State of Alabama defense

[tidefanbeezer]

A horrible stat in which we're dead last in the nation - 3 and outs...

SDS

This is what kills me. We have gotten teams in 3rd and medium/long and give up big 1st down plays. We can limit them on 1st and 2nd - what is happening on 3rd down?

 

[bamamc1]

If you are wondering where our defense went, it's in athens. That's what ours used to look like.

Smart had more trouble stopping the offenses of today more than any d coordinator we’ve had. Jeremy runs circles around him.

 

[Ole Man Dan]

First, I was so frustrated all night with the defense that I couldn’t even complete my post in the second half game thread.
Like I said in a earlier post I get offenses have evolved and rules have been changed to benefit offenses but for the life of me I don’t understand our defensive philosophy since Pruitt left. We don’t shift our line to create confusion for the offensive lineman, our linebackers are not moving around to create confusion, fake blitz’s etc, and our safeties are not head hunters. The last two years have been the worst two years in Alabama history. You can give excuses all day but the fact of the matter is we have 5* and 4* all over our defense and no one is making plays. They look tentative and confused. We said it was the LB’s being inexperienced last year but we have a 5* 4th yr junior calling defense and there is that same confusion. I get this is Saban’s defense but he doesn’t call the defenses. There is one common factor in the confusion the last two years and it is Pete Golding. I think he is more confused than the players. Oklahoma didn’t even want him and we are stuck with him. Do us all a favor Pete and miss the bus back to Tuscaloosa. Better yet Saban get him a Uber back to Tulsa.

One word comes to mind.
Disarray
My second choice would be Incompetent.

 

[bamamc1]

CNS defense is extremely complex. The pattern matching and switches in coverage is something that’s hard to explain especially in today’s football. When we won our last title, our defense was suffering through a lot of injuries. Jeremy made the pitch to CNS to simply the defense. That’s where we are now. We have 2 true freshmen starting on defense with I’m sure several more that haven’t played a great deal.

We play the biggest game of the year to date Saturday night. I think we’ll get right by then
RTR

 

[Padreruf]

Here's a stat that is revealing...from a link on another thread (kyallie's Latest Bama News...)

Had the Ole Miss offense started every single drive without a defense to oppose them, they would have gained 777 yards. To their credit, Alabama held them to only 636 yards. 141 yards better than playing against air is something, I guess.

 

[gtgilbert]

A couple of thoughts:

1 - I am going to assume that a part of the problem with tackling was wet football players. For the most part, you guys were getting to the RBs early in plays with good form, but for some reason, time after time, they simply slipped out of good form tackles. I would say that represented at least 50% of your missed tackles, and if you eliminate those Alabama wins by 30. I don't know how to tackle wet football players better, but you can't tackle that poorly again.

2 - Communication in the game last night was the biggest reason for the busted plays, and there were a ton of them. You were not getting set, and your players did not know where to line up. Some will blame that on the speed of Ole Miss' offense, but you have played fast offenses before. This is fundamental in this era of football. Need to get better at getting the defensive calls onto the field and getting the defense set.

3 - Lost confidence is my biggest concern going into the GA game. You can't play in this defense if you do not trust yourself. Kiffin and Sark are the two best offensive minds in college football right now. You won't have to face Kiffin again this year. Throw out the tape and move forward.

4 - Golding is responsible for getting the calls on the field. He is also the guy who is responsible for coaching the ILBs. The ILBs set the back 7 of the defense. Even with Moses and Harris back there - probably the most talented ILB combo in college football - you are not getting set. That is 100% on Golding. Not injuries. Not inexperienced players, not Covid - Golding. I don't have the answer - I just know that it isn't Golding. And not just because he is not good enough at defensive play calling - he is not a good ILB coach.

At this point, agree with all this. I had been trying to give Golding a mulligan for last year due to the ILB situation, but after the debacle Sat, it's all on him. As you said, in today's brand of football, there is ZERo excuse for not having the play call in almost immediately after the prior play is called down. A DC MUST assume the same personnel package and make a call, right then. If the other team subs you can think about changes.

 

[crimsonaudio]

Here's a stat that is revealing...from a link on another thread (kyallie's Latest Bama News...)

Had the Ole Miss offense started every single drive without a defense to oppose them, they would have gained 777 yards. To their credit, Alabama held them to only 636 yards. 141 yards better than playing against air is something, I guess.

The same stat for Ole Miss shows they stopped Bama by only 41 yards!

 

[The Ols]

The same stat for Ole Miss shows they stopped Bama by only 41 yards!

