🏈 Unprepared?

[bamatommy]

Alabama looked VERY unprepared yesterday, and they had two weeks to prepare for Ole Miss. How can they be unprepared with an extra week to get ready for the game?

 

[TerryP]

Alabama looked VERY unprepared yesterday, and they had two weeks to prepare for Ole Miss. How can they be unprepared with an extra week to get ready for the game?

Curious Tommy, which aspects of the game did you think they weren't prepared for?

 

[bamatommy]

The coverage on the opening kickoff looked really weak. But mostly it was mental mistakes, like all the penalties. Is that being unprepared, or just undisciplined?

 

[BamaFan334]

That final touchdown they scored we looked all out of sorts. It was mentioned they had us crossed up all game with that bunch formation. I would say we should not have been crossed up as much on that as far as preparation.

 

[TerryP]

The coverage on the opening kickoff looked really weak. But mostly it was mental mistakes, like all the penalties. Is that being unprepared, or just undisciplined?

I can understand a few penalties with the change in center. I recall one snap with a false start on Brown where it was clear that he was moving on the cadence, not the actual snap.

That opening kickoff? A bad kick. It was low enough it was received earlier than the coverage was able to get into place. I don't see how you can fault a guy for not having his lane covered when he hasn't had a legitimate chance to get there in the first place, ya know?

I'm more inclined to believe it's between the ears (as in concentration) on a lot of these negative plays we saw yesterday.

One thing I'm absolutely convinced of today. When it comes to hyperbole, none do it as well as some Bama fans when trying to define how one of our games are lost.

I could try to write out what my impressions were during the game. In a quick summary, one mistake by one player led to another, then another, and slowly things just piled up.

Consider, if I'm seeing Griffith miss his first field goal attempt and think "we're 5 of 16 in FG attempts in losses since most of these kids arrived on campus (2011)" what are they thinking? Cap that off with seeing Drake go down...

 

[TerryP]

That final touchdown they scored we looked all out of sorts. It was mentioned they had us crossed up all game with that bunch formation. I would say we should not have been crossed up as much on that as far as preparation.

Ah, but how's that preparation?

Ole Miss had gone with their style in every game leading up to ours. But, for this game, Freeze decides he's not going hurry up because against our defense it leads to a lot of negative plays. We're supposed to prepare for a change in scheme? How?

Who have we played this year that ran a bunch formation like they did?

Who had Ole Miss played this year where they used that formation? The only game I've seen of Ole Miss was their opener against Boise and don't recall seeing it in that game.

I believe it was a solid game plan for Ole Miss. I'm not going to make a comment in a "Congrats, Ole Miss" thread about their win when I see a Bama team leaving the field who had not only shot off all their toes, but took a few feet as well.

 

[psychojoe]

Not one of DePriest's better games, or Collins for that matter. No doubt losing Kelly hurt.

 

[Crimson&WhiteGecko]

Shooting your feet off has as much to do with losing as winning. We got a gift w/ the no call on the face mask & they has their share of dropped interceptions & TD's. They played better whether it be their infliction or our own.

 

[TerryP]

Shooting your feet off has as much to do with losing as winning. We got a gift w/ the no call on the face mask & they has their share of dropped interceptions & TD's. They played better whether it be their infliction or our own.

Games like this happen to every team out there no matter if it's NFL, FBS, FCS, the list goes on.

Played better than us? They didn't have every unit on their team make some incredibly awful mistakes. So, in that aspect, yes.

You can't point to Ole Miss and say that's why Griffith missed his kicks. You can't point to them and say that's why we had so many stupid, procedural penalties called.

Ole Miss didn't move the ball any better than we did. They had a few more yards through the air than we did, but not near the number we had rushing.

IF this team would have played at the level we have been in the past it would be a different tune today. Giving Ole Miss credit for our penalties, or missed kicks? Sorry, not buying into that.

 

[Joe]

I take nothing away from Ole Miss who was the better team yesterday, but I thought we struggled at times to get plays called in on offense leading to two timeouts that would have been nice to have at the end. We had some substitution problems on D (we defended one play with 10 players) and on a few occasions failed to get set before the play. Our ball carriers are carrying the ball loose and away from the body. Where is the high and tight to the body ball carrying that Trent Richardson demonstrated so well? Alabama has won close games in the past because we made fewer mistakes than the other team, but this team, so far, is characterized as one that struggles with focus and discipline.

 

[Rolltide24]

Missing a couple of makable FGs, giving up a couple of long KO returns, fumbling a KO return (really 2...), I could consider that lack of execution as much or more than lack of prep. Not fielding several punts and hurting our field position, again, maybe execution? Letting them complete some of those wide open passes (and dropping others) possibly prep, or lack of secondary skills.

But I do think they outplayed us. They made fewer errors. Hell, the one huge error they made really didn't happen if the ref throws the flag and calls the face mask. You can't argue against the fact that we made more mistakes. They played better D as they held us to 1 TD, so Special Teams, hard to argue that fact as well. Hell, again we got lucky they didn't call that one fumble... And offensively it was tight in who played better. But they scored 3 offensive TDs to our 1 so I'd pick them. Not sure how y'all are coming up with us playing the better game. Oh, and we lost the penalty totals as well.

