🏈 Tommy Deas: Misc. thoughts on the game

[Bamabww]

I think there are a lot of reasons, but mostly the pass defense issue is down to changes in the game offensively. Go back to 2009 and look at the college football landscape and offenses and look at today's game -- limiting substitutions with the no-huddle (even when not hurry-up) is a big part.

Saban noted it at some point late in the season: you're going to have a few shootouts every year. No one has been able to field an defense in the last two or three years that completely shuts people down.

IMO, the problem in the Ohio State game was run defense -- Alabama wasn't able to force enough situations where Ohio State was forced into passing situations because the run defense didn't get it done. Ohio State was, for the most part, able to pick and choose when it wanted to pass (yes there were three or maybe four conversions on third-and-long, but the bigger issue was the long runs).

I would add that I think Kirby/Saban were a little more reluctant to blitz as much this season, probably because of concerns about the secondary and more particularly the linebackers to be forced into coverage.

1) This was supposed to be a rebuilding year on defense. Very small number of true returning starters, a group learning to play and to play together.

2) The secondary doesn't have that one true NFL-ready lockdown corner who you can leave on an island -- Cyrus Jones takes too much grief, he's a solid corner but not quite at the level of a Dee Milliner or some of the other stars of the recent past (at least not yet).

I realize a lot of people think the guy on the bench is always better, but that's obviously not the case. Tony Brown is still learning to play on the college level and needs to add another year in the strength program to get more physical, to use one example. Having raw, young talent isn't the same as having the same talent with a few years' worth of coaching and weight room work.

3) Anyone will tell you Alabama's defensive line is the most athletic you will see anywhere in college football. Alabama got good pressure for the most part all season but Saban has said 100 times that the priority isn't to sack the QB but to affect him. Alabama did that more often than not,.

Eddie Jackson probably wasn't 100 percent at any point this season due to coming off surgery. As for why Eddie wasn't replaced, I don't know. One one play he fell down. It can happen. It has happened to other teams against Alabama from time to time. He was stride for stride with the guy and fell.

I would have liked to have seen a more run-oriented game plan oncce Henry got rolling, but I think there was probably some concern that they wanted to keep him fresh with Yeldon likely on a limited pitch-count.

I also think some of that line of thought is hindsight -- we know the passing plays didn't work (at least not well enough) so runs would have been better. Wasn't Kiffin's best game as far as play-calling, but it wasn't as bad as some are making it out to be.

Someone mentioned Alabama having problems stopping the spread offense, but I don't think that was an issue for UA any more than any other defense. Alabama completely shut down Texas A&M, for instance, and that offense was best in the SEC at the time, if I recall correctly. Ole Miss beat Alabama but it wasn't because the spread was unstoppable.

4) Overlooked is that UA was thin at linebacker. Some of those young pass rushers a lot of posters want to see in the game all the time aren't yet fully able to do other things when the defense "audibiles" to change the scheme. If you put in a guy who's just a pass rusher and the defensive coaching staff sees the other team's set and sees a run or a screen pass coming, you're going to get chewed up if that pass rusher can't adjust to the new call.

Those are some of the issues. Mostly I think this was a young defense. I also would note that the game of offensive football in college has changed dramatically since 2009 and the offenses have the edge. Name me one team that shuts down everyone all the time like UA did before the last couple of years. The ability to limit defensive substitution by going no-huddle (and not even true hurry-up) has changed the game. An offense can freeze a defense into a personnel package that creates matchup problems for the defense and keep them in it.

I've heard a lot of talk of the poor job Christion Jones does as a returner. I would disagree. He had some very good returns in the second half of the season (he did struggle early) and was especially good for the most part on making the fair catch and not costing yards by letting balls hit the ground and roll -- a bigger part of the game than most people realize. First job of a punt returner is to secure the ball -- someone who is very explosive with long-return potential but doesn't show that ability to catch the ball and not fumble it (in practice) is not a good first choice.

https://alabama.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=427&tid=208592614&mid=208592614&sid=885&style=2

 

[TerryP]

4) Overlooked is that UA was thin at linebacker.

We harped quite a bit on that over the summer.

He does hit on a pretty good point about scoring defenses. Of course, we harped on the clock changes in the pre-season as well. It's of note if you look at the number of points allowed in 2008 and compare it to 2014 that number has almost doubled.

 

[Rolltide24]

Agree with him in C. Jones doing better the 2nd half on punt/KO returns, he secured the ball better and made better decisions with the fair catch. I still hope we can find a return man that actually is a threat on most kicks. With all the talent we have, its hard to believe that we don't have a guy that challenged Jones all year as a better returner. He does not instill fear into the kicker/punter and make them kick away from him. Many of us hold our breath when the punts go up... And our kickoff returns were not good in the Sugar bowl. Haw many times did we return one without clearing the 15? 7 KO returns, averaged 14 yards per. Take away our punter and our special teams have lots of room for improvement in 2915.

