Defensive Adjustments Question

[NoNC4Tubs]

Well, for the record I'm not calling for Womack to be fired. I wish Alabama kept Saban's system, I'm not sure of the necessity to change it, but I understand Womack doesn't necessarily have the expertise to run it anyway. What I want for now though, is for Womack to succeed. I'd like him to have more support ultimately.

Without going even further into the weeds, I will note that this is still early, it could turn out that Womack ends up with the better rated defense once this is all said and done. It does make me wonder if the maturation of Golding might finally be happening, he was never lacking in terms of understanding of defense, but his in game adjustments were questionable. If he's cleaned that up he could end up being a truly great DC, clearly the guy that Saban thought he could be.

To be fair, Saban's system was way too complicated. It takes a LOT of thinking in that scheme and greatly impacts reaction speed. CKW has a system that lets the players better use their speed with less thinking. His system has a far smaller learning curve and with the player's short attention span these days (NIL/Portal), this may have eventually bit us in the butt anyways in regards to Saban's scheme.

I wonder if CKW was thinking that with the talent that he is now working with would make up for properly scheming for the Veer/Option offense that we faced this past Saturday...? He certainly didn't appear to know how to adjust for it.

 

[cdub55]

Here is a prime example of what I am referencing. This is the first play of the game. Vanderbilt is in a tightend and wing set. They have 8 gaps that must be covered by alignment. We, for all intents and purposes, match that up with a 4 man front and 3 linebackers. We can only cover 7 gaps unless we get a run fit from the safety who is rolled down to 7 yards or we 2 gap with the nose, which we aren't doing. Add to it that they are a team that is running a variation of the option which forces the defense to play assignment football (dive, pitch, qb), it is very difficult to stop this offense. I like Coach KW but we did not play with the intensity or the correct game plan imo to have success Saturday. Not making excuses for him but he more than likely doesn't have the experience or knowledge to defend an offense such as Vanderbilt's and this is why it is always nice to have a veteran coach such as Charles Kelly on staff.

 

[Slowpoke Catracho]

Here is a prime example of what I am referencing. This is the first play of the game. Vanderbilt is in a tightend and wing set. They have 8 gaps that must be covered by alignment. We, for all intents and purposes, match that up with a 4 man front and 3 linebackers. We can only cover 7 gaps unless we get a run fit from the safety who is rolled down to 7 yards or we 2 gap with the nose, which we aren't doing. Add to it that they are a team that is running a variation of the option which forces the defense to play assignment football (dive, pitch, qb), it is very difficult to stop this offense. I like Coach KW but we did not play with the intensity or the correct game plan imo to have success Saturday. Not making excuses for him but he more than likely doesn't have the experience or knowledge to defend an offense such as Vanderbilt's and this is why it is always nice to have a veteran coach such as Charles Kelly on staff.
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I could tell we had no intensity on the first Vandy drive of the day with the way they were firing off the ball and knocking our line backwards.

 

[KrAzY3]

To be fair, Saban's system was way too complicated. It takes a LOT of thinking in that scheme and greatly impacts reaction speed.

Sometimes doing things the hard way is better though. Saban's system had 10 national titles and the number 1 defense several times, The swarm D has had neither as far as I'm aware.

It doesn't mean Womacks can't succeed, but we're comparing one that consistently put teams in the title game to something we haven't even seen succeed in the SEC.

 

[Slowpoke Catracho]

Sometimes doing things the hard way is better though. Saban's system had 10 national titles and the number 1 defense several times, The swarm D has had neither as far as I'm aware.

It doesn't mean Womacks can't succeed, but we're comparing one that consistently put teams in the title game to something we haven't even seen succeed in the SEC.

I remember when Perkins replaced Coach Bryant and everyone got mad at him because he didn't run the Wishbone. The problem is not the problem, the problem is our attitude about the problem.

 

[cdub55]

I could tell we had no intensity on the first Vandy drive of the day with the way they were firing off the ball and knocking our line backwards.

The beauty of the option is that it doesn't allow one player to beat you if ran correctly. When defending it, it is best to run the scout team without a football. Being superman on defense doesn't work against a team like this. You may be assigned the dive option the entire game and may never make a play, but the one time you try to do more than what you are assigned to do, they break one off for 30 because you didn't do your job. It takes extreme discipline and understanding of who you have on each play to defend successfully. We looked as if we were trying to defend it similarly to any other offense and each player was looking to "make a play". We saw how that worked out...

