Thought I'd jot some things down after rewatching the game. I think it's good to get both the in-person and the on-TV feel for a game as there's things you miss from both but can usually piece together with the combination. Note that I don't have the schematic know-how or the technical abilities to do the gif cutting so I'll leave that sort of stuff for the scheme experts. God only knows @dbjork6317 will have a field day with his OL cuts this week lol.
First off, it should be noted that I don't find myself as upset or blindsided as most do as this is sort of what I expected to happen, definitely not to an only scoring 3 points level, but I just don't see it with this offense. I don't think we have a ton of gamebreakers, and I think we're basically on-par with the Kelly Bryant offense that got beatdown by Bama, potentially with a higher ceiling depending on DJ's development, but nowhere near what we've seen lately. Add that to a week one opener against the best defense we'll face all year, and this is what was expected from my standpoint.
Let's first start with the good: BV continues to be the GOAT. He and his squad had their backs up against the wall the entire game, and they continually delivered. Bresee, though it looks like he does have a tendency to jump gaps and maybe leave holes from time to time, was an absolute machine. His big plays far outweight any risk of the free-lancing it appears he may do at times, although this could be by design and someone's mistake, hard to tell when not knowing the calls. The second team DTs that were elevated with Davis' absence all played incredibly well. Skalski and Spector were flying all over the place, true sideline-to-sideline players, and I thought all of the DBs played with much better technique than we've seen in the past, most notably when it comes to their footwork and their positioning when breaking up throws. If I had one criticism (and it's hard to really have one when you only give up 3 points) it's that it would be nicer to have a true speed rusher off the edge. Our DEs, obviously led by Murphy are great at compressing the pocket, but it would be really nice if we had someone who could get to the QB with some urgency. Their pass rush was so fast, and speeding up our rush is the main thing I'd look to improve (Simpson and XT are probably are only options here, outside of through scheming it up via BV).
Secondly, when did we become the program with the elite special teams? Spiers was on it all damn night doing his damndest to flip the field. They miss a FG, and we get a freebie turnover when they brainfart and touch a punt? That was some old school Clemson sh!t right there. It sure felt nice being on the other side of things is all I can say. Kudos to that side of the ball. As the age-old adage goes, you got to win two of the three phases of the game in order to win. We absolutely won on defense and we won on special teams but still lost, which brings us to the bad... or should I say very bad?
Not really sure where to begin on this side of the ball. We can get into schemes and concepts, but at the end of the day, I'm a numbers / results guy, and 3 points is inexcusable in 2021 and even moreso when you gave up 7, so basically the offense scored -4 points. There an infinite number of obvious reasons for that (the OL's destruction and DJ's play being chief among them), but I think this really comes down to our offensive braintrust and its stagnation over time. I want to make it known that I don't think Elliott is a scrub in any sense of the word. He had a direct and influential hand in delivering us two national championships. That makes his time here an undebatable incredible success.
However, I do think all things in life have maturations and evolutions, and it's beyond obvious that Tony's time here has run its course. I really think how Dabo handles this dynamic is going to be looked back on in many years as a critical moment in this program and the dynasty he has created. Football is a cat and mouse game, and when the mouse takes the same route in his run for the cheese every game, eventually the cat is gonna start slaughtering him. This issue has largely been overlooked on account of us being able to out-talent and out-execute most teams we play, but we've lacked offensive imagination, execution, and a true sense of how we're attacking defenses in the last three big games we played (LSU, Ohio State, and culminating with UGA).
Offensive turnover is something that has been a blessing in disguise for Saban for years now. He basically gets in infusion of creativity and fresh concepts into his offense every 2-3 years whereas we've done the same thing for close to a decade. The fake toss QB counter play, for example, was a great wrinkle used incredibly well to gouge Ohio State with Deshaun... FIVE YEARS AGO. We absolutely have to make this move, and I hope Dabo can do it in a way that appears as if Elliott left on his own for a head coaching gig, but regardless it has to happen. Now some may be asking why this is so critical on offense but not on defense, and I think that's just the nature of defense being reactionary vs offense's dictating. Venables and his squad are forced to change as a result of offenses changing so he's not really at risk of stagnating. He evolves simply by the nature of his side of the ball, whereas Elliott and Co clearly aren't evolving.
