Week 1 Game Analysis: Wisconsin

[theSabanator20]

Offense:

QB- Jake needed to watch the film and realize that sometimes you gotta just throw the ball away. Also needs to work on the deep ball. Cooper played well when he was in, game was already in hand. Jake overall played very well, managed the offense, had only one or two plays where he tried getting a snap in late and we lost yards on busted run plays. But he showed that he is the guy tonight. We are fine at QB.

RB- I enjoyed watching that shit tonight. Henry ran well, Drake ran well, Harris ran well. And my favorite part was they all fought for extra yards and tried to stay in bounds. Did well pass blocking too. We will be fine here as long as we stay healthy. Harris looks a lot like Ingram did.

TE- OJ got involved tonight, was glad to see that. Also blocked well. Ty F Smith got a catch late. Looked solid overall at this position.

WR- we got playmakers everywhere. So many in fact that I'm not gonna bother going into detail. We are excellent at WR.

OLine- needs work pass blocking, got a lot of help tonight by the receiver getting open very quickly. Run blocking is as expected very good, and will get better. Biggest takeaway was all the damn holding calls we drew. Really need to work on driving feet on run plays and punching on pass plays. Overall, pretty good though.

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DL- damn. These motherfuckers dominated tonight. Pass rush turnt up in the 2nd half. Shut the run down hard, made Wisky concede the run, made play calling easy for Kirby. If we can do that all year, we are in good shape. 40 yds rushing total allowed to the premeire rushing team in the B1G the past 15 years.

LB- The R&R law firm (Reggie and Rueben) served justice tonight to Wisky RBs. Absolutely gave them 0 room in the gaps. OLBs played the edges to perfection tonight, solid tackling in space against WRs and TEs on the dink and dunk passes. Only gave up one big run, the reverse in the 4th. Very good unit overall.

Secondary- we don't have safeties and corners this year. We have a secondary. We are playing 4 CBs, 2 up and 2 deep. Stave made some NFL caliber throws tonight, and we also played great coverage in the 2nd half. There were some times where we got beat, but also other times we got absolute bullshit PI calls called on us. I think they played very well, the only deep ball they gave up was a busted play, and the first TD was a backyard dirt throw. No one can cover that pass. We gave up 10 points with the starters in. I think we will be just fine here.

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K&P&LS- fire Bobby Williams. Two missed field goals, a shanked punt, and a personal foul on our longsnapper. Fuck. This WILL cost us a close game if it ain't fixed before the UGA game.

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Other aspects of the game- we played with some serious physicality in this game. Wisconsin GAVE UP running the football. We made THEIR ASSES QUIT. I enjoyed the shit out of that. Turnovers were zero and ball security was great. Was never in fear of a fumble or INT. Discipline on OLine needs work, had a ton of holding penalties and false starts. But that comes with 3 new starters I guess. They still paved the way for the Mack Truck.

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Coaching:

Offense: Kiffin has been remodeled as a playcaller. I think Saban's message finally registered intio his head. We ran the fucking ball, and we didn't stop, and we all enjoyed that shit. Ran it 3 straight times to open the season. I honestly can't remember an instance last year where Kiffin called 3 consecutive run plays. Against Ole Miss maybe on our lone offensive TD.

Defense: Kirby is going to have fun this year with this NFL defense. That front 7, is just, orgasmic to watch. The secondary is better than last year, and will get better as the season goes on. Teams will pass on Alabama this year not because they want to, but because they have to. No one is running rampant on that front 7 this year if we stay healthy.

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QB- A-
RB- A
TE- A-
OL- A-
WR- A

DL- A+
LB- A+
Secondary- B+

Special Teams- C+ (I know we are better than what we showed, but tonight was bad.)

Overall Team Grade- A

 

[4down20]

DL- damn. These motherfuckers dominated tonight. Pass rush turnt up in the 2nd half. Shut the run down hard, made Wisky concede the run, made play calling easy for Kirby. If we can do that all year, we are in good shape. 40 yds rushing total allowed to the premeire rushing team in the B1G the past 15 years.

I took the stats out in the game thread and just so happened to pull Wisconsins stats before our 2nd team defense came in and gave up that last drive/TD.