 

[Jay Hughes]

They threw a parade for Jesus one week then crucified Him the next....and Wommack ain't Jesus. Things can change quick with these people creatures. He better learn to get off the field on 3rd down. LOL!

GA was 3 of 15 on 3rd down. We will not face another triple option team as far as I know.

 

[KrAzY3]

I remember when Perkins replaced Coach Bryant and everyone got mad at him because he didn't run the Wishbone. The problem is not the problem, the problem is our attitude about the problem.

The problem is losing to Vanderbilt and not being able to make stops against Georgia in the second half.

As far as Perkins goes, he was 32-15 at Alabama. That's a problem. People wouldn't have been upset if he changed things and succeeded. If you change things and fail, well then all you did was mess things up...

 

[cdub55]

GA was 3 of 15 on 3rd down. We will not face another triple option team as far as I know.

Including the 2nd half of GA and the entire Vandy game our defense has now allowed the offense to successfully convert 17 of 26 third and fourth down plays.

 

[JustNeedMe81]

Listening to that, I think the defense was little too basic against Vandy.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Listening to that, I think the defense was little too basic against Vandy.

From the video:

"Bama fans, your players didn't get beat, you're scheme got beat."-The Film Guy

 

[gtgilbert]

Here is a prime example of what I am referencing. This is the first play of the game. Vanderbilt is in a tightend and wing set. They have 8 gaps that must be covered by alignment. We, for all intents and purposes, match that up with a 4 man front and 3 linebackers. We can only cover 7 gaps unless we get a run fit from the safety who is rolled down to 7 yards or we 2 gap with the nose, which we aren't doing. Add to it that they are a team that is running a variation of the option which forces the defense to play assignment football (dive, pitch, qb), it is very difficult to stop this offense. I like Coach KW but we did not play with the intensity or the correct game plan imo to have success Saturday. Not making excuses for him but he more than likely doesn't have the experience or knowledge to defend an offense such as Vanderbilt's and this is why it is always nice to have a veteran coach such as Charles Kelly on staff.
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Thanks for this - love the breakdown. I think we are betting the S will run fit the far outside left gap, but sure would prefer him to be way closer to the LOS if that is the case.

I also think there's a challenge with our personnel alignment. Best I can tell, we have Latham at the top, well outside the RT, then we have Q Rob head up the LT. Maybe Vandy motioned to this, but it puts us in a spot where if they run left the OT and TE can much more easily combo a guy like Q Rob at 240 pounds versus Latham at 280, and still pretty easily get the TE to the next level. If they run right, unless we are stunting Latham inside and expecting the LB to get all the way outside, we've now got a 280 guy trying to maintain the outside leverage which he likely doesn't have the speed to do. I'm not sure why we don't bump Latham to inside shoulder of the RT and slide the ILB outside a yard or or so and have him responsible for the outside.

 

[cdub55]

Thanks for this - love the breakdown. I think we are betting the S will run fit the far outside left gap, but sure would prefer him to be way closer to the LOS if that is the case.

I also think there's a challenge with our personnel alignment. Best I can tell, we have Latham at the top, well outside the RT, then we have Q Rob head up the LT. Maybe Vandy motioned to this, but it puts us in a spot where if they run left the OT and TE can much more easily combo a guy like Q Rob at 240 pounds versus Latham at 280, and still pretty easily get the TE to the next level. If they run right, unless we are stunting Latham inside and expecting the LB to get all the way outside, we've now got a 280 guy trying to maintain the outside leverage which he likely doesn't have the speed to do. I'm not sure why we don't bump Latham to inside shoulder of the RT and slide the ILB outside a yard or or so and have him responsible for the outside.

