So, what do you think needs the most improvement? IMO The O line is glaring and I don’t see any improvements in over all defense. The best Hog we have in the team at his job ATM may be Baker. Do you think we have talent to compete or is this a coaching issue not getting it done? Please don’t argue style of play- that argument is such a dead horse. And Go.
Defense. We were supposed to be much improved, but the D is awful. Bama and A&M ran at will. If you can’t stop the run you can’t win.
A close second is the OL. I knew we’d be weak there, but I don’t see them improving much this year. The Froholt move has been a bust. He shoulda redshirted. If he’s the best we have, the OL is in bad, bad shape.
I am going to reserve my opinion on the Defense until a couple more games. I think the aTm issues were scheme driven. As for tonight, the 5 turnovers will just kill you. Put our defense in a horrible position time and again. Plus, the loss of Greenlaw was bigger than most think. That being said, the defense must get better for us to have success the rest of the way. The O-line is my biggest problem with this team. Specifically, the guard play is just really bad. I would try and move Ragnow to LG and let Rogers play center. Or give Jackson and Merrick a shot at guard. At this point it can’t hurt.
Most of those 5 turnovers were directly due to the constantly insufficient protection that O-line was denying AA. That Alabama defensive line and Saban blitzes had AA bouncing around like a pinball every passing situation which became a constant need when the Hogs fell way behind. The turnovers were therefore due to the O-Line problem more than an execution problem to be reckoned with and noted separately.
I won’t pass too much judgement based on a Bama loss… We are not in their caliber. As the season progress and we play our SEC equals of Ole Miss, Auburn, Miss St. etc… then we will see where we are. I am surprised that AA is playing as well as he has. We are up to par at QB, which if we are not successful the rest of the season bodes poorly for CBB. The DL has not gotten many calls, as much as I hear about Detrich Wise in the preseason, the games I have seen so far he is not proving to be a standout. Our best win is TCU who caught a break on a freak play to slip by Kansas. Other than that we are talking again about quality losses (but were not really close ) to two good SEC teams, if we lose to Ole Miss, then we add them to the list of quality losses. Nothing will be easy from here out. Glad AA is still in one piece after the last two games.
All true… But we have good depth!!! As you say plug any of the other guys in at OL positions and we won’t drop much… Man I love good depth and the other important stat… I think we beat Bama in time of possession with the ball!! How did we come up short?
Obviously we are not in Bama’s league but after the last 2 years we ALL thought we were closing the gap. We were misled big time! This defense has not improved at all and the OL, repeatedly is affecting our ability to move the ball but is setup to give our backup QB’s reason to stay ready. How long will it be before AA goes to Bielema and insist that Froholdt be replaced. Looking at the replays he on several occasions never touched the rusher. How many of those plays could resulted in positive yardage but instead AA gets tackled?
After watching the game again, one of the issues that kept rearing it’s ugly head is youth and inexperience.
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Stewart on the kickoff fumble. He absolutely hit the gap and looked explosive doing so. I like him being there to give us a boost on returns. But, he didn’t cover the ball up with both hands while exploding thru the wave of tacklers. Stewart is a RFr.
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Froholdt is as powerful as any lineman I have seen. On plays where he gets his assignments down, he is a beast. Sadly that is few and far between. A lot of the pressures from aTm and Bama were from the left interior.He is a sophomore, but he really is as inexperienced as any Freshman.
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Whaley and even RWIII are going to be really good backs. But, 2 times Whaley absolutely whiffed on pass blocking, and both lead to sacks. RWIII also had a missed block, but I couldn’t tell if that was his assignment or the LG’s. I think that is why you saw so much of Walker in the second half. Both running backs are going to be studs, IMHO. Just have to really get the pass blocking aspect of the position down. Once again inexperience pops up.
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Defensively, once Greenlaw went out we had to replace him with Harris. At first glance I thought he had a really bad game. After the 2nd viewing, I noticed he made 4 or 5 really sound plays for us. I can see why the coaches are so high on him. That being said, there were 4 or 5 plays where he took some really bad angles, missed his reads, and didn’t plug his gap. Every one of those plays were big plays for Bama. This defense is predicated on the D-line causing havoc, but the linebackers have to make the plays and contain everything. Harris will be a solid LB, but once again, Freshman. Inexperience shows up again. Our corners have been solid all year. No complaints with them. We simply have no playmaking safeties on the team. That must be addressed through recruiting.
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My last observation is of Coach Enos. 2 things that drove me crazy was that he never really even tried to establish the run, and his stubbornness in calling bootleg pass plays. On my second viewing of the game, I counted 8 times he called a bootleg pass. Only 1 time did it work, and only because AA made a great move to avoid the defender. Defensively, Bama always takes away certain aspects of your offense. It was obvious that they knew our bootlegs had been very successful for us in the past. And they were having none of it. Why, why did he keep going back to that dried up well? As for the running game. Here are the RB’s stats for the game.
RWIII= 12-46 1TD 3.8ypc
Whaley= 5-21 4.2ypc
Walker= 4-15 3.8ypc
Combined:
RB’s= 21-82 1TD 3.9ypc
Only one time did our RBs get stopped for a loss. Walker lost 2 yards on a rush.
Not great numbers, but not horrific either. Yet, we passed it 48 times! Way to many passes. AA should never pass it more than 30 to 35 times and we should always give our backs 30 touches, IMHO. I wish he would have been as stubborn with the running game, as he was with bootleg pass plays.
I agree with HOGSBREATH on this one. Its too early to panic and I think Froholdt should drop to two’s and we re-tool the OL. Greenelaw injury didn’t help either. The defense looks like its fragmented in its thinking and therefore slow and unaggressive. K.I.S.S. IMHO AA is not the problem here and if the OL finally pulls it all together that will be bourn out. It just appears that all the coaches are doing their thing and nothing is being pulled together for 11 on the field at once. If we are more than +1 in turnover margin in our next game then the coaching staff needs some attention. Perhaps the AD calls down and asks what is going on. HOGS YA’LL.
We need a coach who is tough to teach our young men to be tough. CBB cries and whines and is soft during two a days. Enough already. Its not the style its the coach. Although I hate Broyles ball.