 

[BamaFan334]

Ah, but how's that preparation?

Ole Miss had gone with their style in every game leading up to ours. But, for this game, Freeze decides he's not going hurry up because against our defense it leads to a lot of negative plays. We're supposed to prepare for a change in scheme? How?

Who have we played this year that ran a bunch formation like they did?

Who had Ole Miss played this year where they used that formation? The only game I've seen of Ole Miss was their opener against Boise and don't recall seeing it in that game.

I believe it was a solid game plan for Ole Miss. I'm not going to make a comment in a "Congrats, Ole Miss" thread about their win when I see a Bama team leaving the field who had not only shot off all their toes, but took a few feet as well.

I guess with two weeks to prepare I figured we'd be ready for anything. I mean, they aren 't running the triple option or anything, so it wasn't like an entirely different scheme we didn't see against West Virginia to an extent.

Lack of preparation also reared it's head when we had multiple delay of game penalties. We simply beat ourselves. I feel as if they didn't really do anything spectacular, yet it was more of our lack to execute. I mean, we played awful. They won fair and square, but this is one of the worst games I've seen in the last five years, other than the Utah game.

 

[UAgrad93]

The last TD we gave up wasn't on the "bunch" formation like Danielson suggested. It was out of a "trips" look. They did hurt us several times with the bunch look where you have 3 wrs packed in tight together, similar to how we have formationed to run our toss sweep. The last TD was simply a "brain fart" of the smelliest kind!

 

[TerryP]

I guess with two weeks to prepare I figured we'd be ready for anything. I mean, they aren 't running the triple option or anything, so it wasn't like an entirely different scheme we didn't see against West Virginia to an extent.

OK, a bit of a long night at work so that might be what's confusing me here. It seems to contradict what you were saying earlier—we should have been prepared to defend a bunch formation we hadn't seen before, in an offensive system that was new.

The negative concord in the last sentence has my head spinning. :devil:

Lack of preparation also reared it's head when we had multiple delay of game penalties. We simply beat ourselves. I feel as if they didn't really do anything spectacular, yet it was more of our lack to execute. I mean, we played awful. They won fair and square, but this is one of the worst games I've seen in the last five years, other than the Utah game.

Here, we're certainly in the same chapter of the book, but not on the same page. Personally, I don't compare a performance of a team in a bowl game and weigh that against a regular season game (IE: Utah.) IF we were to do so, we'd have to stop at turnovers and penalties which both come down to execution and concentration—not preparation. (Loss of personnel fits for both games but in this last one it was more spread out versus it being the left side of the line against Utah.)

This very well may be you and I just see things, or rather interpret things, differently. I don't see lack of prep resulting in delay of game penalties: with one exception. The delay calls in the second half, after Kelly went down, could fall there. We see offensive lineman get reps when they are part of the two's and three's. We don't see the second string center get a lot of work with the first string in situations like we saw Saturday. HOWEVER, that has to be weighed properly.

With two guys vying for the starting role at QB any staff would want both guys working with their #1 center. It doesn't allow for a lot of time for either to work with the backups other than situational drill work. On one hand you can say backups should be getting a lot of reps in case of injury. But then again, with limited practice time how wise is it to focus a lot of individual work on a backup center (in case of injury) when there's no way to judge if we'll have an injury or not. (It's reminiscent of 2005 with Closner getting hurt and Britt taking the C position. I'm still of the opinion that loss of Closner—and I wasn't a big fan of his in the first place—had more to do with that seasons collapse than the loss of Prothro.)

————

Just a thought, for all.

When Ole Miss went to that bunch formation, does anyone recall who was lined up on the other side? Ideally, a trips formation is defended by sliding one of the safeties over. IF OM had Treadwell on that other side, did we really want him in single coverage? It would be enough to make me think twice about where I would/should line up.

 

[Rolltide24]

You guys are focusing a lot on our defense not defending the "new" formation they saw, or weren't "prepared" to defend. But my question is, what did UM do different on defense to shut us down (at least keep us from getting first downs and TDs)? I didn't see any new D schemes or such. I have a hard time accepting that they have 2-3 of the best DBs in college football. And how many times did the target one of the best WRs in the game in the 2nd half? Not sure, but not enough times to give him the chance to make a big play. I am sure of that. That was disappointing.

 

[planomateo]

I'm of the opinion the injury to Drake stole the teams mojo.

I'll bet all my bamabucks they come back laser focused.

 

[BamaFan334]

OK, a bit of a long night at work so that might be what's confusing me here. It seems to contradict what you were saying earlier—we should have been prepared to defend a bunch formation we hadn't seen before, in an offensive system that was new.

The negative concord in the last sentence has my head spinning. :devil:



Here, we're certainly in the same chapter of the book, but not on the same page. Personally, I don't compare a performance of a team in a bowl game and weigh that against a regular season game (IE: Utah.) IF we were to do so, we'd have to stop at turnovers and penalties which both come down to execution and concentration—not preparation. (Loss of personnel fits for both games but in this last one it was more spread out versus it being the left side of the line against Utah.)

