Initial Impressions from the South Carolina Game

…Leigh Tiffin is 16 of 19 (80%), and his only miss last night was a 49 yarder…if that’s inconsistency, I’ll take it. P.J. Fitzgerald has also stepped it up this year.

I definitely agree that our coverage and return units (sans Javy and Julio) generally suck a$$, and I’ve been skeptical of Bobby Williams as a coach since his name was announced (especially following Ron Middleton, who was simply bad a$$)…but we are more consistent kicking field goals now than we have been since, what, Michael Proctor?

The rest of the post, per usual, rawks. So thanks.

…I know we want to generate big plays and get good field position from our kick returners, but the last few weeks I would have been happy if the coaches had just said “fair catch it no matter what” because even if we do get a big return there’s a damn good chance it’s coming back anyway.

when it comes to our ineptitude in utilizing Juilo. It seems like forcing the ball into double or triple coverage on the out or fade pattern has become our only means of throwing to him. Whatever happend to the slant and curl routes we used to have success with?

Pressure and Coverage. They have a great pass D fifth in the nation and it showed.

Like the first poster, I am a little inclined to ease up on the Tiffin harpoons. Between last week and this, he’s, um, winning games.

Agreed everywhere else. I especially like this:

“Harsh reality here, folks, we’re wasting a once-in-a-generation player.” The solution is clearly not to force the ball to Julio, as McElroy tried last week, but I am not sure what it is. Play design and calling? Not sure. Thank god we went with what was working last night on that last drive. What a machine Ingram was.

and the D…omg, this Bama D is amazing…they are BEASTS!!!
I’m so proud of this team and their hard work…no team is perfect but true winners get the job done and that’s what these kids and this coaching staff is doing…OTS, I respect you, but sometimes I think you get too cerebral and focus on stats, when the true heart of this team cannot be measured or matched…IMO these kids could go up against anyone and beat them right now…Florida isn’t scary…neither is Texas…I’m actually more afraid of Georgia Tech than anyone…their offense would do damage to us, I think…
but anywho, great post OTS…
and damn I hope our team can get hyped and stay strong for one more week…Tennessee is not going to just lay down for us…it’ll be a hard-fought battle, as usual…just get past this game so we can finally have a break…these kids need to rest…
and oh, who else is looking forward to Florida at South Carolina on Nov. 14th? that game just got VERY interesting…

If GMac played just a little bit better that game was a blowout. In fact, our last three games should have been straight massacres…I really believe this team has what it takes to be something special but if GMac doesn’t get his head out of his ass, i think we will be left disappointed when its all said and done.

There was nothing undeserved about the criticism Johnson received last year. He’s much improved this year, but he just wasn’t a very good corner last year, and that’s pretty much the bottom line.

This is exactly what this team needed. Gmac will improve i know it, he’s to smart and versatile not to. It seems every since he was criticized for not getting Julio the ball he has stopped going through his progressions; also he has been pressured a lot. I’m glad these things are happening now instead of later.

are due to a porous O-line? On occasion it looks like he’s holding on to the ball too long, but at other times it seems like he’s being harrassed before he’s even had a chance to look downfield.

I expected that the Tiffin comment would get this reaction, so this is not unexpected. Here is my reasoning:

Tiffin is obviously having a great year overall, converting on 16-19 opportunities. Obviously no one is complaining about that fact, and that is not my reasoning here.

My point is you need to look closer at the data, particularly at how short the overwhelming majority of those field goals have been. Tiffin is 9-9 on field goals under 30 yards, and 6-8 on field goals 36 yards and shorter. In fact, he’s only tried two field goals of longer than 36 yards all year. One of those was a hit against Virginia Tech on a 49-yarder — indoors, obviously, in perfect kicking conditions — and the other was an ugly miss from 49-yards last night against South Carolina in admittedly bad conditions.

So, my point is that while Tiffin has a great overall conversion rate to date, he really hasn’t done anything but kick a lot of easy, chip-shot field goals. It’s certainly nice to see him converting at a high rate, but realistically any even half-way decent kicker ought to convert a high percentage of short field goal kicks, so that’s not saying much. That’s about like saying you have a good quarterback because he is completing 80% of his passes when the throw is under five yards.

And if anything, what Tiffin’s numbers really tell you is that our offense is pissing away touchdowns in the red zone. Any time your kicker is basically averaging three chip-shot field goal attempts per game through seven games, that just tells you that your offense keeps shooting itself in the foot and generally unable to put the ball in the end zone when they have a golden opportunity.

At any rate, my point is that Tiffin is untested at this point. He has generally been inconsistent and unreliable during his time at Alabama, and there has been nothing of date this year that should rationally make you think he is anything else right now.

Do you really have confidence in Tiffin to come in, during a very close game, and make a kick of moderate-to-high difficulty? I can honestly answer no to that question, hence my comment.

… I know he has had a couple of drops occasionally, but that still doesn’t change the fact that we are wasting him. For example, last night he couldn’t hang onto a difficult catch on a 3rd and 9 that would have put us about two yards short of a first down. Big whoop. Even if you catch those, not much is really changing one way or the other.

I was cursing McElroy all night.if he didn’t try to force the ball into triple coverage to Julio all night maybe Julio would be open sometimes. There has got to be someone else open when Julio is bracketed.

I think our main problem is Greg has lost his confidence. Last week he threw to Julio over and over (into double and triple coverage), this week he hardly threw to Julio and when he did he was covered. We best hope Greg gets his head straight because next week he may face the best defense (as far as scheme) he’s faced yet. If he doesn’t improve we are bound to lose a close game. I believe our OL is better at pass blocking this year than last year. In fact in the two games w/out Andre Smith last year we were whipped at the line, this year I think we are more balanced up front. I will also say that our guys wear down the opponent every game. So I am impressed with them. It is also interesting that three weeks ago (Arkansas) we had to pass so we could run, since then our run has carried us to victory. Great game Ingram. ROLL TIDE!!!

Spurrier just called another fade!

There are a lot of assumptions here, but bear with me.

Assuming Tennessee’s offense shows some level of crompetency this Saturday like they did last week (And I don’t mean a 4-1 TD/INT ratio for J Crompton, I mean him actually throwing the ball on target) and assuming Alabama has as down a day passing the ball (USC’s defense is alright, but I would put them up against Tennessee’s and think it’d be favorable anytime) — how do ya’ll feel about the game? Obviously, ’Bama’s defense isn’t even in the same league as whatever that thing was Georgia tried to play with, but still.