re: KDB quietly rebuilding a defense centered team

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I am looking more forward to this season than I have in a long while. I know NIL/Portal have changed the sport, but I still love watching good defense and I think we will finally get to see a fully capable CKD offense.

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I think we have all the pieces and I hope we put them together. I’m excited to see it in action.

So, Woodson in that spot?

We definitely have 7 DBs that can play at a high level.

Im high on a lot of those guys. I expect more rotation back there too.

LINK

- The last time CKD had his own QB and WR corps^^^^^^^

- Bama fans ESPECIALLY need to watch this to understand what CKD is trying to do offensively….its not the inability to run the ball, its the inability to create favorable numbers in the Box/near the LOS to run the ball against that is the problem.

- notice all the vertical/downfield shots.
UW was #1 in the nation in passes attempted and completed where the ball traveled 40+ yards. CKD’s offenses have always ranked near the top in the country every year of his career in this area. At Alabama last year, they completed 6 such passes for the SEASON. At UW they completed 7 balls of 40+ against Texas in the Semifinal game ALONE

- Bama has looked HORRIBLE trying to throw these same concepts….balls landing out of bounds are 10 yards over-thrown, sloppy route-running, WR’s who cannot separate 1-on-1 or go up to make plays on the ball, etc etc etc
I honestly do t think you could’ve a worse group of WRs and QB’s together to run this offense than what CKD inherited at Bama. Notice how Bernard and Cuevas were by far our best playmakers in the passing game. That wasn’t a fluke.

- Fans/Media are all focused on the run game, and that has absolutely nothing to do with the success of the offense. It is and has always been the problem these first two years at Bama under CKD, and that’s the DOWNFIELD passing game. It’s been non-existent to the point they rarely tried it due to the personnel (Milroe averaged barely 20 passes per game total).

- The vertical/downfield passing game is what unlocks everything in this offense including the running game. CKD had the 2nd team all Big10 RB while at Indiana. When defenses hsve to account for an offense’s ability to stretch the field vertically at all times, then it forces 2-high/split Safety coverage and that gives the offense the numbers at the LOS to run the ball without having to strictly overpower teams like Georgia who are just as big and strong.

- It also unlocks the Intermediate passing game that Ty excelled at for the first 8 weeks before defenses closed off the MOF with single-high/1-high Safety coverages that featured a lot of man coverage as well.

- Get the vertical passing game going and the run game will take care of itself.

Yes, they both have the touch required to throw the ball accurately downfield.

I agree with your assessment concerning the WR’s as well. The good news is that you only need ONE alpha that cannot be covered 1-on-1 (specifically against press-man coverage).

Bottomline, RW needs to be that guy, and absolutely possesses the skill level to do it. He has been used in the slot and thrown a lot of balls in-between the hashes/MOF, and that was simply bc they could not get him the ball vertically when he aligned out-wide on the numbers (where he belongs).

He was playing out of position and it showed. He did have 800+ yards as a TF when defenses had to play a lot of split safety zone coverage to give Milroe problems bc of his lack of ability to work through his progression and also to allow 2nd level defenders to keep their eyes on him to prevent Milroe from hurting you with his feet.

That is why RW’s and the offense’s production dropped dramatically in the back 1/3 of the schedule, just like it did this past season with Ty, but for drastically different reasons.

RW, C Morgan and Noah Rogers (drastically underrated) are the 3 that possess the skill set necessary. We need one of them to step up.

Last year Ty couldn’t get it outside the hash so they played him inside to try and get him opportunities.

Think about it, he had double the output as a 17 year old TF with Milroe compared to Ty at QB.

He will be back out-wide on the numbers next year Everett he belongs. He’s a home run/vertical threat that needs a QB whole can get him the ball down the field and outside the hashes.

His “drops over the MOF got led to a lot of criticism from fans and media, but that’s not what he does. Amari Cooper, Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, etc all played out/wide on the numbers (barring
the occasional motion). RW is better than alll those guys.

