Upon Further Review- Alabama

I watched the condensed game again...I have some breakdowns, but my general second watch takeaway is, defensively, its the same ol undisciplined football they've always played under Manny Diaz. Biting on easy, rudimentary misdirection plays...QBs Medusa'ing safeties and linebackers...arm tackles arm tackles arm tackles...poor angles. Usual fare under Manny Diaz.
 
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Thanks for the breakdown, as always.

I CANNOT STAND not capitalizing on opportunities. Nobody hits on all of them, but we literally seized nothing (yeah X made a play but game was already over).

Half the time it was our fault—missed blocks or bad reads on TD chances when our WRs got behind them, Bolden missing the INT, those can be game-changing.

And as if Bama needs any help, the other half of the time we’re getting bent over by the refs. IDGAF what anyone says, a bunch of those missed calls matter. Doesn’t matter if “we would’ve lost anyway” (I don’t disagree), but they make some of those calls correctly—not all, just some—and you’re talking about taking back a King INT + a Bama player is tossed and we get 15; maybe we get a safety; a few sack/TFLs. That **** matters, man. We had one PI go our way, that’s it.

Combine our mistakes + refs + Bama being what they are and you get Saturday’s result: a blow out from the jump where we made exactly zero good impressions.

Tough pill to swallow, that.
 
It's going to be tough, but there are some marginal teams in the Coastal. I imagine several of the Coastal teams beat each other up, but UNC already has a loss and VT is going to be a tough game as well as Pitt and NC State.

Could see Miami finishing anywhere from 7-5 to 10-2. Will be up to Manny to get more out of them than we saw in this one.
Firstly I want to say that the breakdown you provide is very good and does help understand the game better. thanks

On another note, a 10-2 season is delaying the inevitable and the perfect excuse to extend manny. On the other hand although 7-5 is hard to digest, it takes us closer to getting rid of a guy who’s in over his head
 
No lies told. Coaches didn't give him an easy ask, but you live to keep fighting if you get beat on an out. You let him cross you like that with zero resistance and it is curtains.
I agree with what you’re saying about the tight end crossing your face. But on that play, I wonder if he got a bit distracted by seeing that it was a 2 v 1 on a blown call or coverage. If he does his job, the other tight end scores anyway as he was uncovered.
 
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I'm glad you highlighted the king sack/fumble. Watching the game I saw that it should have been a td but I hadn't seen anyone else on the board talk about it. Harley caught his man flat footed on the double move and was literally going to be 10+ yards behind him.
 
I was reluctant to read this for the obvious reasons.

Afterwards, I echo and repeat everyone else‘s appreciation for your work.
 
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Its just not fair that Bama gets a 2nd shot at another Tua. That is who Bryce Young reminds me of somewhat. Hes only 6'0 but man that kid can play some QB.

Glad that you concur that McCloud actually played a solid game. Posters on here want to give him **** but he played alot better than I expected.

I was thinking of this yesterday and you can tell that Bama had been preparing for this game for the last 8 months and our coaches were preparing for the last 8 days for "Bama prep week" as Diaz called it. It showed. Bamas players were not only talented but extremely confident that whatever we threw at them, they could handle and answer. That is just tough to deal with.

Great writeup!! I am not down in the dumps at all. Time for the real season to start and to see what this team can do and how they can recover knowing that they just played the best of the best and won't face anything like that again this season.
Honestly people kept saying it was a good thing we got Bama early and I couldn’t disagree more

having that be our first game was just going to make the glaringly massive coaching disparity even worse
 
Thanks for the breakdown, as always.

I CANNOT STAND not capitalizing on opportunities. Nobody hits on all of them, but we literally seized nothing (yeah X made a play but game was already over).

Half the time it was our fault—missed blocks or bad reads on TD chances when our WRs got behind them, Bolden missing the INT, those can be game-changing.

And as if Bama needs any help, the other half of the time we’re getting bent over by the refs. IDGAF what anyone says, a bunch of those missed calls matter. Doesn’t matter if “we would’ve lost anyway” (I don’t disagree), but they make some of those calls correctly—not all, just some—and you’re talking about taking back a King INT + a Bama player is tossed and we get 15; maybe we get a safety; a few sack/TFLs. That **** matters, man. We had one PI go our way, that’s it.

Combine our mistakes + refs + Bama being what they are and you get Saturday’s result: a blow out from the jump where we made exactly zero good impressions.

Tough pill to swallow, that.
The Bolden drop was a tough one

Im with you. Not saying I expect to make every play but if we were gonna have any hope, Boldens miss was an example of things we had to have go our way
 
I agree with what you’re saying about the tight end crossing your face. But on that play, I wonder if he got a bit distracted by seeing that it was a 2 v 1 on a blown call or coverage. If he does his job, the other tight end scores anyway as he was uncovered.
I agree. It looked like a horrible play by Smith but same time he’s got two dudes running wide open right at him.

cant say I blame him for getting caught
 
"Keontra missed tackle. Drink. He gets a 1st down instead of a loss of two. As the season goes along, this defense can be much better if this is a tackle instead of a 1st."

There were plenty of negatives to take from this beat down this past Saturday but in the interest of fairness and objectivity there were also many things about this game that can be taken as positives. The quote above is a good example and there are many more all throughout the game film.

I'm referring to instances where we are literally inches from making good and impactful plays. For example there were the 2 potential touchdowns to Harley plus a bunch of other plays where just one thing went wrong like Scaife missing a block, King making the wrong read, a receiver not running a precise enough route etc etc....There were also several of these on defense in addition to the quote above. Many where we just miss a sack or an interception. Many where we could have had a TFL or a play stopped at minimal gain.

