🏈 The Good, The Bad and The Ugly vs. WKU

[SnakeFan]

Good: 2 interceptions in the first 10 minutes of play. Back-to-back RB long TDs from scrimmage if memory serves

Bad: # of penalties were too high

Ugly: wasnt this the second in the past few home games the opposing team’s headsets didn’t work?

 

[TerryP]

GOOD: Ryan Williams quote, "2 + 4 = 6."

@BamaFan334 that's a shirt you might find L.A.N.K adopting.

 

[mando]

This Bama team in week one would have beaten Ohio State, Georgia, and a number of other programs.

I did not watch Ohio State but I did watch most of the Cleamson/Georgia game. Pure observation from what my eyes saw, we would not have beaten 2nd half Georgia. All subjective of course so no way to prove it but we will find out on 9/28. Do I believe we can beat them?
Absolutelty but it is going to come down to improvement between now and then and basic execution. 2nd half Georgia looked like CNS coached Bama teams that got stronger as the game wore on. They just strangled the life out of Clemson. How good is Clemson? No idea but they are likely better than Georgia made them look in the 2nd half.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

And you wanted Dabo. I took Georgia and the spread for big money yesterday because I knew he wouldn't have that Clemson team ready. His time has passed.

Yep. Am a dabo fan. Still am. But......
"Change or die." If he doesnt go get a few out of portal. To fill some gaps...say a QB.
Which is an obvious weakness
I admire dabo forhis views on players. But. Gotta adjust tothe world around you

 

[rick4bama]

Yep. Am a dabo fan. Still am. But......
"Change or die." If he doesnt go get a few out of portal. To fill some gaps...say a QB.
Which is an obvious weakness
I admire dabo forhis views on players. But. Gotta adjust tothe world around you

He doesn't like it, because of the one he had sign to play at Clemson.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

You realize. You are saying what I've been telling you for a few years.

I'm going to say it again. He isn't a good guy. We're seeing another example.

He had success under Watson. Who, is not and wasn't a good guy. This is similar to Jimbo at FSU with Winston. A good QB who wasn't a good guy.

We've seen the same thing at Bama. It just so happens, Dabo was on that staff.

I believe he is. But whatever. A lot didn't believe in Saban.
I think he had success with other QB too. Who appears to be ok guy...

Dabo has got to get with program...or walk away.
I admire his stance on paying players. But thats aa losing cause if others arre filling gaps with the portal

 

[TerryP]

I admire dabo forhis views on players. But. Gotta adjust tothe world around you

The steroids?

 

[Rsedge72]

I did not watch Ohio State but I did watch most of the Cleamson/Georgia game. Pure observation from what my eyes saw, we would not have beaten 2nd half Georgia. All subjective of course so no way to prove it but we will find out on 9/28. Do I believe we can beat them?
Absolutelty but it is going to come down to improvement between now and then and basic execution. 2nd half Georgia looked like CNS coached Bama teams that got stronger as the game wore on. They just strangled the life out of Clemson. How good is Clemson? No idea but they are likely better than Georgia made them look in the 2nd half.

Agree with you, second half Georgia looked really really dominant!!!!! BAMA would not have beaten them.

Ohio state did not look as good as we all assumed they would. Now it’s just the 1st game and your never as good/bad as your 1st or last game….

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

LOL, had a long reply typed out and my shitty ass keyboard glitched and deleted it all...

Here's a much shorter summary...

Good- Early and often substations (which if you followed some other fall camp nuggets from us, wasn't surprising) Campbell, Russaw, and Saab on defense. Campbell is going to be very important to that side of the ball... makes a number of things happen and can cover up mistakes of others. Russaw is dangerous, and as he gets more consistent, watch out. Saab was such a big pickup and fits Wommack's scheme like he was made in a lab beneath the Mal Moore complex. Ryan Williams, who should be a Sr. in HS right now, on offense. OL did some good things in the running game and Pritchett settled in nicely at LT after the first series, but things won't get easier going forward. If Procter can't go for a bit, Pritchett is gonna have to really take a step forward. He has the ability.

Bad- Hard pressed to really find much here... just a lot of positives overall for game 1 under a new regime.

Ugly- Procter's pregame injury. As of last night, it wasn't expected to be long term thing, but the MRI today was going to get the final word which sometimes tells another story. Regardless, it's not ideal to have a shoulder injury this early in the year... but if there's any positive to it, if it's going to happen to a key starter, probably best that it's an OL guy as opposed to most any other position.

