re: Bama Football Tidings

I agree. I don't care what the stats say. There is no way i believe our defense isn't better than the defenses over the last two years.

Agreed that the defense has come LIGHT YEARS from the Golding years. Under Golding, you would see:

A lot of sloppy tackling

Poor pursuit angles

Lack of physicality

More dumb personal foul penalties

Golding being completely unprepared, almost like he'd never watched any film of the other team before the game. It drove me INSANE how many times in a crucial situation, our guys were waiting for a defensive signal with their arms out "What do we do??!?!" and sometimes, our guys would have to ad lib out there.

No fire in the belly

Not saying the defense if playing perfect right now but it's massively improved.

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Are you trying to argue that we were better on defense under Pete than under Steele?

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No one wanted Golding gone more than I did.

I’m simply posting the FEI data because I think Rees being nominated for the Broyles award given the first half of the season we had offensively is premature at best. Did you catch the quote during the Kentucky game that none of the QB run stuff was even in the playbook until a couple weeks ago? If that wasn’t taken out of context that’s insane.

Do I think the offense is probably a top 7-10 offense in the country with Milroe running the ball decisively? Absolutely.

But I also think we could’ve saved half a season of scuffling by letting him show run 5-7 times a game earlier on and possibly avoiding the loss to Texas while taking pressure off the OL.

The data defensively is strange to me because the eye test is night and day better than last year, but statistically we are not showing out the way I thought we would.

For example if you look at only rush defense against RBs we are off the charts good from an efficiency standpoint. But for whatever reason the QB run attack for Tennessee and LSU was really tough for us to handle and I think it’s dropping us a bit statistically when other teams in the league are dealing with it a little bit more effectively.

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Do I think the offense is probably a top 7-10 offense in the country with Milroe running the ball decisively? Absolutely.

But I also think we could’ve saved half a season of scuffling by letting him show run 5-7 times a game earlier on and possibly avoiding the loss to Texas while taking pressure off the OL.

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I believe the consensus is that Milroe wasn’t confident enough early on and that led to indecision. Last thing I want is an indecisive QB being asked to run an offense with a heavy dose of RPO and designed QB runs

I think the Milroe situation is interesting. Caveat for the rest of this post: I have absolutely no source or inside information.

I think Milroe was the issue, not the playcalling. I think he was bound and determined to be a pocket passer, regardless of what the defense offered. I dunno if that's because he wants to let the NFL see what he can do as a passing QB, or if he wanted to prove it to himself and others, or what ... but he absolutely refused to run unless a passing play went completely off-script (e.g., the scrambling touchdown in the first game against MTSU, when the snap was bad).

At some point over the last three or four games, it looks like he's changed his mindset. I dunno if the coaches (or maybe even the players) were able to convince him this was the best way he could help the team, or if he realized he wasn't playing to his strengths, but it's a night and day difference.

The funny thing is, running more seems to have helped him a bit with his short and intermediate passing game, as well. The quick slant he threw against LSU was perfect, and the little float pass to McClellan (against Tennessee?) when he was being chased was fantastic. He's starting to use the threat of him running as a way to open up passing options, while still being decisive and taking 5-10 yards on the ground when it's there.

If he'd been doing this when we played Texas, we win that game going away.

The rankings have been totally arbitrary so far. Washington has a better resume than FSU but is punished for several close games against poor competition. Florida state has also played close games against Boston College, Duke, Miami, and Clemson. They cite things like “top 20 offense and top 20 defense” for a team like Oregon, ignoring the teams they’ve played that have allowed them to accumulate those numbers

Once again, preseason rankings have played a part in the playoff picture. There’s a human nature element to it that if a team “hasn’t done anything to fall” then they won’t. My issue is that they are judging each team by a different set of parameters, which is just a roundabout way of saying they are fitting their own agenda and not giving an unbiased ranking.They should start each week with a blind resume and work from there. If they were doing that, they’d have Oregon ranked 8 or 9, and then they might realize that they probably deserve to be there. Washington would 100% be above Florida state. The picking and choosing of where SOS matters is probably the most maddening part. Doesn’t matter for Michigan or Oregon or FSU but it’s enough to move Georgia

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think Milroe was the issue, not the playcalling.

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Thanks for making my point.

Gary Danielson says very clearly during the game that Saban told them we had to change the plays we were running because it wasn't working and install plays that highlights our QBs skillset.

We have literally seen our play calling morph into things we haven't seen all year the last couple of weeks.

Yet those facts can't beat headcannon and agenda.


Some of us had been begging for weeks that we change our plays, use creative to get playmakers the ball, use more movement and not just drop the running QB back and expect him to make NFL throws in intermediate routes expecting the OL to consistently give him 5 seconds to throw... while mixing in a bunch of vanilla run plays (especially on first down).

Same set of people who saw Bill O'Brien was a bum even when he was defended on here for two years... then left to destroy what was left of Mac Jones (sorry man!) and the Patriots (Thank God!).

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The funny thing is, running more seems to have helped him a bit with his short and intermediate passing game, as well. The quick slant he threw against LSU was perfect, and the little float pass to McClellan (against Tennessee?) when he was being chased was fantastic. He's starting to use the threat of him running as a way to open up passing options, while still being decisive and taking 5-10 yards on the ground when it's there.

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I cant emphasize this enough. His run threat changes all their schemes, gives our RB rushing attack space, converts third downs that were punts previously, takes pressure off the OL by eliminating garbage run blitzes, saves Proctor from outside speed rushes and pulls safety help closer to the LOS opening up passing options downfield.

Its been a golden ticket to offensive efficiency and has been worth probably 14-17 points per game.

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IMHO the coaches felt the need to develop Milroe as a passer. They knew his running ability. The need to develop his comfort and play reading as a pocket passer was a priority to develop him as a total QB.

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This is what I believe as well. They knew that we weren't going to go very far unless his passing developed so they put emphasis on that.

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Offense

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Outside of Gibbs who wasn't really right after Tennessee, an injured Bryce Young who couldn't push the ball downfield after Arkansas and Steen at LT I'd argue we are more talented across the board on offense this year.

I don't think BoB schemed anyone open all year, but lets not pretend we were 2020 Bama from a skill perspective on that side of the ball.

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Defense

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Our front 7 was mediocre last year due to injuries outside of Anderson and Turner. Even Oatis was banged up and we just couldn't hold the LOS against decent blockers which exposed Henry T who was nowhere near strong enough to deal with the OL blockers who were leaking past that DL.

Obviously Branch and Anderson are not guys you can replace, but I'd take the 2023 group all day every day.

Now the 2022 team had huge scheme and tackling issues, with the Tennessee and LSU games being the most unforgivable examples, but talent wise we are much better off this year.