When I first watched the game I was disgusted and discouraged and as a hard core fan that is only normal. However after going through this post by Lance and the other by Stevo where they break down individual plays from the game. I see a team here that has the potential to be very good but just hasn't completely gelled yet. Before the season I stated several times that this squad could be very good but that it would a team who gets better and better as the season goes on peaking towards the end of the year.

We have a QB coming back from major knee surgery 8 months ago. We have our clear cut #1RB Chaney working his way back after a shoulder injury with his explosive backup Jaylin Knighton suspended. Our RT position was still unsettled going in to the game with Scaife proving he is not the guy and Justice O proving that he is. Our LT coming off a nagging injury and our RG making his first start after missing most of last year with a torn ACL. At WR outside of Harley everyone who is expected to contribute was either very inexperienced or on a different team last year.

Defensively we are breaking in 4 defensive ends who had little previous experience, played a different position or was on another team last year. At LB we had Keontra Smith making his 1st start at Will LB and an inexperienced Corey Flagg making his 1st start at Mike LB. We also had Jennings and Steed playing major minutes because the other 2 LBs who would have been ahead of them(Cave and Brooks) are coming off injuries. At safety Bolden gets tossed in the 1st quarter. Also 2 safeties who were supposed go be 1st off the bench(Balom and Tae Williams) are out for season or suspended 6 games leaving 2 true freshmen(Kinchens and J. Williams) both extremely talented yet very inexperienced to get most of the pt in Boldens absence.

This isn't to make excuses for the overall performance against Alabama. Im just trying to put things in the proper context and perspective. We had no business scheduling a team like Alabama at all much less having them as our opener. Like I said above this team will get better and better with every game and might be pretty good by the end of the season.

We still have issues here. We have valid coaching concerns and the overall game plan on both sides of the ball was extremely disappointing. How we regroup going forward will speak volumes about the character of this football team. We will see.
 
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The targeting no call was hilarious. Miami guy would be ejected before the play ended. For Alabama, it’s just good ole hard nosed football
The infuriating thing was that it was not a targeting no call but rather multiple targeting no calls for Alabama in addition to the multiple holding no calls.
 
Firstly I want to say that the breakdown you provide is very good and does help understand the game better. thanks

On another note, a 10-2 season is delaying the inevitable and the perfect excuse to extend manny. On the other hand although 7-5 is hard to digest, it takes us closer to getting rid of a guy who’s in over his head
Here we go again with this bullshìt.
 
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So we got beat by the likely national champions and heisman winner. Oh and the coaching staff has what two former NFL coaches on it? I mean we never stood a chance. I'm done thinking about Bama and focused on the rest of the schedule.

this Bama team is going to lose 2 football games. We made them look better than what they are.
 
Fantastic, as usual, Lance.

I've watched the game twice now, in addition to live, and I simply become more amazed by Bryce Young each and every time. You hit the nail on the head, he might be the best QB in the country already. By the way, he is the odds on favorite right now to win the Heisman. 4/1, nobody else is below 8/1. Incredible. I, like you, preached for months that Alabama simply MUST have a small drop off, at least early on, on offense. My god was I wrong. Young honestly might be better now than Jones was last year as a Senior. He was simply breathtaking.

I think we will be fine on offense. I was actually encouraged somewhat by the play of the line, I thought that of course they are nowhere near as physical as Bama's front, they held up pretty decently. There were absolutely plays to be made. I was very encouraged by King's arm, he looks much improved from last year, and he was a polished passer then as well. He looks to have taken the next step in the passing game, and with the upgrades at WR, I think we're going to be very explosive throwing the ball.

The tackling and the inability to read plays from the backers and safeties was nauseating. Simply terrible. We can't tackle ANYBODY. And our kids run themselves out of plays far too often. I noticed the same thing you did, that not only does Bama have the best front 7 in the country, their DBs fill run lanes properly and VIOLENTLY. Our kids play patty-cake and then miss a tackle. Farrrrr too passive on defense for my liking.

And the officiating, my god. I really hate saying this type of stuff, because every single team thinks the refs are out to get them. I'm sure there were Bama fans complaining about the refs. It's hard to see every call. But this stuff is really getting out of control. If they don't hold a single time, don't interfere with a single receiver, and don't pull a single facemask, they probably win by multiple scores. But you literally cannot beat Bama's roster with Miami's if they're allowed to do what they did all night. Was there a single hold called in the game either way? You're telling me two FBS teams played 60 minutes, 150+ plays and not a single kid held anyone?! Watching some of these plays back really makes me sick.

Bottom line, outplayed, outexecuted, and outcoached by a MUCH better team. Which was probably the inevitable outcome all along, even though we're always going to be optimistic. I said 10-2 before the season, I saw absolutely nothing Saturday or back on TV that gets me off that number. Anything less than 9-3, and Manny should be fired (I know he won't be, just saying it's hopeless for him here because this roster, while miles away from Bama, should easily be able to win 9-10 of the next 11 with competent coaching).

I just need to see better tackling. If you're bigger at the point of attack, OK. If your QB is the 2nd coming of Christ, OK. But our kids work-out, too. Come up and make a ******* tackle. I'll bet they were credited with at least 10+ broken tackles, that's insane. We have to be MUCH better tackling, and much more physical overall.
Amen to this, I was at the game and kept screaming at our D for someone to make a **** play. No one on D made a big play when we needed it. The amount of talent on Bama is sickening and they get richer and richer every year.
 
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