 

[Crimson&WhiteGecko]

Good - Russaw & Williams making their debuts. Very nice. Swarm defense was SOLID, especially holding up after that 21+ play drive to end up w/ zero points. Good to see them bow up at the end.

Bad- the opening Offensive series from the bad coms at WKU, to the left OG & Center losing their helmets on the first play... like WTF is this game going to be like? Thankfully, the stooges didn't come in 3s.

Ugly- Proctors injury... Just dammit. We REALLY needed a veteran, congealed offensive line against Jawja. Doesn't look promising now.

 

[mando]

especially holding up after that 21+ play drive to end up w/ zero points.

That was a very frustrating series. D could not get of the field. I hope that does not point the roadmap for how you attack this D from a big picture view. That would be maddening. Not very many 21 play drives I have ever watched in all my years of watching football.

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

That was a very frustrating series. D could not get of the field. I hope that does not point the roadmap for how you attack this D from a big picture view. That would be maddening. Not very many 21 play drives I have ever watched in all my years of watching footbal.

From the breakdown of this scheme...

-The safeties will be heavily involved in blitz packages and moved around to give different looks, but the defensive backs as a whole will try to keep any home run plays from being hit. The flipside to that is, there will be opportunities underneath, more than we were used to seeing under a Saban defense, but in theory, we should also see fewer successful long ball plays against this defense.

-Lastly, this needs to be said... this defense isn't perfect. It will have issues and occasional breakdowns. The aggressive nature alone will lend itself to the propensity to give up big plays at times. Teams with good QB play will get hot some games and move the chains at a frustrating pace. There's pros and cons to all of it, even Saban's schemes. You'll remember, Saban owned Mike Leach's (who I still miss tremendously) offense... but was susceptible to a guy like Heupel (and I use those 2 specific examples for a reason). You'll see similar cases with this defense, there is no perfect scheme, especially with the ever-evolving offenses and dynamic skill players we are seeing these days.

 

[24and7]

LOL, had a long reply typed out and my shitty ass keyboard glitched and deleted it all...

Here's a much shorter summary...

Good- Early and often substations (which if you followed some other fall camp nuggets from us, wasn't surprising) Campbell, Russaw, and Saab on defense. Campbell is going to be very important to that side of the ball... makes a number of things happen and can cover up mistakes of others. Russaw is dangerous, and as he gets more consistent, watch out. Saab was such a big pickup and fits Wommack's scheme like he was made in a lab beneath the Mal Moore complex. Ryan Williams, who should be a Sr. in HS right now, on offense. OL did some good things in the running game and Pritchett settled in nicely at LT after the first series, but things won't get easier going forward. If Procter can't go for a bit, Pritchett is gonna have to really take a step forward. He has the ability.

Bad- Hard pressed to really find much here... just a lot of positives overall for game 1 under a new regime.

Ugly- Procter's pregame injury. As of last night, it wasn't expected to be long term thing, but the MRI today was going to get the final word which sometimes tells another story. Regardless, it's not ideal to have a shoulder injury this early in the year... but if there's any positive to it, if it's going to happen to a key starter, probably best that it's an OL guy as opposed to most any other position.

The defense is running a lot of simulated pressure..4 man pressure but random DL and backers end up dropping into hot throw zones.

 

[We All Bleed Crimson]

Good: Winning big. Offense looked good and 2nd half defense.
here was a nice adjustment in 2nd half.)
Bad: Too many penalties

Ugly: Allowing a 20+play drive to a G5 team... (Although the adjustment for the 2nd half worked nice)

Roll Tide!!!

 

[Crimson&WhiteGecko]

That was a very frustrating series. D could not get of the field. I hope that does not point the roadmap for how you attack this D from a big picture view. That would be maddening. Not very many 21 play drives I have ever watched in all my years of watching footbal.

C'mon Mando, take some deep breaths here...

That 21+ play drive for WKU was an all or nothing drive that had 2 or 3 successfull, 4th down conversions with the last one getting stopped. WKU was going for it that entire drive because they had to. There's just not too many bad situations that 'Bama would be in were that isn't expected.

