to the one yard line and its second and one?!. Are we really going to think that we can't get one yard on three more tries?

Anyway, I think Bill O'Brien is, in general, a very good coordinator. Is he bringing some stuff back from the NFL and running less on shortyardage situations? Maybe. But as other posters have said, you don't necessarily know what he knew at that particular time and that particular game. Be it injuries, lineups, mismatches, etc. I really hope he'll be back for this next year and I think if the offensive line gets it together it can be an amazing offense again!

Roll tide roll!
 
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