ALABAMA OFFENSE:
Um, let's start with one thing. I have no idea what Lane Kiffin was thinking with his game plan in this matchup. As I'm watching Alabama fling the ball around on speed plays in the first half, WR screens, RB screens, pitch end-arounds, all I can think to myself is one thing. "This is Alabama? The hard-nosed running team who crams it up your rear? Because I didn't know Alabama suddenly became an ineffective spread option team."
The game plan looked completely assinine. You know how many of the 48 points were offensive TDs? Only 3. That's less that half the points. The offense honestly looked like crap for most of the game, because for some reason Kiffin decided he would focus on letting Jalen Hurts throw the ball. Jalen Hurts doesn't throw the ball well down the field. Inside of 10 yards, he's fine. On screens, he's fine. Once you go 15 yards down the field, it looks wobbly and off target. He missed a WIDE OPEN touchdown on the first series of the game because he overthrew the receiver. He continually missed open guys down the field. At one point he hit Calvin Ridley late in the game for a huge play, but even that ball turned Ridley around and was under thrown. Going deep is not Hurts strong point, but Kiffin still had him throwing the ball 31 times. It made no sense.
Also, penalties were a huge problem on the offensive line. Alabama as a team had 9 penalties accepted for 75 yards. Holding and false starts killed several drives, and the blocking for Hurts was average at best. One of the Ole Miss TDs that gave them a big lead in the first half was #60 Malik Martin getting blown by on the right side, and Ole Miss lit up Hurts for a sack fumble scoop and score.
Meanwhile whenever Lane actually handed off to a RB like #34 Damien Harris, he had 16 carries for 144 yards and a TD. Otherwise this was Hurts game to run. In addition to throwing the ball 31 times, he ran it 18 times for 146 yards. And yet, Hurts had ZERO touchdowns in the game. All that production but he never threw one in the end zone, or ran one in the end zone. Make no mistake, Hurts is a great runner and a great athlete. But he's not an answer throwing the ball a ton, and I don't think he's got the arm to be that kind of thrower. Balls coming out of his hands look wobbly and heading the wrong direction. If he can learn some touch, that will certainly help, but as a defense I would want to play contain on him so he doesn't beat me with his legs.
Oh and run the ball Lane. Good grief. You have great running backs and you barely used them in this game. It almost cost you huge, but Chad Kelly being a moron and the special teams returns bailed you out.
ALABAMA DEFENSE:
The defense wasn't good either. Face it. You gave up 43 points to another team in the SEC because your secondary was absolute garbage. I'm not pulling punches here, I don't care how much of a Bama homer you are, that was the worst secondary performance I've seen out of this team in a long time. Every guy back there was getting torched or out of position. Don't believe me? I'll get to why in a second.
Let's start with the line. Alabama is playing a version of the nickel for most of the game, with man-to-man coverage at times and safety help, then switched to a zone. It depended on whether or not they were playing to blitz with the LB or corners. In the first half, Alabama produced zero pressure and as such Chad Kelly did a great job picking them apart. In the second half, they finally realized they could blitz I suppose (I visual the DC checking the rule book at the half and a light bulb coming on over his head) and they started to harass Kelly. Here's one of the turning points of the game:
This is the tying score in the second half. You're early in the second half, and Ole Miss is backed up with Kelly throwing on 2nd and 7. The circled yellow player is #22 Ryan Anderson, a LB who originally dropped back into coverage a step and then came on a blitz. He's got a free look because the RT doesn't see him until it's too late. There's a key feature here I've isolated with the blue lines. The top blue line goes to the wide open receiver that is now available because #22 is coming on the blitz. The bottom blue arrow is where Chad Kelly is actually looking. Once he sees the blitzer coming (and he did because he ran away from him briefly) he has to unload that ball to the open man. Instead, he pulls it down and tries to escape, gets sacked, fumbles the ball, and Alabama scores the tying TD to make it 24-24.
That play is on Kelly. He has to see that guy coming and make the read. There's nobody on the side he's looking at who is a threat, plus he's still got periphery to see the blitzer. It's not coming from his blind side. Now the defense line was excellent once they started to blitz. They recovered not one but TWO scoop and scores for touchdowns. So credit them with 14 points alone.
Now for the secondary. The worst guy on the field all day was #15 Ronnie Harrison. He was awful. He was beat early in the game, bit on a fake late in the middle of the game for a TD, and got beat late in the game as Kelly brought Ole Miss down the field. Let's look at an example:
I call this Alabama getting torched Part 1. This is the setup. The Alabama defensive back circled in yellow is #15 Ronnie Harrison. I've isolated what he is looking at. He's seeing Chad Kelly fake a pitch to the running back and he's thinking he better go chase that ball. There's one problem with that line of thinking, and that is this: It's not his job to go chasing the ball-carrier right then. That's the linebacker's job first along with the defensive linemen, and eventually the corners. If the safety is a guy making a tackle on a runner, it's still not a good thing. No, his job was supposed to be staying deeper than the deepest guy. He doesn't. He bites on the play fake, hanging LB #20 on a WR in the red circle. That's a bad combo.
Here's Alabama getting torched Part 2, the play a second later. Note the Ole Miss WR in yellow blowing by the Alabama defenders in the red box. #15 has realized he's completely out of place and trying to backpedal, but the WR is at full speed and Chad Kelly is staring right at him. Kelly lays out an easy pass and it's a 65 yard house call TD. All because #15 wanted to stop the run, and forgot his job.
The other guy who I will continue to pick on this year is #26 Marlon Humphry. He's not good. He's never been good despite what I hear from Alabama fans defending him. I told you about him last year, I'll say it again. He got out jumped in the first half for a huge play, he got torched in the second half for 20+ and almost a TD, and he got beat twice late in the game for those 2 garbage time TDs that brought Ole Miss within one score. He's the guy I would pick on every single game if I'm an opposing team. You find 26 and you run your best guy at him. It'll pay dividends. But he wasn't alone. This secondary isn't good outside of #29 Minkah Fitzpatrick, and even he got his butt chewed out by Saban for loafing on the play when Humphry got lit up for 40 yards on a jump ball.
Overall, without a lot of help by Kelly Alabama's pass defense didn't impress me. They certainly weren't getting pressure with just the front four, and they had to blitz to get any kind of action. Along with the secondary if they face any teams with dynamic passers, they are in big trouble in the long run. That's their weakest point.
ALABAMA SPECIAL TEAMS:
More good and bad here as well. The good? Alabama had 2 made FGs and had almost 175 yards in returns including a TD. The bad news? They missed a FG as well which I'm sure drives Nick Saban crazy. The return game was the most impressive as the 85 yard house call was a turning point in the game to get Alabama back in it after a 21 point deficit. But overall, you can credit 13 points to the special teams, which when you combine it with the 14 points from the defense gives you the majority of the points in the game.
The takeaway from Alabama in this game should be to run the ball more, throw with Hurts less, get him into read-option plays which utilize his biggest strength (his legs), and leverage the return game as much as possible. No fair catches! On defense, they need to blitz earlier in the game as it seems to get QBs off the spot, and try like hell not to let their positioning in the secondary get them in trouble. Because if that was supposed to be a strength before the season, it certainly didn't look like it in this game.
Luckily Alabama doesn't play another decent team for 3 weeks when they eventually face off against Arkansas on the road, followed by Tennessee and A&M. I don't think they get through that stretch of games without a loss playing like they did against Ole Miss.
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