12/10 Aftermath of the SEC Championship Game - Areas of Improvement
In the aftermath of the devastating (to me at least) loss to Florida in the SEC Championship, there has been a lot of talk about exactly why we lost the game. A lot of people point to the facemask call in the fourth quarter that kept Florida’s drive going. Personally, I think that point is misguided, because 1) it was a good call, and 2) Florida would have gone for it and made it on fourth and 1. I was disappointed too, but if it wasn’t called, it would have been a bad no-call. Some folks are pointing to the no-call on Tebow’s intentional grounding. Those folks are right – that most certainly should have been called, but I don’t agree that it would have affected the outcome of the game, or even that drive for that matter.
Personally, I think the reasons that we lost are more fundamental, and are more indicative of problems that we had throughout the year. First, and foremost, our offensive line is terrible in pass protection. It’s really odd because our OL was so highly touted throughout the year, and they were exceptional in run blocking. As I mentioned in a previous blog, run blocking and pass blocking are two fundamentally different things, but I have never in my life seen such a disparity in the effectiveness of an offensive line in one over the other. Arguably our OL was the best in the nation in run blocking, but without exaggeration, they might have been the worst in pass protection. Our play action passing was effective simply because the defenses were so terrified of our running attack, but throughout the year, in definite passing downs, JPW was under tremendous pressure. Against Florida, I only counted one play where JPW had the time to throw the ball on a definite passing down. To me, the inability to protect the passer was a huge issue for us throughout the year, but our running game was able to hide that deficiency, and I believe it is the primary reason we lost this game.
There are other similar problems. Our wide receivers really don’t know what they’re doing related to route running. Julio is such a phenomenal talent that defenses often played off of him, allowing him to be open on crossing routes. However, against press coverage defenses, he was almost always blanketed. He was talented enough to still make the catches, but again, Julio is a unique talent. Our other receivers seemed to have no ability to get open whatsoever. It was like they had preprogrammed routes, and if there happened to be a defender there, then they were out of the play. Against Florida, besides our TEs being open on little misdirection play-action passes, our receivers were blanket covered the whole game (except for that one pass in the first quarter to Julio). If we’re going to evolve into a viable passing offense, our receivers’ route running has to improve.
The two previous problems seemed to contribute to another problem that I saw throughout the year. JPW consistently locked onto to one receiver, and either threw to that one receiver, took the sack, or scrambled and threw the ball away. Now, I don’t think that this problem was completely JPW’s fault. As I mentioned before, our offensive line allowed tremendous pressure on JPW, so he didn’t really have the proper time to go through his reads. Also, as mentioned before, our receivers had great difficulty getting open, so it might be that there was no point to going through his reads, since there were no open receivers anyway. Regardless, all three of these issues need to be corrected for us to have a viable passing game, and as we saw on Saturday, we absolutely have to develop a viable passing game.
Even though our defense played well this year, there are still some problems that Florida was able to exploit that we need to address. First, we need to increase the pressure that we apply to the opposing QB by our defensive line. In almost every game this year, the opposing team’s QB was able to comfortably stand in the pocket and read the defense. If one lineman was able to break through, the QB would typically easily sidestep the rusher and then resume his reads. I know this sounds like nitpicking, but it is an issue that we need to address (and one that Saban is addressing very well through recruiting).
Similarly, we need to improve the effectiveness of our blitz packages. I don’t think that many people understand blitzing. They equate blitzing with pressuring the QB, but in reality, blitzing is a method, not a result. In other words, when we blitz, we need to actually pressure the QB, not just try to pressure the QB. To me, blitzing on defense is analogous to running the ball on offense. On offense, the RB tries to find holes created by the offensive line to break through the line of scrimmage into the defensive backfield. Blitzing should be similar. The linebackers (or defensive backs) should find holes created by the defensive linemen to break through into the offensive backfield. It seems like our blitzes were nothing more than our linebackers taking off at the snap and running directly into the nearest unoccupied offensive lineman. I like our schemes, but we really need to work on the actual execution of our blitz packages.
Finally, we absolutely have to improve the coverage of our defensive backs. Against all of the dysfunctional offenses that we faced this year, having open receivers running around our secondary didn’t really jump up to bite us, but against Florida, it cost us again and again. Yes, Tebow made a few remarkable passes (especially the TD pass on their first drive), but often, the receivers were just way too open, and Tebow had no problem hitting them for huge gains again and again, and it was especially costly to us on third downs throughout the game. Again, Saban is doing an excellent job recruiting defensive backs, and I expect the ones we have to improve dramatically through Saban’s tutelage.
Under Shula, I had no confidence that obvious issues would ever get addressed. As a matter of fact, I had absolute confidence that they wouldn’t. However, I have no doubt that Saban not only recognizes these deficiencies, but that he will focus on correcting them immediately. I expect our defense to be dramatically improved next year, perhaps the best that we’ve seen since 1992. We’ll blitz with much better efficiency, and our defensive backs will be much more aggressive. I actually expect our pass protection to be solidified also, even though we’re losing our top 3 starters from our offensive line. Our run blocking won’t be as good, but I think our passing game will be better. Of course, we’ll still have to face a brutal schedule, and we’ll have a hard time replacing all of the senior leadership that this team had, so I’m by no means predicting another 12-0 regular season. However, I think we’ll be solid in all aspects, and once again, I think we’ll be able to compete with (and potentially beat) anybody and everybody. Of course, if we have to face Florida again in the SEC Championship Game….
I’ll post some more thoughts as the Sugar Bowl approaches. As always, feel free to send me any questions or comments.
Roll Tide!
Kenny
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