In Coach KW's defense, it was a simple screenshot of one play and "on paper" I can assure you he has all the gaps accounted for. Of course there is post snap gap exchanges (at times) and what you see is not always what you get, but my point was I did not think we took away what they do best Saturday. I've always personally believed that if we could stop them from doing what they wanted to do, and forced them to try to beat us doing something that they necessarily weren't great doing, we gave ourselves a chance to get off the field and win. Saturday, Vanderbilt was never uncomfortable offensively. We needed to shove more bodies in the box but not necessarily always send all of them. This would have screwed with their blocking assignments and forced their hand a little more as opposed to giving them more conservative looks and keeping the whole playbook open.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

In Coach KW's defense, it was a simple screenshot of one play and "on paper" I can assure you he has all the gaps accounted for. Of course there is post snap gap exchanges (at times) and what you see is not always what you get, but my point was I did not think we took away what they do best Saturday. I've always personally believed that if we could stop them from doing what they wanted to do, and forced them to try to beat us doing something that they necessarily weren't great doing, we gave ourselves a chance to get off the field and win. Saturday, Vanderbilt was never uncomfortable offensively. We needed to shove more bodies in the box but not necessarily always send all of them. This would have screwed with their blocking assignments and forced their hand a little more as opposed to giving them more conservative looks and keeping the whole playbook open.

I think the layman's answer is Wommack's scheme got out schemed. I've already watched a few videos about the game and that's basically what's being said. Vandys OC out schemed our DC and he never could properly adjust.

 

[cdub55]

I think the layman's answer is Wommack's scheme got out schemed. I've already watched a few videos about the game and that's basically what's being said. Vandys OC out schemed our DC and he never could properly adjust.

Hard to argue against that for sure. The only other answer is that KW's philosophy against that particular offense is not very good. He has a lot of good people around him and he is a good and smart coach. I'd be shocked if some adjustments and motivation aren't in the works.

 

[Cruloc]

Listening to that, I think the defense was little too basic against Vandy.

Completely out schemed and out coached. Their OC > Our DC.

We were running the same basic defensive scheme every 3rd down....and dare I say we were doing the same vs UGA on 4th down.

Too predictable, too easy to out scheme. Wommack either couldn't or wouldn't adjust.

If he couldn't....then DeBoer needs a new DC at the end of the year...after we've given up 40+ points every remaining game.

If he wouldn't....then DeBoer needs a new DC now because the dude is going to ruin his career.

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

Alabama defenders suggest change in speed of defensive play-calling

Alabama's defensive players pinpointed an area of defensive play-calling that could be changed in the future.

www.on3.com

“I think sometimes we get the call in a little late, so sometimes it gives us a little anxiety of not knowing what the offense is gonna run or adjusting to their formations,” Moore said. “Coach [Wommack], that’s kind of his style of calling, which one is gonna put us in a perfect position. He knows that we’re at ‘Bama now, and we have a lot of pieces, so he doesn’t have to compensate for anything. As long as he gives us a call and allows us to get our feet in the dirt we’re gonna be great.”


"I think that was the feedback I’ve gotten, just from the d-line all the way to the secondary, we feel like if we can just get the call in a little bit quicker, it can give us time to line up and go whip the man in front of us,” Moore said.

Don't know what to make of this but I don't feel great about it

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

Alabama defenders suggest change in speed of defensive play-calling

Alabama's defensive players pinpointed an area of defensive play-calling that could be changed in the future.

www.on3.com

Don't know what to make of this but I don't feel great about it

I guess it's a positive...so let's take a wait and see atti tude.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Alabama defenders suggest change in speed of defensive play-calling

Alabama's defensive players pinpointed an area of defensive play-calling that could be changed in the future.

www.on3.com

Don't know what to make of this but I don't feel great about it

We had this same problem with Golding. Defensive calls getting in too late.

 

[KrAzY3]

It isn't that Womack has no SEC experience, he was a fullback at Arkansas. He was also a GA at Ole Miss.

In 2016 he faced Miss. State and held them to 20, in 2017 he faced Ole Miss and gave up 47, both as the South Alabama DC. In 2019 he faced Tennessee as the Indiana DC and gave up 23, in 2020 he faced Ole Miss and gave up 26. Even though only one of those was a win, those aren't bad results really, but also a small sample size.

I just think he's dealing with an entirely different situation now, where these teams have Alabama circled on the schedule and they understand performance against Alabama might very well mean job security. He's going to get the best shot these OCs have, and he'll need to adapt to the rigors of an SEC schedule.

This doesn't mean he can't do what he needs to do though, he's just failed to do it in the past 6 quarters. I hope he can right the ship. It's still too early to talk about firing him, but it will be worth checking back in a few weeks to see how he's progressed.