Initial Impressions: Alabama Football blows it in embarrassing fashion to Vanderbilt

In probably the most foreseeing transfer I’ve ever seen, Josh was unable to observe this sport as we speak, and I agreed to deal with the sport recap.

Woe is me.

Alabama, who hasn’t misplaced to a bottom-feeder workforce since L.A. Monroe again in 2007, was served a large slice of humble pie by the nerds of the SEC. Maybe it’s solely becoming that it’s by the identical QB, Diego Pavia, that broke Auburn on the finish of the season final yr.

The sport began with Alabama’s protection giving up an extended scoring drive, and nothing a lot modified after that. The Commodores obtained a fast pick-6 off of a fortunate deflection, and abruptly had a 13 level lead that Alabama by no means recovered from.

For what it was value, Jalen Milroe and the Tide’s WR group performed spectacularly for many of the sport, choosing up enormous chunks of yards and gobbling up scores – however finally it didn’t matter, as each time Alabama scored, Vanderbilt responded with one other lengthy drive for their very own TD and the Alabama protection was rendered successfully ineffective.

The Tide did have an opportunity to take the lead within the 4th, however RT Elijah Pritchett selected a foul second to completely whiff a block and Jalen Milroe obtained blasted within the pocket and fumbled the ball, giving Vanderbilt the benefit again on the scoring/clock back-and-forth, and the protection by no means obtained one other cease.

It’s an enormous lesson for brand new head coach Kalen DeBoer. You do NOT take per week off within the SEC. Whereas the primary ¹⁄₃ of the season has felt like a fever dream for Alabama followers, shedding to Vanderbilt is one thing that completely can’t occur. It simply can’t, and it’s the form of wake-up name for a brand new teaching workers that may pressure them to relentlessly stop this from taking place once more, or else there can be a large sized weight of indignant Alabama fan expectations bearing down on them.

We picked yr for a 12-team playoff. Alabama has confirmed they will beat any workforce within the nation – however they haven’t confirmed they received’t lose to anybody, both. They’ve time to determine that out and lay waste within the playoffs… However will they? If the cracks are already uncovered, can they repair them? It stays to be seen…. And all the nation can be watching, ready, and circling for the demise of Alabama. They’ve waited 17 years, and now there may be blood. Good luck, Coach DeBoer.

In any case, listed here are just a few observations in regards to the workforce as an entire:

The Passing Recreation is Legit

19/25 for 312 yards is absurd. The expansion we’ve seen from Jalen Milroe since his season underneath Tommy Rees final yr is astounding. From a start-and-fits offense based mostly on scrambling and first-read deep bombs to Milroe exhibiting he is usually a true pocket passer and hit almost each route on the sector (even TE seams!!!), it’s been cool to see.

On prime of that, what extra can we even say about Ryan Williams? He retains this up, and he very nicely is likely to be the perfect WR in faculty soccer since….? I don’t know. Unsure I’ve ever seen something prefer it. And on prime of all of it, William’s angle is simply so nice. He will get blasted and pops proper again up, and when he doesn’t get the ball, you’ll see him going all out along with his perimeter blocking regardless of being all of 170 kilos.

Previous Ryan, although, is Germie Bernard. The Washington switch has been a revelation too. He’s made some enormous robust catches (that one down the sidelines was an insane issue) and he additionally appears to make at the very least one individual miss each time he catches the ball.

Protection….

I actually don’t even know the place to start out right here. Your entire protection failed in just about each conceivable manner on almost each play. The choice offense was a throwback to 2012 when the pistol and skim choice have been all the trend in faculty and the NFL. The factor is… That went out of favor by round 2017 or so. It had principally been found out – there’s no excuse for a protection to appear like they’d no clue to how defend it.

The line of defense was successfully neutralized. They did subsequent to nothing all sport. The linebackers have been subsequently given the unattainable job of deciding who to cowl, and have been at all times outnumbered. And the DBs…. Man, they appeared to overlook each deal with, obtained drug previous the road for first downs, AND nonetheless obtained beat deep.

Look, I spent all offseason singing the praises of Kane Wommack’s scheme and training fashion. It’s a system that I’ve seen work exceptionally nicely and one which I believe ought to be forward of the curve because the pendulum swings again away from the Fangio two-high defenses.

When a protection pulls an additional security as much as the field for many of the sport, I can forgive the occasional gaffe on a deep submit. It’s the tradeoff of the scheme…. However you’ll be able to’t run that formation AND nonetheless quit a billion first downs within the run sport and on QB rollouts.

I don’t know what the difficulty was there. Scheme, mentality, or what. But it surely was a complete collapse, and it’s on Wommack to appropriate it, nevertheless that appears. The dearth of any changes after the early onslaught is an horrible indictment.

Offensive Line

This can be a bizarre one. The OL appeared to maintain Milroe fairly clear for many of the sport, outdoors of the game-breaking whiff from Pritchett on the finish. On the similar time, whereas the yards per carry for the 2 working backs seems to be high quality, it’s principally boosted by a 32 yard scamper from Jam Miller. Exterior of that play, the backs have been principally bottled up, as was Milroe on his rushes.

It’s nonetheless good to the cross safety do in addition to it has, however the line hasn’t appeared to actually be capable of hold issues clear sufficient to get anybody blocking downfield. That’s a part of the tradeoff of working an influence blocking scheme relatively than zone blocking… However proper now, they’re letting issues into the backfield extra usually than they’re getting second stage blocks.

For now, this can be a impolite awakening for each Coach DeBoer and the Alabama fan base. The query goes to be – how does he reply, and can the Alabama followers give him slack to reply with out turning this right into a poisonous Auburn-like state of affairs?

It’s not like we have now a fame for unreasonable expectations, or something.

Roll Tide.