Bama:
11 drives
9 TDs
1 punt (from OM's 40)
1 Fumble on the Goal Line...
Total=41 yards...

 

[Tidetwin]

We would make one heck of a flag football team.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I'm hoping that, with a dry field and dry players, tackling will improve a bit with UGA...

 

[The Ols]

I'm hoping that, with a dry field and dry players, tackling will improve a bit with UGA...

We need more Barmore! ( Said in a Will Farrell voice...)

 

[Padreruf]

I'm hoping that, with a dry field and dry players, tackling will improve a bit with UGA...

Hope is not a really good game plan in CFB...I expect that tackling will be priority #1 this week...then lining up properly...followed by how to read the opposing team's formation.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Hope is not a really good game plan in CFB...I expect that tackling will be priority #1 this week...then lining up properly...followed by how to read the opposing team's formation.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. Our major problem Saturday was YAC. I expect the other two problems to be very secondary against UGA. You have one OC who specializes in being unpredictable. UGA never aspired to that. We tackle; we win, IMO...

 

[B1GTide]

We tackle; we win, IMO...

Agree 100%

 

[BamaMoon]

We'll just have to agree to disagree. Our major problem Saturday was YAC. I expect the other two problems to be very secondary against UGA. You have one OC who specializes in being unpredictable. UGA never aspired to that. We tackle; we win, IMO...

Yes, someone noted if we make the initial tackle at point of contact on most of those broken ones, we aren't even having this conversation and we win going away.

I'm still concerned about the blown coverages but I've never seen a CNS team miss that many tackles in one game. NEVER! I made the comment in the game thread it was the worse CNS led defensive effort since 2007 and someone said we never played that bad even in his first year.

 

[crimsonaudio]

 

[Jkl0802]

Okay, one more of many one more final thoughts - the mush rush is a failure. Time for Saban to realize it and throw it in the dumpster. Most teams do not do this. Alabama started doing it because of the Manziel game. It is time to stop. It does not work.

BIGTIDE, I think you are absolutely right! You don’t see the mush rush in the NFL. Linemen and linebackers are twisting and stunting to put immediate pressure on the QB. Also, the saying that sacks, near sacks and hits just after a throw don’t matter is a failure too. Another Failure is allowing a QB to stand back in the pocket and make Progressive reads to find the open receiver.

 

[TIDE24]

B1G touched on this, but the most concerning thing to me was the well balanced attack they had. They had 268 yards rushing and two 100 plus yard rushers. Neither of them with a run longer than 34 yards. When is the last time two guys have rushed the ball for over 100 yards on us in the same game. I also wondered if the wet conditions played a factor in the poor tackling ( I hope so for our sake). They kept us off balance and systematically ran the ball on us, inside and out. CNS's goal is always to make a team one dimensional. Take something away, force them to do one thing. We were never able to do that. I hope this a learning experience that may have been embarrassing, but did not cost us a loss. Hopefully we can recover from this, learn form it and move on.

Someone mentioned Kiffen has been game planning for this game since this summer, he has been putting this game plan together since the loss in 2009 when he was at ut. He still brings up that loss.

 

[gymcoach]

I keep seeing people talk about the tackling problem being contributed to wet players. Sorry, I don’t buy it. We were always taught to get our heads in front and wrap. Not saying to lead with the crown. I see our players, and other teams too, continue to try to grab. Unless the guy is running away from you or you are tied up there is no reason to grab. You have shoulder pads use them!! Yes, wet jerseys will cause missed tackles if you are grabbing but if you use your pads and wrap you don’t have issues with wet uniforms. The wet uniforms is a excuse for poor form by 85-90% of our players tackling. Drive through the guy!

 

[B1GTide]

I keep seeing people talk about the tackling problem being contributed to wet players. Sorry, I don’t buy it. We were always taught to get our heads in front and wrap. Not saying to lead with the crown. I see our players, and other teams too, continue to try to grab. Unless the guy is running away from you or you are tied up there is no reason to grab. You have shoulder pads use them!! Yes, wet jerseys will cause missed tackles if you are grabbing but if you use your pads and wrap you don’t have issues with wet uniforms. The wet uniforms is a excuse for poor form by 85-90% of our players tackling. Drive through the guy!

I agree, but I saw many plays in the backfield where Alabama defenders used good form and the RB simply "slid" away. It really was like they had crisco on their uniforms.

You might be shocked to learn that most tackles start with a grab. In the open field you may get a chance to line up the offensive player, but most tackles are just a defender reaching out with a hand or arm (whatever they can free up from a blocker) and grabbing the player with the ball.