Few thoughts on Alabama this year

Dec 3, 2017, 4:38 PM

Alabama is 1-dimensional on offense this year. New OC Brian Daboll is not Lane Kiffin - nobody will even begin to confuse him with Lane Kiffin, in fact - and to say that Alabama has been "run heavy" this year is putting it mildly. They have 531 rushing attempts to just 276 passing attempts (and only 171 completions).

Calvin Ridley is their ONLY receiving threat. He's grabbed 55 balls for 896 yards - and just 3 TD's. Their second-leading receiver in receptions is actually RB Bo Scarbrough with 14 receptions; they have another receiver, Jerry Jeudy, who had 13 catches for 244 on the year. Alrightee then. So you cover Ridley; they literally have established no one else.

Jalen hurts has thrown just 222 times on the year, completing all of 135 balls for 1940 yards...which is an average of 11.25 completions a game, for 161 yards per game. Short version: he's a very complementary thrower, not really a feature QB. In comparison Kelly Bryant - who some lament as being a more "limited" passer than Deshaun Watson - has completed 244 balls on 362 attempts for 2678 yards. That translates as right at 19 completions a game for 206 yards, which is a fair bit more balanced. Bryant also completes 67% of his balls to Hurts' 60.8%.

So this isn't Lane Kiffin's very multiple Alabama offense. This is a much less creative 1-dimensional running team with really only one real receiving threat in Calvin Ridley, a much easier beast to corral.

It's also worth noting that though this Alabama defense was statistically dominant (second overall in the country behind only Wisconsin at 257.8ypg allowed), exactly like Wisconsin's this year, they really didn't face any even decent offenses except for Ole Miss's (21st overall at 462ypg) and Auburn (27th overall, 454). Auburn smacked them around pretty convincingly; Ole Miss got smothered, but Alabama also chewed clock and ran the ball at will on the Rebs' outmatched D that game. The Tide's personnel is without question good but this is also an untested unit that just plain didn't play any good offensive squads.

Also worth noting: Jeremy Pruitt is a very solid DC, he's also more...predictable than Kirby Smart was. Smart was good at disguising coverages and showing a lot of looks; Pruitt is not and has a lot more distinct tendencies. He isn't as predictable as Schiano at OSU (who ran one of the most vanilla defenses in the country), but he's a very meat-and-potatoes coach who likes it how he likes it, which is kinda true of a lot of what Alabama has done this year. This isn't the best-coached or most creative Alabama squad in history, whatever.

Alabama is, and remains, a stern opponent, regardless. But last year's Alabama squad might have been one of their best in history; this one is not that good and if you look close there's distinct signs they are trending the wrong way.

FWIW.

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Clemson's lack of success throwing the long ball. Remember Clemson's HUNH offense? We tired defenses out by keeping their players moving and not allowing them to substitute. That was a gimmick. Remember when we'd HUNH and fail to convert which put our defense back on the field?

A successful HUNH offense will certainly wear any defense down but no and no more surely than a steady offense which moves the chains on long sustained drives. We have the most talented and deepest crew of running backs we've had since...I don't remember having three deep that can perform as these guys.

Give me the 4 yard runs, screens to spread the defense and keep the LBs looking and passes just across the line to gain for first downs and only throw the deep ball when the safeties are drifting toward the LOS. It doesn't have to connect to keep safeties honest.

If the goal is to wear a defense down and you're don't have a Deshaun Watson behind center the long ball should be thrown selectively.

Few thoughts on Alabama this year

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Everybody seems to be having spastic conniptions over...

Yep. I'll take an 8 minute scoring drive over a 4 minute one

And NO OJ Howard!***

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