| FTBL When is the Pete Golding experiment going to end?

You may still not believe we have a decent DC, that's fine, but your stats are screwed up, and I'm not sure how you believe MSU has a better offense than us. If you truly believe that, then holding them to 293 total yards, including 78 yards and the only six points given up at garbage time is a great job. That Bama couldn't force their will and run the ball to close the game out is not on the defense. We run the ball and the last 3:58 of garbage time doesn't happen. In the second half, they punted three times, turned it over on downs, and had the last drive to end the game.

As both Saban (we were set up to stop the pass and they took advantage of it) and Leach ("they were giving it to us") noted, we had personnel in at the beginning of the game, for the first three drives (truly much of the game), asking them to run, so they did - and they managed to have the first three drives stall out after respective totals of nine yards (punt), 57 yards (downs) and 39 yards (missed FG). They threw the ball 61 times, and were held to 231 yards passing. Yeah, they also managed 62 yards on the ground on 26 attempts.

I know it's fashionable to pile on both coordinators. This week, the game plan to prioritize pass D over rush D worked. Last week, seeking to contain the UT QB in the pocket did not work.

Sorry for the interruption.

RTR,

Tim
My bad.

Late in the 4th, they had more yards from scrimmage than we did.

Apparently it didn't end up that way. But, nice job creating a straw man with that.

One mildly mistaken stat doesn't change the fact that this was hardly a stellar defensive outing.

Better than last week?

Certainly.

Consider the competition. And then consider that isn't not just the Tennessee defensive shit show. Defense has been sub-par all year against mid - level or better competition.

We could've easily dropped 2 more before Tennessee.
 
My bad.

Late in the 4th, they had more yards from scrimmage than we did.

Apparently it didn't end up that way. But, nice job creating a straw man with that.

One mildly mistaken stat doesn't change the fact that this was hardly a stellar defensive outing.

Better than last week?

Certainly.

Consider the competition. And then consider that isn't not just the Tennessee defensive shit show. Defense has been sub-par all year against mid - level or better competition.

We could've easily dropped 2 more before Tennessee.
We couldn't stop the run vs UT and had trouble with both A&M and Sip State made some yards. JMO but our interior DL is average even though we have a many guys getting snaps. None of them are elite at this point. I have accepted the fact that we're a little better than just good on defense but we're not elite and we're not going to reach that point this year. Pete might not be an elite DC but we will see at the end of the year what Nick believes about Pete.

There is no way in hell that BoB returns for another shot at the title.


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I was at the game. If you think you are going to consistently stop the run with 1-2 DL & 2 outside backers you are full of shit & don’t know much about football.
The defensive scheme was to stop the pass & prevent scoring. It worked. Some of you guys are like Weeb Eubank - Art Donovan said Weeb would rather have a good “weigh-in” than he would win the game.
 
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I was at the game. If you think you are going to consistently stop the run with 1-2 DL & 2 outside backers you are full of shit & don’t know much about football.
The defensive scheme was to stop the pass & prevent scoring. It worked. Some of you guys are like Webb Eubank - Art Donovan said Webb would rather have a good “weigh-in” than he would win the game.
I really didnt have any problems with any of game...
Except our stadium lights and effects werent used for homecoming crowd
 
I was at the game. If you think you are going to consistently stop the run with 1-2 DL & 2 outside backers you are full of shit & don’t know much about football.
The defensive scheme was to stop the pass & prevent scoring. It worked. Some of you guys are like Weeb Eubank - Art Donovan said Weeb would rather have a good “weigh-in” than he would win the game.
But they DIDN'T stop the pass.

MSU ran 87 plays on us. That's a lot of ball movement. And yes, they actually DID have more total offense than us.

The scoreboard is not indicative of how mediocre our defense actually was.
 
Our defense was opportunistic against MSU, it was downright pitiful against UT. We need to be better in both facets of Defense as we go along but I honestly think Golding isn't really that bad, just not as good as Kirby was.
 
But they DIDN'T stop the pass.

MSU ran 87 plays on us. That's a lot of ball movement. And yes, they actually DID have more total offense than us.

The scoreboard is not indicative of how mediocre our defense actually was.
To stop pass and prevent scoring. 6 points.
Won by a comfortable margin.
They passed for what, 240 yards? Rushed for 62?
3.8 yards per attempt (and a lot of that in the last 3 minutes)
That ain’t ”mediocre”
 
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But they DIDN'T stop the pass.

MSU ran 87 plays on us. That's a lot of ball movement. And yes, they actually DID have more total offense than us.

