re: What to really take away from the Sugar Bowl

The offense is fine. We had problems this year because we didn't have a power back and we had a rebuilt OL that actually outperformed expectations.

We've had three losses under Nuss all three were to Top 10 (well 11) opponents. In all three games we averaged 480 yards per game. We also outgained each opponent in total yardage. In these losses. This despite not being a spread offense but a pro style offense.

The reasons we lost all three games were not the play calls, after all the same guy calling the same plays that we executed in the 24 wins.

The reason for all three losses were turnovers. The Texas A/M game the key turnover involved Kenny Bell running the wrong route allowing the man that was supposed to follow him to be the pass's flight path.

Under Nussmeier, we turned the ball over ball over on average of less than 1 every other game in our 24 wins. But we had 9 turnovers in the 3 losses for an average of three a game. We even had 5 turnovers today.

Turnovers come down to execution. Nussmeier can only call the plays. Execution comes down to the players. AJ doesn't make mistakes except when he does. And when he and the offense made mistakes against good teams in Auburn, ATM, and Oklahoma we lost. It is a simple fact of life. You turn the ball over against good teams you tend to lose.

Also in all three losses under Nuss we got into a "track meet" with a Spread offense. Two of those offenses were basically Big 12 offenses in ATM and Oklahoma.

These track meets didn't give our D's a chance to rest. And the playcalling in each of these games was fairly aggressive. We actually have a better track record against Spread offenses by going slower and making them play at our tempo.

So your premise isn't making any sense. If Nussmeier was a bad offensive coordinator we would be losing games because of the plays we called. We haven't. You forget what a bad offensive coordinator looks like. To remind you go watch even a WIN where Mike Shula, Dave Rader, or Major Applewhite are calling the plays. Its atrocious.

Doug Nussmeier is a damn fine offensive coordinator and QB coach. I get being upset over a loss but make your arguments make some sense.

Under Nuss we have played two seasons where in one he was calling plays for a team that had a green mostly rebuilt defense for his counterpart.

The 2nd team he called plays for had D that was far from shutdown (and still had a green secondary). And he had to cope with losing 3 great talents on the OL.

Nussmeier has called some truly brilliant games. 2013 ATM, 2012/2013 Notre Dame, 2012/2013 LSU (both games).

So you are a Nuss apologist. Did Nuss not see our qb was getting killed out there? Could he not have put an extra back or tight end to pick up the pass rusher? They were blitzing the shite out of us. Why didn't we continue to call screen passes to keep them honest? Why did we go to three passes after Henry was gashing the defense?

I could give a shite about all the yards that he has helped us gain. When it comes down to it, he sucked. With the ATM game this year, he didn't have to account for a defense. It was nonexistent. With ND, we out talented them by a wide margin.

AJ was holding on to the ball too long admittedly. Why didn't we put Yeldon and Henry both in to pick up the blitz/set up the screen? And why didn't we have any designed pass plays to Howard. He is a mismatch nightmare, but we only attempted one pass to him. That is on Nuss.

Why is everyone bitching about the offense when we had a QB who threw for nearly 400 yards last night, a pair of 100 yard wide receivers, and a RB who rushed for 100 yards on 8 carries?

The offense has not been the problem this year, not since September anyway. The defense, particularly our secondary, played horribly last night. Though I will admit the offenses's FIVE turnovers didn't help at all.

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I've lost faith in our coaching staff to truly prepare our guys.

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And there it is.

You are part of the problem.

Were you expecting Bama to win every game and the BCS title 2 out of every three years from here on out?

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And there it is. You are part of the problem.

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So tell me: after seeing two craptastic game plans, do you still have faith that our coaching staff will adjust? I'm sorry to say this, but I don't. What was our adjustment to JFF? I mean, Saban and Smart with a whole offseason to prepare will shut him down. 42 points later and we barely win in a shoot out. Are you telling me that was the best that they could do?

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Were you expecting Bama to win every game and the BCS title 2 out of every three years from here on out?

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I was expecting us to learn from the AU mistakes and not get beaten by the team that got wiped out by Baylor and a craptastic Texas team. I guess that is having too high of expectations for a man who is making 7 million.

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Because we could have done more on offense.

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We out gained OU last night by almost 100 yards. We moved the ball consistently down the field so play calling was not the problem. Execution was the problem last night as evidenced by the 5 turnovers. AJ threw one ball into triple coverage and threw a bad pass out to Cooper toward the end of the second half.

Damn I hope Saban doesn't read this board haha. If I was Saban and I read most of the comments around here. I would take the money (he has no buyout still) and go sit around the Lake and fish. Let some of our fanbase run the program.

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What makes you think that? We lose HaHa who is our best player in the secondary. We have Landon Collins and a crap ton of unknowns.

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We return Landon Collins and Vinnie Sunseri will be back from injury. Sunseri is responsible for getting the secondary in position, and Clinton-Dix was never able to replicate Sunseri's ability in that regard. They lose Deion Belue, Nick Perry, and John Fulton. Belue has never been good, Perry and Fulton only played sparingly. Cyrus Jones, Geno Smith, Brandon Sylve, Jarrick Williams, and Eddie Jackson all return after getting valuable minutes in 2013, and they will improve with time. Think of the leaps Dre Kirkpatrick and Dee Milliner made after sorry 2010 campaigns. They already have one 5 star and one 4 star defensive back committed and will very likely land a second 5 star in Marlon Humphrey. Any way you slice it, the secondary should improve.

Bama will be fine next year as long as the o-line improves. I think we might need to replace everone coming back on the o-line next year, except Kelly(Kelly needs to get above 300 lbs) With Cyrus and Steen gone Bama needs to go with mostly new players C-Rob and Hill at the tackles, Dom Jackson and Brow or Sheppard at guard. The secondary will be one of the best in the Saban era next year. The o-line steps up and Bama will at leats win the conference.