re: Film study of Bama defense

I think he has a really good Xs and Os mind but communication is a struggle. Saban saw another Kirby or Pruitt in staff meetings and 1 on 1s, then fell victim to the sunk cost fallacy when it hadn't translated to the field after a couple of years.

quote:

---

Football is a complementary sport. Wommack could have done a better job with adjustments and having them ready to play one dimensional offenses, but the bend don't break style is going to get worn down when the QB is a turnover machine and the OL is incapable of moving the pile to convert on 3rd and 2.

---

Well said. I don't dispute that Wommack could have done a better job with adjustments, especially in the Vandy game. But in my mind that's the only game you can argue was lost by the defense.

When you gift teams 10 or 14 points due to turnovers at the beginning of the game, or the beginning of the second half, it's very difficult to win. When your Heisman-finalist quarterback from a year ago goes 11-26, throws three interceptions, and has a QBR of 14 in a game, you're almost guaranteed to lose, regardless of how your defense plays.

The defense wasn't the issue for the vast majority of the year, regardless of the schematic concerns. If the offense had shown any sort of a pulse in the Oklahoma and Michigan games, we win those. I'd put the Tennessee game in that group as well. The offense was better there, comparatively speaking, but still couldn't put the game away in the first half when the defense gave them three turnovers. For the game the offense went 3-14 on third downs.

That's not winning football.

quote:

---

I think his base scheme can be effective against most offenses. My primary critique, which was shared by many guys like Cole Cubelic was that he was deadly stubborn about making schematic adjustments against schemes that demanded it (Vandy, OU) and was incredibly predictable in terms of some of his in game repetitive calls.

---

Nick Saban’s defense was always particularly vulnerable to secondary offense from QBs who can scramble and throw effectively. Why? He was wholly committed to pattern match zone that is essentially man coverage with pass off rules. Since he’d never have the backend just drop into area zone, QBs could scramble around and find some DB who has no clue the ball is coming their way.


Why didn’t he just adjust? Because he had a lot of success doing what he coached and he would rather go down trying to have his guys execute what he coached rather than falling back on things they have less experience executing.

The difference is Saban got 7 rings worth of benefit-of-doubt compared to this staff.

quote:

---

This isn’t true at all. Our offense went on a 12 play 75 yard drive that took up over 6+ minutes on the 2nd possession of the game. Yet, we gave up 205 yards rushing IN THE FIRST HALF!

---

This is true. It's also the only successful offensive drive we had the entire game. The other drives were:

- 3 plays, 7 yards
- 3 plays, -2 yards
- 5 plays, 19 yards
- 3 plays, 17 yards, interception return to our 14
- 5 plays, 20 yards, interception return for a touchdown
- 5 plays, 11 yards
- 6 plays, 20 yards, turnover on downs
- 12 plays, 64 yards, interception at OU 35

I agree the defense got embarrassed in the first half, and I have no clue why we didn't plan for a heavy running attack since OU had essentially no healthy wide receivers. Even with that, though, it was only 10-3 at halftime. Despite the yardage gained by OU, they weren't very successful converting that to points.

We needed the offense to pick up the slack in the second half and keep the defense off the field. Instead they gifted 14 points to OU.

Milroe had a QBR of 14.1 for the game, with three interceptions -- two of which directly led to 14 OU points. By contrast, Milroe's average QBR for all of 2024 was 82.8. Think of how frustrating Milroe was throughout all of 2024, and then realize he was almost SIX TIMES WORSE than his average in that one game.

If the offense had shown any sort of a pulse, and if Milroe had played even remotely close to his average performance and not turned the ball over, we win that game.

Others have said this, but with everything riding on winning that game, it remains the most baffling loss I can recall seeing as an Alabama fan. Granted the defensive prep work wasn't good, and the lack of adjustments was frustrating -- but that was the most pathetic offensive display I've seen from Alabama. The defense can at least say they hadn't seen OU run that offense on film before. Even with that, they really only gave up 10 points.

The offense has no such excuse.

Don’t forget that the refs robbed us of a touchdown that would have been a momentum booster. Otherwise, yeah, that was a very painful offensive performance.

I think when Jalen played with an underdog, nothing-to- lose, mentality he was really great. When he really wanted to perform, he overthought everything and clinched up. See first half vs second of Georgia game.

I liken it to playing golf after shooting your lowest round. You get to thinking, “If I try harder, I can really go low.” Next round is a disaster.

quote:

---

Golding had flaws, specifically in trying to get cute with some rush schemes and the occasional third down struggle, but Golding was never pushed around like Vanderbilt and Oklahoma.

---

Under Golding:

2022 - Gave up 318 rushing yards to AU
2021 - Gave up 244 yards and 4 TDs rushing to Florida
2020 - Gave up 268 yards and 4 TDs to Ole Miss

quote:

---

I’m less worried about yardage and more worried about 3rd down defense. You can’t let teams shorten games when they have less talent.

---

Bingo, and this is exactly what Vandy and OU did to us. Not only did we gift them points, but we allowed them to scheme us to death when we were on defense and couldn't get off the field. The amount of clock sucking drives Vandy put on us, I still see in my sleep.

This was pretty enlightening. Brooks does a good job with these breakdowns.

I’m curious what Wommack would say about the repetitive double A gap mug look he constantly showed - it wasn’t just during this Michigan game either. I have no issue with crowding the line of scrimmage and bringing pressure from different places / dropping guys. But he’s gotta mix up the pre snap looks a whole lot more this upcoming season.

Considering the defense played pretty damn well in the bowl game against UMich, I wish Brooks would have done a film breakdown on us against either Vandy or preferably OU.

It’s a slow day at work and I just watched all of our defensive snaps in the first half of that OU game. As someone on this board has said, the first half performance from the defense was borderline coaching malpractice from CKW & Co.

On damn near every snap, OU had an in-line TE and/or an H-back on the field. Our personnel packages in that game were far too light on a high percentage of the plays OU ran. Our guys stood no chance schematically. Way too many times were we playing with 3 DL and 3 backers roaming way too far off the line of scrimmage and getting washed up during the play with all of OU’s pre-snap motion. We should have been prepared coming out of the gate for OU given what Vandy did to us a few weeks prior, but at the very least we should have adjusted our defensive personnel groups no later than OU’s third offensive series.

Conversely, OU was playing a true 4 down lineman front on almost every snap with 2 or 3 linebackers playing close to the line, daring Milroe to beat them through the air. It worked and credit to Venables; he’s a great defensive mind in the college game.

I like Kane Wommack and I think/hope he will have success in TTown, but he certainly has some work to do and things to clean up/build on in this upcoming season. With Malzahn being at FSU now, and his history of using a lot of pre snap motion and eye candy to set up a misdirection running game, I would be shocked if we didn’t see a game plan from FSU akin to what Vandy and OU ran against us last year. If FSU has any sort of success doing that, Kane will burn A LOT of goodwill with me and I imagine the rest of the Crimson Tide fanbase. We have way too much talent and experience in the front seven of this years team to be run over like we were a few (too many) times last year.

quote:

---

Wommack did fine last season

---

If youtube is telling us Bama was predictable, opposing coaches were saying worse.