The scoreboard is not indicative of how mediocre our defense actually was.


For some reason different box scores give different stats from this game.

But on the UA website, it lists MSU at 30-61 passing. That's under 50% completions, no TDs. 3.8 yards per attempt.

By any metric that is excellent pass defense.
 
As others pointed out. Very active crowd.
But our damn stadium light show didn't happen

I was just told by someone that was there using my tickets the crowd wasn't as loud as other games he has been to. He wasn't impressed by any noise and said the student section seemed to be more interested in singing songs over the loud speaker than cheering. Which goes more to what I thought I saw on tv. Not saying the stadium wasn't loud, but from TV it seemed like a rather ho-hum crowd. He's an Alabama alumni and baseball letterman too just for reference.
 
Was the better defense this week all Golding, just like that? Or did someone or others have more influence than usual?
Like last season, the defense all of a sudden got better; who is flipping the switch?
Not sold on the "got better just like that" deal.... think it's more in line with the competition they were facing with "some" improvement. Rick's finally got "it", but again a lot depends on the competition.... big difference in covering Rob Ezell trying to catch passes from Eric Crouch one weekend to Devonte Smith catching Tua passes the next.
 
I was just told by someone that was there using my tickets the crowd wasn't as loud as other games he has been to. He wasn't impressed by any noise and said the student section seemed to be more interested in singing songs over the loud speaker than cheering. Which goes more to what I thought I saw on tv. Not saying the stadium wasn't loud, but from TV it seemed like a rather ho-hum crowd. He's an Alabama alumni and baseball letterman too just for reference.
Interesting. I think A$M may have been louder....but from where i am...section A it seems pretty inspired? Students to right of me...i saw MSU QB havinghard time getting team set...

But..whatever...good crowd...
 
But they DIDN'T stop the pass.

MSU ran 87 plays on us. That's a lot of ball movement. And yes, they actually DID have more total offense than us.

The scoreboard is not indicative of how mediocre our defense actually was.
But you could see receivers covered...granted they arent world beaters...
But...refs also let em play...

Overall...i saw improved coverages...and they seemed organized....
 
But they DIDN'T stop the pass.

MSU ran 87 plays on us. That's a lot of ball movement. And yes, they actually DID have more total offense than us.

The scoreboard is not indicative of how mediocre our defense actually was.

There was never a question of whether they gained more than us.

We allowed about 3.4 yards per play. If we did that every week, we'd lead the nation.


We gave up 62 rushing yards. If we did that every week, we'd be second in the nation.


We gave up six points (on the last play of the game after the offense could not close out the game). If we did that every week, we'd be first, instead of 12th, averaging just over 16 points a game.


As has been noted in other posts, plus my quotes from both coaches, we were short DL in this game, MSU took some advantage early, and that was it.

If you think our defensive performance was mediocre, then I completely agree with you that the scoreboard, along with none of the other statistics, provide any support to your view.
 
Not sold on the "got better just like that" deal.... think it's more in line with the competition they were facing with "some" improvement. Rick's finally got "it", but again a lot depends on the competition.... big difference in covering Rob Ezell trying to catch passes from Eric Crouch one weekend to Devonte Smith catching Tua passes the next.
I do know there are different levels of competition in football and all sports. Miss State is not too far away from being a pretty good team. But
certainly not at the level of Tenn, Ga, US and some others in the SEC. They do not have the talent top to bottom. I was more thinking that our DB's were sticking closer to their man and playing the ball better and not playing the man and drawing PI call every other down. Their coverage looked cleaner. Though, there were 2 PI calls in the 4'th I believe. Also, I don't remember any off side calls 0n the DL or any face mask calls and no stupid Personal Fouls. I was talking Technique more than anything but also game planning against Miss State. IMHO, the defensive game plan for Tenn sucked and many of our defenders played with poor technique. It looked somewhat like our defense against Tenn, we were playing an almost scared, un - aggressive not to lose defense, instead of a get after them, with an aggressive as hell attitude. Tenn had our defense between a rock and a hard place all game long. Win or lose, hell or high water, you cannot play a passive defense against the better teams and your players better be using correct techniques in coverage and in your front 7.
 
We gave up six points (on the last play of the game after the offense could not close out the game). If we did that every week, we'd be first, instead of 12th, averaging just over 16 points a game.
A better stat may be how we have done against the better competition and remove the outlier teams. Sorry but a D that gives up 52 points against anyone has a lot of room for improvement.
 
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