re: I really miss the pro-style offensive system.

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If there is one difference between this year and the last few years, it's that the offensive line has struggled more.

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Our offensive line play is better in total than any OL since 2012 IMHO, overall.......but that isn't a super high standard. Our offensive line play has not been elite since 2012.

Yep that's the story on Kiffin offenses. Score a TD the go brain dead for three or four possessions. Then hit a big play then go dead again for theee or four possessions. Until the LSU game this offense has moved the ball very efficiently with medium depth passes over the middle of the field. This offense is so much more difficult to defens than when the only passes you throw are fade passes down the sideline and out routes to prevent turnovers. Defense actually have to defend the whole field now and we're not running the ball 53 yards sideline to sideline for a three yard gain. I like the offense. If those three freshmen WR didn't have the drops in a huge game several drives stay alive and Bama likely at least kicks another cg or two during this game and no one is talking about how much LSU improved. Think about it LSU scored ten points and had 2 drives to the red zone all game and one of them was on a busted run play that the defense didn't stay in their gaps. If not for that play Bama beats LSU 24-3 and it's the same old same old.

You guys are cracking me up with the Kirby love. Dude went 7-5 with a talented roster Richt left him. He's feasting on maybe the worst SEC division in history and has won exactly zero hardware thus far. Yeah, he's a sick recruiter--we all knew that. So was Les Miles and Ron Zook. Having elite talent doesn't translate to dominating the football landscape like Saban has and continues to do. Let's see how they do against AU and Bama before we crown Kirby as the next Saban. My guess is they could easily lose 2 games this year and they have to rebuild their entire defense next year. And if UF and UT actually make decent hires this time, things will get a lot harder for them over there in the future as well.

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I already said the McCarron, Sims, and Coker teams. How many times do you want me to say it.

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The 2012 team and possibly 2013. 2011 was not any more diverse than this one.

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Spin it all you want to, but the lack of a decent downfield game got us beat last year, and probably will this year. I called it last year. Were you one of the posters that doubted it then? If so, then that's something to meditate on, rather than spending so much time spinning the issue

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Yes, I was concerned about our passing attack against very good defenses like most people were. I'm concerned about it this year, but to a lesser extent.

You can say a downfield passing game lost it for us, I'd counter that a boom or bust offensive philosophy lost 2014 and possibly 2016. It led to a whole lot of bust in both games that led to our defenses being on the field for forever against really good offenses. If we'd run the ball philosophically the same way we do this year against Ohio State and Clemson I'm pretty confident we win both those games. And we supposedly had a great downfield passing game in 2014. Didn't seem to matter much.

I also think revisionist history is silly, especially when ignoring pieces of those teams that were flat out worse than what we do now.

Watching the compilation of Jalen's plays from the LSU game will tell the story: He had probably his best game against probably the best defense he's played this year.

There were 3-4 drops and 1-2 missed pass interference calls that absolutely changed the complexion of the game. Jalen was calm and cool, stepping up in the pocket a few times and throwing accurate passes for the most part.

After watching that, I saw maybe 4 bad plays, none of which were disastrous.

1. He bailed too soon because he thought he was about to get hit on his blindside, when there wasn't anyone around him.
2. He missed the TE pass down the sideline.
3. He took a sack when he should have thrown it away.
4. He didn't see Ridley open over the middle. (he did hit it on the next play)

The other negative plays were just wrong calls by the OC (running the QB right into a blitz), missed OL assignments, or the aforementioned drops/pass interference's.

If you or any of the others were satisfied with our passing game vs Clemson, resulting in our horrible efficiency to sustain drives, then well and good. It probably won't disappoint you if it happens again.

It's just a game, after all, anyway. I hoped we could take advantage of all this talent, and we have enjoyed doing that for most of Saban's tenure. Just not last year. Hopefully we can this year, but don't bet the farm on it. If you don't have a farm, don't bet the condo. If you don't have a condo, don't bet the month's rent. If you don't have the month's rent, be careful out there on the mean streets. It's more serious than a ballgame.

Well, you were wrong then, so...

..............Clemson...UA

1st Downs 31 16
3rd down efficiency 7-18 2-15
4th down efficiency 0-1 1-1
Total Yards 511 376
Passing 420 155
Comp-Att 36-57 14-32
Yards per pass 7.4 4.8
Interceptions thrown 0 0
Rushing 91 221
Rushing Attempts 42 34
Yards per rush 2.2 6.5
Penalties 3-35 9-82
Turnovers 2 0
Fumbles lost 2 0
Interceptions thrown 0 0
Possession 34:44 25:16

Note the lack of sustained drives, resulting in 99 plays for the defense vs a good offense. Note the time of possession. Note the 3 points for the 2 turnovers the defense forced on Clemson's side of the field.

LINK

edit: Like I said already, if you have been happy with our offense vs good defenses, then fine. You won't be disappointed if it fails us again.

hope is a good thing. It worked for Andy

Huddie, a question:

Do you think if we hadn't abandoned our running game against Clemson after Bo went down, we would have had a much better chance of winning that game?

I think that was our most glaring mistake, frankly. I still don't understand it. If nothing else, it would have eaten more clock, and left Clemson with much less time to work with in the fourth quarter.