Even Bama fans don’t know how insanely talented tes this kid is. Watch his 800yd+ season at 17 years old with Milroe throwing him the football, and you won’t see drops, instead you will see a long highlight reel of circus catches and making would-be tacklers look silly. The guy is exactly who this offense needs split-out outside the hash s/on the numbers and take 6-7 shots with every single game.

At least Milroe gave him the opportunity to make the game-winning play vs UGA, even though it was terribly under thrown. There are Bama fans who honestly think he’s not that good. He’s a top-15 pick right now. No DC wants to deal with him 1-on-1 outside the hash. He’s a rare talent but drops over the MOF from Ty’s howitzer have fans really doubting the guy.

I never considered the concept that RW was in the slot because the QB was inept/weak in the vertical pass game. I just hadn't thought of it that way, but it makes sense. He needs to be a 3 route tree guy.
Go, Deep Dig/Dagger, Deep Post.

Hand the fricking ball off to him if you gotta.

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- Fans/Media are all focused on the run game, and that has absolutely nothing to do with the success of the offense. It is and has always been the problem these first two years at Bama under CKD, and that’s the DOWNFIELD passing game. It’s been non-existent to the point they rarely tried it due to the personnel (Milroe averaged barely 20 passes per game total).

- The vertical/downfield passing game is what unlocks everything in this offense including the running game. CKD had the 2nd team all Big10 RB while at Indiana. When defenses hsve to account for an offense’s ability to stretch the field vertically at all times, then it forces 2-high/split Safety coverage and that gives the offense the numbers at the LOS to run the ball without having to strictly overpower teams like Georgia who are just as big and strong.

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I don't disagree with any of this. However, if the success of the entire offense is that dependent on one aspect of it working or not, then we're in trouble. An offense has to be able to "dribble left handed" when what they do best is taken away. It's what separates teams that compete for championships from teams that don't. Regardless of the passing concepts and alignments that go with it, a team who wants to compete for championships better be able to pivot and go to another weapon in their arsenal that allows them to still compete at a high level from game to game, opponent to opponent. Which plays into what seemingly has been lost at Alabama for several years (even in Saban's last few years) and that's the ability to just line up and physically win at the LOS. Each game is a life of it's own and in some games teams are going to take away the scheming and force us to beat them "man on man", "let's see who's the most physical team". Then in some games, the game is going to require outscheming the other team and not require "out physicaling" the other team.

So, what would a triple option team pivot to if they were not having success?

What did Leach pivot to of the air raid struggled?

ANY good offense has an identity that they are trying to impose on the defense.

Heupel and Tennessee is a perfect example of taking 15+ vertical shots (sometimes 20+) in a single game, in order to dictate to the defense where their Safeties will align along with the splits of the WR’s. Sometimes they connect on a lot of these throws (5 of them for TDs vs Golding/Saban all to the same WR running the same exact Sail route lol), or how Kirby and UGA can never keep them under 40 points and close to 400 in the air.

But they are not living and dying by how many they connect on. Same as the criticism CNO gets in basketball from idiots claiming he “lives and dies by the three”.

CKD has always had a crazy high % of completions on downfield passes of 30-40+ yards. But even if it’s a 4-16 day like UW vs Oregon when he was facing Lanning’s defense for the 2nd ribbon 4 weeks, but did throw for close to 400 yards (might’ve been like 400+), bc they destroyed them with the TE’s RB’s and slot WRs with the intermediate passing game since Lanning was hellbent on not giving up the deep ball like in the first matchup. They also threw double digit perimeter screens as well vs CBs playing with a lot of pre-snap depth.

So, it’s not like CKD’s goal is to chunk 40 bombs and hope for the best now that he has his personnel…..it’s to stretch the field to hopefully catch some of them, but more importantly prevent defenses from defending the intermediate game like we saw defenses do to Ty after week 7 or 8.

It’s also to open up the perimeter screens and using the TE over the MOF much like an RPO team uses a slot WRs.

There are certainly “Answers” in the offense for when the “three’s are not falling”.

Hope this helps some.