 

[silvermetalflake]

A Take away our punter and our special teams have lots of room for improvement in 2915.

2915.
That seems a little far into the future to be talking about now, doesn't it.

 

[psychojoe]

K/O return issue mostly bad choices on whether to bring the ball out of the end zone. C.J scared me on the opening kickoff when he did not get on the football immediately after he had touched the ball.

Special teams had excellent coverage on both punts and kickoffs. Our return game was the issue. I don't know if there was some undisclosed injury, but Christion did not seem as quick this year as in past seasons.

 

[Bamabww]

Deas: Misc. thoughts on the game, part 2

Mobile quarterbacks are always going to be hard to defend. I haven't seen a defensive scheme or philosophy that makes that untrue. Alabama's approach is more often, against those type quarterbacks, to try to contain them and keep them in the pocket. I think that broke down against Ohio State when he had lanes up the middle a couple of times, but they also forced him into several throwaways because he had nowhere to escape, and I'd have to look but I think the interception was a play where he was affected and didn't have his feet properly set.

As for simplifying the defense, according to Kirby that has been done to some degree. The calls, for instance, have been simplified.

But it's not as simple as simplifying -- if you run a simple base defense you'll get picked apart and the offense will run roughshod over you. If they keep your 'A' package or "Diamond" package or whatever on the field and your players aren't versatile enought to adapt to a defensive audible -- let's say the opposing team goes 5-wide and you have to put a linebacker who is a pure pass rusher or a run-stuffing middle linebacker in coverage -- you're in trouble.

You have to be able to adjust to the offensive set -- if they go 5-wide and you say 'Well, we'll keep it simple and just run the base defense instead of rotating someone to cover those five receivers' then that means someone is completely uncovered.

Over the last five years, or really since 2008, no team in college football is better year-in and year-out on defense than Alabama. That includes this year and last year. It is impossible to have the No. 1 rush defense, No. 1 pass defense, No. 1 scoring defense and No. 1 total defense every single year. It has never been done and will never be done.

But to answer the question, I don't think Alabama has any fundamental problems on its approach to defensive football. I think in today's game every team is going to struggle at times on defense and have to win some shootouts.

The two things I look at from the Ohio State game that could have changed the outcome are:

1) DeAndrew White's drop: Ohio State doesn't get another possession at the end of the half if he catches that ball (they got it with 92 seconds left after UA punted, so at the very least Alabama runs out the clock). That would have taken away a lot of OSU's momentum.

2) The turnover after the Ohio State shanked punt. Alabama takes over at the plus-23 and a score there arguably wins the game. Alabama trails by six at that point so a touchdown would have put UA ahead and, again, really changed momentum.

Yes, pass defense was a problem in the Ohio State game, but run defense was the bigger problem. I believe they were also able to pass a lot on second-and-five type situations, which is what I was talking about.

Alabama wasn't defending the run well so had to respect that and devote more defensive resources to stopping the run. How many times did Landon Collins have to make tackles because runs got past the second level? When your safeties are forced to keep an eye on the run (whether its the QB or a RB), they can't completely commit to defending the pass.

I think there are some non-Alabama factors related to the perception of this game:

1) Ohio State is good, very good. People took the Wisconsin blowout as if it didn't happen or didn't matter, but Ohio State manhandled -- completley destroyed -- a darned good football team. More people, including myself, should have taken note of that result.

2) People (again, myself included) assumed that Ohio State having a third-string quarterback with little experience was a major factor in Alabama's favor. Turned out to be just the opposite -- almost no game film to prepare for him and how he changed OSU's offense (they have very good wideouts who weren't featured with the previous QB, who was more of a runner and less of a passer) and he was a better runner than anyone could have guessed.

3) Ohio State is top to bottom very talented and had more speed than was credited.

 

[Rolltide24]

You and I may have watched different games, Joe. After the opening kickoff, Jones fielded only 1 in the Endzone and he caught the other 6 between the goal line and 15 yard line. He got taken down by the first man down on several occasions.

I agree, he didn't seem as fast as in previous years. And also agree that our coverage was great. Very solid coverage.

And sorry silvermetalflakes, fat fingers while typing on my phone! Lol 2015!

K/O return issue mostly bad choices on whether to bring the ball out of the end zone.

 

[TerryP]

He got taken down by the first man down on several occasions.

Missed blocks—majority on one player.