BAMANEWSBOT
Staff
Touching on a few things to fix on the bye week.
You could see it in recent weeks.
Negative plays were on the rise for Alabama's offense as Jake Coker was sacked five times in the Tennessee win. A week earlier, 15 plays at Texas A&M ended behind the line of scrimmage. Again, a win, but the trend is troubling to Nick Saban.
It starts with the offensive line.
"Mental errors, lack of communication, not blocking the right people," Saban said. "It's more of what we're doing incorrectly than it is that the other team is doing something we can't handle. ... Most of it is a lack of execution and inconsistency. So we need to do a better job of that. Some of it's fundamentals. If you don't take the right footwork, you don't get your second foot in the ground, you're not in the right position to block a guy, all those things enhance your chances of it not working out well."
RELATED: 4 issues Alabama should fix to keep playoff hopes alive
For the most part, the line has been intact this season. Center Ryan Kelly missed the second half of the Texas A&M game ― when the majority of the negative plays occurred ― though he was back in time for the Tennessee game.
"You can kind of get mixed up in the game sometimes and you'll mess up on one play or get ahead of yourself a little bit," said left guard Ross Pierschbacher. "So it's just kind of doing what Coach Saban preaches and that's just play each play."
Pierschbacher also mentioned the communication issues. It's a common explanation when things don't go as planned on the offensive line.
"If (the defensive line is) moving like that, not all five offensive linemen will get the call corrected, so one guy's running this, the other guy is running the other one. So just stuff like that that's easily fixed pretty quick."
Of course, it's not been all negative for the Tide offensive line. It dominated the line for a half for Derrick Henry's career-best 236-yard afternoon in College Station. Both of Henry's touchdowns in the 19-14 win over Tennessee were blocked perfectly.
It's just the other moments that Saban and Co. would like to clean up.
"I think you'll never be perfect as an offensive line," Pierschbacher said. "There'll always be something. It's just something we need to work out and take it upon ourselves to get better. I think we'll do that during the bye week and just work on what we need to do to improve."
Continue reading...
You could see it in recent weeks.
Negative plays were on the rise for Alabama's offense as Jake Coker was sacked five times in the Tennessee win. A week earlier, 15 plays at Texas A&M ended behind the line of scrimmage. Again, a win, but the trend is troubling to Nick Saban.
It starts with the offensive line.
"Mental errors, lack of communication, not blocking the right people," Saban said. "It's more of what we're doing incorrectly than it is that the other team is doing something we can't handle. ... Most of it is a lack of execution and inconsistency. So we need to do a better job of that. Some of it's fundamentals. If you don't take the right footwork, you don't get your second foot in the ground, you're not in the right position to block a guy, all those things enhance your chances of it not working out well."
RELATED: 4 issues Alabama should fix to keep playoff hopes alive
For the most part, the line has been intact this season. Center Ryan Kelly missed the second half of the Texas A&M game ― when the majority of the negative plays occurred ― though he was back in time for the Tennessee game.
"You can kind of get mixed up in the game sometimes and you'll mess up on one play or get ahead of yourself a little bit," said left guard Ross Pierschbacher. "So it's just kind of doing what Coach Saban preaches and that's just play each play."
Pierschbacher also mentioned the communication issues. It's a common explanation when things don't go as planned on the offensive line.
"If (the defensive line is) moving like that, not all five offensive linemen will get the call corrected, so one guy's running this, the other guy is running the other one. So just stuff like that that's easily fixed pretty quick."
Of course, it's not been all negative for the Tide offensive line. It dominated the line for a half for Derrick Henry's career-best 236-yard afternoon in College Station. Both of Henry's touchdowns in the 19-14 win over Tennessee were blocked perfectly.
It's just the other moments that Saban and Co. would like to clean up.
"I think you'll never be perfect as an offensive line," Pierschbacher said. "There'll always be something. It's just something we need to work out and take it upon ourselves to get better. I think we'll do that during the bye week and just work on what we need to do to improve."
Continue reading...
