IYO why does a mobile Qb give our D fits ?

Honestly, I think mobile QBs who are great QBs give us fits. I just think that a great QB who is also mobile is almost impossible to defend.

Newton, Manziel, Watson (and even Chad Kelly to an extent). All 3 of those guys beat us with their arms. They used their legs to extend plays, but if they hadn't been throwing beebees nothing they did with their legs would have mattered.

The other losses were different. Trevor Knight and Oklahoma was much more like the 2010 South Carolina game than the 3 above. 2013 Auburn and 2014 Ohio State were much more similar than the 3 above as well.

Yeah, if our 2015 can't stop a dynamic mobile QB, then it really can't be done. Those guys are special and if they have the athletes around them then its just too hard to stop. If a defense has to respect their passing ability, then its like the offense is playing with 12 men because that QB then has the ability to tuck and run.

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At the same time there were teams with far less talent on d that did a better job of slowing him down .

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The only team that slowed him down was ND , but that game was played in such horrible weather.

Also, Watson had 258 yds passing with 7:31 left in the 4th. Not to take anything away from him, but Bama may have been in a little prevent defense the last 2 scoring drives they gave up.

Again, the elite guys are hard to stop

Here's why:

1) Our defense most often plays in man coverage. Zone coverage makes containing a mobile QB a lot easier but even the best zone defense is still beatable by good throws from a QB making the right reads.

2) Spying the QB takes an extra man out of coverage or out pass rush

3) Most defensive calls are schemed for about 5 seconds of real time action. A QB that prolongs a play increases the odds of a defensive assignment error.

Y'all want the truth about Watson? Or at least what I perceive to be the truth? Saban/Smart weren't planning to stop him. They knew how difficult that would be and if they committed the personnel, he'd kill you on bubble screens, slants, and options. So they tried to formulate a decent plan for winning the ball game, because stopping Watson is meaningless without a win. The main problem I saw was that the LBs were moving up in coverage because they were waiting for a scrambling Watson to give an indication of his plans and then he would burn them for short-ish passes of 10-25 yards.

In a way, Saban and Smart put trust in the secondary by focusing on keeping Watson doing intermediate passes and not burning them for huge plays. They weren't dropping back as much as most teams would, which cost them the intermediate plays but rarely a momentum-changing deep bomb. That plan would have worked if some your players -- the DBs, I think -- hadn't inexplicably kept going for low-percentage strips instead of wrapping up immediately. I counted several instances where the defense gave up an additional, and completely preventable, 5 to 15 yards on top of the original gain.

I think, for once, Kiffin's game-plan was superior to Smart's. But y'all won a shoot-out with an uptempo team despite not being designed or run as one (generally speaking, because Saban/Kiffin have definitely done some hurry-up, but the overall team dynamic is still a pro-style hybrid with some spread elements.) If you can beat them at their own game, well, go ahead and do it. I know it hurts watching your defense get gashed -- it hurt me because I love great defense -- but sometimes you just have to go, "frick it" and trade punches.

(And, yes, this is for good dual threats. When you wipe out teams like A&M because they no longer have a Heisman QB, or dominate teams Mississippi State despite their running QB, it's pretty easy to see that it's the player, not the philosophy.)

Edit: I forgot I was on the Alabama board, else I would have added that y'all crushed Auburn sans Newton. I apologize -- it was very rude of me not to insult Auburn on your own board.

A QB who is on his game, and let's face it Watson was spot on almost all night.

His first TD...guy is covered, ball drops in perfectly.

2nd TD, perfect throw.

The one that was raked out of the receiver's arms in the corner of the end zone when he threw it and I saw the DB looking back at him I thought "there's a pick" and it rainbowed in to the perfect spot.

You just hope you make a few spectacular plays on those perfect throws. Otherwise if the receiver hangs on it's 6.

He'd have killed any team not named Bama that night. If he plays like that next year, look out.

As good as Bama's d line was this year, they should have had a spy on the qb all night long.

I don't know if its already been mentioned, but their gameplan of not substituting on offense was really effective. We couldn't substitute much, and they were able to have success with basically 11 players the whole game. Wore our defense the frick out.

Any great QB will give any team fits.

Dual thrwat QBs, along with HUNH, will neutralize a substituting defense.
But a pro style passer, who is on his game is also indefensible. Look at your best pro QBs. Look who is still in the playoffs. And NFL defenses are far superior to Bama`s defense.