Rewatched all our games vs bama with deboer

I guess I'm a glutton for punishment but I was mainly curious on what we did wrong in those first two compared to what we did different in the SECCG. And even more specifically, how any of that may carry over into this year's game.

-In 2024 we just absolutely could not stop milroe. Every now and then you face a guy that simply has your number and this was one of them. often in the first half we'd have coverage and contain perfectly fine exactly as we planned but he'd just run around it.
-To make matters worse we constantly (due to beck mostly) dug our grave even deeper even without their help. Beck had 4 INTs and a lost fumble. Here are our drive charts for the 1st half: 4 and out, interception, 3 and out, long TD drive, interception, safety (via penalty), half. In the 2nd half when we started playing video game ball we did move more efficiently, but we still had a lost Beck fumble and then the interception to end it. Neither half resembled a "real" game at all. The first half bama could truly do nothing wrong on offense and our offense could barely get out of its own way. In the 2nd half our D did a much better job at containing milroe and our offense had a once in a lifetime desperation performance. There's really nothing to take away from this game.

-2025 in Athens, similar to the year prior, was marked by bama being superhuman in the 1st half on offense. Granted they didn't score nearly as much but they started the game something like 8/8 on 3rd down. It was comical. Our D was fairly decent overall but absolutely could not get off the field.
-We were down 14-7 midway through the 2Q and frazier fumbled fairly deep in our territory. Bama would kick the easy FG which ended up being the difference. Both teams scored TDs again before half.
-The 2nd half our defense was absolutely nails. They had two major stops on 4th down as well. Bama didn't score a point the final 30 minutes.
-Bowens looked really good. The receivers didn't really do a ton. Everyone will point to Talyn's drop, which was enormous, but to be fair ryan williams dropped a wide open TD pass in the 1Q so those are essentially a wash.
-I had completely and totally forgotten, probably because my brain forced it out of my memory bank, the snafu at the start of the 4Q. We'd gone on a solid drive and were on like the 13 yard line only down 3. We'd stoned them the entire 3rd quarter. For some reason kirby decides to try a quick handoff to cash jones which was tripped up. If he jumps over that tackle it's a walk in TD so I guess we liked the call, but the execution was awful. Just take the 3 and tie it up. Really irked with kirby's decision making then and now.

-In the SECCG the defense continued it's ability to figure out deboer/grubb. You can see a clear progression from game 1 to 2 to 3 with our ability to better defend them. Our offense wasn't really stellar if you look at the box score but we were blessed with some good field position so didn't have to do much. We capitalized when we needed to and kicked their arse physically.


So what does all that say? Well...I'm actually really encouraged. 2024 is such a weird outlier that it doesn't really mean anything for 2026, unless they go with keelon at QB and he's a milroe/hurts clone, which I can't see happening. As noted our defense has gotten a little better every time that we've seen those guys. I'm sure they'll have some new wrinkles and will probably be successful early but I can't see them marching on us like the did the first half of those first two meetings. By all accounts are secondary and pass rush should be much improved this year as well compared to last. It pretty much comes down to our offense and can we score? In the first game last year we looked to colbie and branch a lot and they delivered. SECCG branch and dillon bell came up huge. Who is gonna step up this year? If we can put some offense together I feel very good about our chances there.