But even if it was some team trying to tie the game at the end, that was pretty damn solid. That last set of downs inside the 15 was some of the toughest that Defense they'll ever play. Think about it. Scratching & clawing for the last 17 plays. Forcing WKU to use most of their downs. Defending the big play (dude... to cover for that for 17 straight plays is damn hard). To NOT get discouraged on those 4th down conversions. And then to keep them out of the endzone at the end. Bruh that's tough, damn tough. That defense is grew together from that stand.

And to make matters worse, the offense took over & scored another touchdown in 2 plays, thus having to get back out of the field & defend the shutout. Not too bad for players, playing a full 60 minutes under a new defensive scheme for the first time. Just my two cents worth.

 

[Kamikazi18627]

Why not?
We are family.

Not trying to bust your balls, but Milroe did finish 5th for the Heisman last year, Took us to the playoffs and is a heck of a human being.

Absolutely. Great guy. Played hard. We wouldn't have gone that far without him.

The shotgun snaps are still a problem. That concerns me.

We have changed centers. Still appears to be a problem.

That's all. Maybe it was first game rust. Maybe I'm being to pessimistic,


I dunno. I don't trust his decisions.

I feel like I have to hold my breath every time he drops back.

Maybe I'm spoiled from our previous 3 or 4 guys at QB.

 

[BamaFan334]

Absolutely. Great guy. Played hard. We wouldn't have gone that far without him.

The shotgun snaps are still a problem. That concerns me.

We have changed centers. Still appears to be a problem.

That's all. Maybe it was first game rust. Maybe I'm being to pessimistic,


I dunno. I don't trust his decisions.

I feel like I have to hold my breath every time he drops back.

Maybe I'm spoiled from our previous 3 or 4 guys at QB.

I was there watching Milroe closely and feel he started the game just like he started last season. A couple different times he looked very average to below average, but he settled and things got better. I still want to see a jump in his game as it will get real, really quick going forward. I don't have concerns yet, but 100% understand your comments as I felt the same.

Simpson did look good. Nice zip on the ball, got it out quick, and looked fast running the ball. Very capable in his own right.

 

[UAgrad93]

Simpson did look good. Nice zip on the ball, got it out quick, and looked fast running the ball. Very capable in his own right.

We are in more than capable hands should Milroe go down. I might add that Lonegran isn’t too shabby himself!

 

[mando]

C'mon Mando, take some deep breaths here...

That 21+ play drive for WKU was an all or nothing drive that had 2 or 3 successfull, 4th down conversions with the last one getting stopped. WKU was going for it that entire drive because they had to. There's just not too many bad situations that 'Bama would be in were that isn't expected.

But even if it was some team trying to tie the game at the end, that was pretty damn solid. That last set of downs inside the 15 was some of the toughest that Defense they'll ever play. Think about it. Scratching & clawing for the last 17 plays. Forcing WKU to use most of their downs. Defending the big play (dude... to cover for that for 17 straight plays is damn hard). To NOT get discouraged on those 4th down conversions. And then to keep them out of the endzone at the end. Bruh that's tough, damn tough. That defense is grew together from that stand.

And to make matters worse, the offense took over & scored another touchdown in 2 plays, thus having to get back out of the field & defend the shutout. Not too bad for players, playing a full 60 minutes under a new defensive scheme for the first time. Just my two cents worth.

I know it was the first game but a 21 play drive is so absolutely unusual it is worth talking about. I recall @Brandon Van de Graaff analysis he referenced above about the D giving up underneath stuff and a general bend but don't break system.. All yawl know that I have been less than impressed with our D for a few years now. The D is what I was most interested in seeing yesterday. It got better after that crazy drive and as you say we then scored in 2 plays and they had to go right back out on the field which is tough. I fully understand this is the first game for all phase and know there will be growing pains. This is precisely why I expect there to be struggles in year one and some losses that we are not used to. I know it takes time!!!!

With that said for a first game under a new system it was good, Probably as good as you you will see after a coaching change.

 

[Tidestalker]

All good! Really enjoyed seeing the depth on defense. A lot of really solid D Lineman in the mix and they all seemed to have an impact. Russaw was awesome (Reminded me of Courtney Upshaw). Was surprised how many freshman earned roles already, those guys are talented! Between the youth and gained experience week to week, this could be a team that really improves as the season progresses. Especially as guys start to understand the new schemes. Fun team! RTR