On DJ, yes DJ has a ton of potential but we have to figure out how to speed things up for him, both mentally and physically. On the mental side of things, I think this is something Trev struggled with as well (and they've commented on it in every one of his preseason games). We have start accelerating the way we coach our QBs to process information. If you compare how quickly DJ and even Trevor processes to how guys like Burrow and Mac Jones process, it's like we're in slow motion. And speaking of slow motion, wow does it take a while for the ball to get out of DJ's hand. Don't get me wrong, when it does it looks great and is usually humming, but wow is that stride and that lengthy release slow. I know the baseball player to QB trend is becoming quite common with Russel Wilson and Mahomes, but those guys excel because they were shortstops who had to succeed by being able to instantly and at any position get to their throwing platform and get the ball out immediately. I'm just guessing DJ's baseball experience was as a pitcher, an this is something that needs to be almost worked out of his system, as opposed to the shortstop experience that is so value for Wilson / Mahomes.
The only other thing I'd say offensively is we really need to start recruiting a smaller, more explosive receiver. I think the day of the huge big-body receiver has somewhat come and gone. Yes they're nice to have, but DBs have gotten so good with their technique and with their experience in 7 on 7s that they're so much more comfortable with these guys. Yes they can still have success, but man does it ever decrease you margin of error when every catch has to be in such a tight window. Sure would be nice to have some Davonte Smith or Kayshon Bouttee or Chris Olave guys who are 6' and who can create so much separation and then can take a 10 yard pass to the house if they make one man miss. I've always thought height at RB is not only overrated but is actually a negative in many ways, and I'm starting to think the same thing might become true with WRs, maybe not to that extreme, but we have to get guys who can create more sepatation.
This team's ceiling is probably playoff semifinals, which is just fine given what we lost. It's on-par with that KB team, but how we manage this team and the offensive dynamics this year will be critical as next year's team (depending on who stays / leaves) should be filthy. This whole year is about developing players and evolving as a staff to put that team in position to win it all.
That's all, a little longer than I expected, but had to put it all out there, @Zothras would be proud ha.
First off, it should be noted that I don't find myself as upset or blindsided as most do as this is sort of what I expected to happen, definitely not to an only scoring 3 points level, but I just don't see it with this offense. I don't think we have a ton of gamebreakers, and I think we're basically on-par with the Kelly Bryant offense that got beatdown by Bama, potentially with a higher ceiling depending on DJ's development, but nowhere near what we've seen lately. Add that to a week one opener against the best defense we'll face all year, and this is what was expected from my standpoint.
Let's first start with the good: BV continues to be the GOAT. He and his squad had their backs up against the wall the entire game, and they continually delivered. Bresee, though it looks like he does have a tendency to jump gaps and maybe leave holes from time to time, was an absolute machine. His big plays far outweight any risk of the free-lancing it appears he may do at times, although this could be by design and someone's mistake, hard to tell when not knowing the calls. The second team DTs that were elevated with Davis' absence all played incredibly well. Skalski and Spector were flying all over the place, true sideline-to-sideline players, and I thought all of the DBs played with much better technique than we've seen in the past, most notably when it comes to their footwork and their positioning when breaking up throws. If I had one criticism (and it's hard to really have one when you only give up 3 points) it's that it would be nicer to have a true speed rusher off the edge. Our DEs, obviously led by Murphy are great at compressing the pocket, but it would be really nice if we had someone who could get to the QB with some urgency. Their pass rush was so fast, and speeding up our rush is the main thing I'd look to improve (Simpson and XT are probably are only options here, outside of through scheming it up via BV).
Secondly, when did we become the program with the elite special teams? Spiers was on it all damn night doing his damndest to flip the field. They miss a FG, and we get a freebie turnover when they brainfart and touch a punt? That was some old school Clemson sh!t right there. It sure felt nice being on the other side of things is all I can say. Kudos to that side of the ball. As the age-old adage goes, you got to win two of the three phases of the game in order to win. We absolutely won on defense and we won on special teams but still lost, which brings us to the bad... or should I say very bad?
