Bama by the Numbers - Iron Bowl

I'm actually cautiously optimistic about our rushing potential.

I think we see more of Hill, Riley, and Dear in this game. Dear in particular since he can play in the IB and still preserve his redshirt.

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I'm actually cautiously optimistic about our rushing potential.

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Can we potentially run effectively in key situations? Maybe.

But AUs defense is as elite against the run as anyone in the country so unless they really clear out the box to help against the passing game I just don’t see that as something we can lean on at night on the road.

He needs some confidence building pays early to get in a rhythm. Protect the ball and end every drive with a kick and we’ll win.

I'd wait until we see an injury report before jumping on rumors...feel like weeks like these are a bit of a rumormongering playground.

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-Auburns passing game is possibly the worst in all of P4 in adj YPA (115th)

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This still blows my mind. They have two of the best in the nation and can’t figure it out

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Can someone translate this for me? I have a small brain

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He's saying if Ty plays like he did in the second half of the OU game, we're in trouble.

Right ? So many of these message board trolls use acronyms that most people can’t understand. It’s ridiculous and frustrating.

(no message)

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We ran the ball more and had some drops misses on third. That’s basically it.

He threw 31 times in the first half and 12 in the second half.

I’m still a bit miffed we didn’t throw on the three safety look

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That 3 safety look with the significant cushion demanded that we adjust the route tree rules a bit. The DeBoer offensive scheme loves putting pressure on the defense by often not making cuts off the vertical until around 10 yards down field. Venables decided to give that cushion because it allowed his DBs to be a bit flat footed for a second to jump screens and pursue the runner on handoffs. They were betting on no decisions to bail, sit, or open up to the left or right until further down field.

This is why we had some pretty easy pickings for runs in the 2nd half but never really popped enough of them for big runs. Our tailbacks are not great at making a man miss and making a safety or corner miss who is crashing down from 9-10 yards past the LOS was exactly the difference between 2-8 yard runs and 20+ runs. And frankly, some NFL teams these days prefer to play split safety looks against explosive runners if they trust their sure tackling of their backend. So I think Venables really had a well crafted approach. No turnovers, they definitely don't walk away with a win but we're good for 1 or more turnovers per game over the last month and some change.

Ultimately though, since the backs are not dynamic enough to break big runs then the adjustments needed to come from the passing attack. If our WRs were better blockers, we could have given them the 4 verts look that becomes a swing pass to Hill or Riley behind the LOS so the WRs could essentially OPI at their leisure. If we started running quick slant and slot stop routes, we probably force them to inch up closer and make it easier for our vertical patterns to work. I'm not a coordinator, so I'm sure I'm missing all the pass-first diagnoses for this kind of defense but I know those are go to choices by good OCs I've seen around CFB and the NFL.