This very well may be you and I just see things, or rather interpret things, differently. I don't see lack of prep resulting in delay of game penalties: with one exception. The delay calls in the second half, after Kelly went down, could fall there. We see offensive lineman get reps when they are part of the two's and three's. We don't see the second string center get a lot of work with the first string in situations like we saw Saturday. HOWEVER, that has to be weighed properly.

With two guys vying for the starting role at QB any staff would want both guys working with their #1 center. It doesn't allow for a lot of time for either to work with the backups other than situational drill work. On one hand you can say backups should be getting a lot of reps in case of injury. But then again, with limited practice time how wise is it to focus a lot of individual work on a backup center (in case of injury) when there's no way to judge if we'll have an injury or not. (It's reminiscent of 2005 with Closner getting hurt and Britt taking the C position. I'm still of the opinion that loss of Closner—and I wasn't a big fan of his in the first place—had more to do with that seasons collapse than the loss of Prothro.)

————

Just a thought, for all.

When Ole Miss went to that bunch formation, does anyone recall who was lined up on the other side? Ideally, a trips formation is defended by sliding one of the safeties over. IF OM had Treadwell on that other side, did we really want him in single coverage? It would be enough to make me think twice about where I would/should line up.

Sorry man, I was trying to do all this on my phone and it's a little more difficult than typing on a computer, plus I had a lot going through my head and it came out wrong. What I meant to say is that with two weeks of preparation we should not have been surprised with anything they did on offense. It wasn't like we were preparing for Georgia Tech and Navy where we needed to focus on a completely different offense. We had seen variations of this against West Virgini and I even think a hair from Florida, so we should have been better prepared in that instance is what I meant. Now I'm sure a play or two here and there were changed up on their end, but they are who they are. I think this still shows our weaknesses at defensive back. Tony Brown will be great, but he got thrown into the fire covering a Top 5 wide receiver right out of the gate, and actually did a pretty good job for the most part until the end of the game. I consider it like going to the casino, you may win in the beginning, but in the end the house will eventually get your number if you keep going to the well too many times. Landon Collins had a poor game as well. I hate to even criticize, because even the best are allowed to have an off day, but he just seemed lost in the end when they made their comeback.

I honestly believe losing Drake killed our will and spirit. I don't think I have ever seen or thought that losing a third string back could hurt a team as much as Drake. I say third string back, but a 2B is more truthful since we use these guys more than most teams would. I can honestly say I felt like it was my own kid getting hurt for some reason. Maybe it's because he's my favorite player, maybe it's because I followed him during high school, maybe it's because he was very nice and graceful to my kids, and maybe it's because he's from only about 15 minutes down the road from me, but it hurt me, so there's no telling what it did to our team to see one of their teammates screaming in pain and looking at his foot like that.

As far as the comparison to the Utah game, I was still a Georgia fan at the time, but couldn't think of a game in the last few years where we looked as bad, so I went to one I remember watching on TV and just shaking my head at the bad play. Not sure if you read any of my other posts a long time ago, but I was raised a Georgia fan and became an Alabama fan about four years ago when I decided to go to school at the University of Alabama, so my roots aren't near as deep as a bunch of y'alls (or memory), but I have jumped in the deep end since starting school and now that I have graduated. So I can agree that bowl games and regular season games are apples and oranges due to a number of different things.

And I don't put the blame as much on the back up center as I do a fifth year quarterback and an offensive coordinator making millions per year. I know he stepped in and called a couple timeouts to avoide penalty yardage, but I know they have to have wristband type plays to quickly get to the line. We have ran the hurry up a little, so I know we can get going quicker than we did. So in all, that's why I say lack of preparation, because we just weren't ready. We gave those guys the game and they took it and won with our mistakes, much like we have done to countless other teams. We have a lot left to play for, and better get out head screwed on straight, because Arkansas, Texas A&M, and Tennessee aren't no joke this year, which will lead to a HUGE matchup with Mississippi State and obviously Auburn.

 

[PhillyGirl]

I'm of the opinion the injury to Drake stole the teams mojo.

I'll bet all my bamabucks they come back laser focused.

Agreed. They looked shell-shocked after that. And Ole Miss capitalized.

 

[silvermetalflake]

"Every boxer has a plan.... until he gets hit."

We simply met a more determined, hungrier team that gelled better both physically and emotionally at key points in the game better than we did. If we played again next Saturday with the same game plan, I'll bet Bama would take them 35 - 14, purely because WE'd be the hungrier wolf climbing the mountain, and as such, wouldn't make all those mental errors that resulted game performance and strategy lapses.

 

[planomateo]

"Every boxer has a plan.... until he gets hit."

We simply met a more determined, hungrier team that gelled better both physically and emotionally at key points in the game better than we did. If we played again next Saturday with the same game plan, I'll bet Bama would take them 35 - 14, purely because WE'd be the hungrier wolf climbing the mountain, and as such, wouldn't make all those mental errors that resulted game performance and strategy lapses.

Completely disagree that they were more determined and hungrier...