Not really sure where to begin on this side of the ball. We can get into schemes and concepts, but at the end of the day, I'm a numbers / results guy, and 3 points is inexcusable in 2021 and even moreso when you gave up 7, so basically the offense scored -4 points. There an infinite number of obvious reasons for that (the OL's destruction and DJ's play being chief among them), but I think this really comes down to our offensive braintrust and its stagnation over time. I want to make it known that I don't think Elliott is a scrub in any sense of the word. He had a direct and influential hand in delivering us two national championships. That makes his time here an undebatable incredible success.
However, I do think all things in life have maturations and evolutions, and it's beyond obvious that Tony's time here has run its course. I really think how Dabo handles this dynamic is going to be looked back on in many years as a critical moment in this program and the dynasty he has created. Football is a cat and mouse game, and when the mouse takes the same route in his run for the cheese every game, eventually the cat is gonna start slaughtering him. This issue has largely been overlooked on account of us being able to out-talent and out-execute most teams we play, but we've lacked offensive imagination, execution, and a true sense of how we're attacking defenses in the last three big games we played (LSU, Ohio State, and culminating with UGA).
Offensive turnover is something that has been a blessing in disguise for Saban for years now. He basically gets in infusion of creativity and fresh concepts into his offense every 2-3 years whereas we've done the same thing for close to a decade. The fake toss QB counter play, for example, was a great wrinkle used incredibly well to gouge Ohio State with Deshaun... FIVE YEARS AGO. We absolutely have to make this move, and I hope Dabo can do it in a way that appears as if Elliott left on his own for a head coaching gig, but regardless it has to happen. Now some may be asking why this is so critical on offense but not on defense, and I think that's just the nature of defense being reactionary vs offense's dictating. Venables and his squad are forced to change as a result of offenses changing so he's not really at risk of stagnating. He evolves simply by the nature of his side of the ball, whereas Elliott and Co clearly aren't evolving.
On DJ, yes DJ has a ton of potential but we have to figure out how to speed things up for him, both mentally and physically. On the mental side of things, I think this is something Trev struggled with as well (and they've commented on it in every one of his preseason games). We have start accelerating the way we coach our QBs to process information. If you compare how quickly DJ and even Trevor processes to how guys like Burrow and Mac Jones process, it's like we're in slow motion. And speaking of slow motion, wow does it take a while for the ball to get out of DJ's hand. Don't get me wrong, when it does it looks great and is usually humming, but wow is that stride and that lengthy release slow. I know the baseball player to QB trend is becoming quite common with Russel Wilson and Mahomes, but those guys excel because they were shortstops who had to succeed by being able to instantly and at any position get to their throwing platform and get the ball out immediately. I'm just guessing DJ's baseball experience was as a pitcher, an this is something that needs to be almost worked out of his system, as opposed to the shortstop experience that is so value for Wilson / Mahomes.
The only other thing I'd say offensively is we really need to start recruiting a smaller, more explosive receiver. I think the day of the huge big-body receiver has somewhat come and gone. Yes they're nice to have, but DBs have gotten so good with their technique and with their experience in 7 on 7s that they're so much more comfortable with these guys. Yes they can still have success, but man does it ever decrease you margin of error when every catch has to be in such a tight window. Sure would be nice to have some Davonte Smith or Kayshon Bouttee or Chris Olave guys who are 6' and who can create so much separation and then can take a 10 yard pass to the house if they make one man miss. I've always thought height at RB is not only overrated but is actually a negative in many ways, and I'm starting to think the same thing might become true with WRs, maybe not to that extreme, but we have to get guys who can create more sepatation.
This team's ceiling is probably playoff semifinals, which is just fine given what we lost. It's on-par with that KB team, but how we manage this team and the offensive dynamics this year will be critical as next year's team (depending on who stays / leaves) should be filthy. This whole year is about developing players and evolving as a staff to put that team in position to win it all.
That's all, a little longer than I expected, but had to put it all out there, @Zothras would be proud ha.