Wisconsin at that point only had 8 total yards on the ground and I believe 183ish in the air.

The more I think about it, the more I am at ease with our secondary. Yeah, it wasn't that great in the 1st half and we gave up a ton of points, but as @rolltide14_0 pointed out - we came out ready to defend the run. We didn't come into this game looking to defend the pass, we came in looking to defend the run. So we were given up those shorter plays there for awhile because of where our focus was.

And a few of them were just good plays by Wisconsin.

I say that because we adjusted in the 2nd half and things got quite a bit different and we started shutting down the pass. Stave had only 2 incompletions in the 1st half, and was either 9/11 or 11/13(Coker was the other, I think Coker was 9/11 for 130 yards and Stave was like 11/13 for 118ish).

And his completion rate dropped significantly in the 2nd half. I think we just made adjustments for the pass. Or at least that is what I'm hoping.

 

[theSabanator20]

I took the stats out in the game thread and just so happened to pull Wisconsins stats before our 2nd team defense came in and gave up that last drive/TD.

Wisconsin at that point only had 8 total yards on the ground and I believe 183ish in the air.

The more I think about it, the more I am at ease with our secondary. Yeah, it wasn't that great in the 1st half and we gave up a ton of points, but as @rolltide14_0 pointed out - we came out ready to defend the run. We didn't come into this game looking to defend the pass, we came in looking to defend the run. So we were given up those shorter plays there for awhile because of where our focus was.

And a few of them were just good plays by Wisconsin.

I say that because we adjusted in the 2nd half and things got quite a bit different and we started shutting down the pass. Stave had only 2 incompletions in the 1st half, and was either 9/11 or 11/13(Coker was the other, I think Coker was 9/11 for 130 yards and Stave was like 11/13 for 118ish).

And his completion rate dropped significantly in the 2nd half. I think we just made adjustments for the pass. Or at least that is what I'm hoping.

We played more Nickel in the 2nd half because Wisky made it obvious that they wouldn't be running the ball much more tonight. Saw Minkah a lot in the 2nd half. Had 2 BS PI calls that were just great coverage.

Im starting to think that if we stay healthy, and our secondary improves as the year goes on, we may make a run for undefeatedness. It's highly unlikely with such a tough schedule, but its sure isn't impossible.

I did enjoy seeing some of the B1G fan comments tonight "worst Wisky team in 20 years" "offensive line is absolutely horrid" "won't even win our division".... I didn't hear any of this negativity after 59-0 last year in Indianapolis. But I guess it's easier to make excuses vs. Alabama.

On a side note, Stave actually looked very comfortable and poised when he had time. Made 5-6 great throws tonight that no one in the NFL could defend and not many QBs in college could make. I really hope Wisky pulls out a good season this year.

 

[4down20]

We played more Nickel in the 2nd half because Wisky made it obvious that they wouldn't be running the ball much more tonight. Saw Minkah a lot in the 2nd half. Had 2 BS PI calls that were just great coverage.

Im starting to think that if we stay healthy, and our secondary improves as the year goes on, we may make a run for undefeatedness. It's highly unlikely with such a tough schedule, but its sure isn't impossible.

I did enjoy seeing some of the B1G fan comments tonight "worst Wisky team in 20 years" "offensive line is absolutely horrid" "won't even win our division".... I didn't hear any of this negativity after 59-0 last year in Indianapolis. But I guess it's easier to make excuses vs. Alabama.

On a side note, Stave actually looked very comfortable and poised when he had time. Made 5-6 great throws tonight that no one in the NFL could defend and not many QBs in college could make. I really hope Wisky pulls out a good season this year.

I thought it was funny how the Ohio St fans kept coming in the thread with "look at us" posts about things being familiar to last year whenever either team did something and basically got ignored. I chuckled each time.

And yeah early in the game he was getting all the time in the world to throw the ball. Made a huge difference when we start getting some sacks and pressure on him. And he was making good throws as well, if he plays that well all year Wisconsin is probably top25 quality.

We'll see in a few weeks how we do against Ole Miss, they put up over 70 on a FCS cupcake.

 

[theSabanator20]

I thought it was funny how the Ohio St fans kept coming in the thread with "look at us" posts about things being familiar to last year whenever either team did something and basically got ignored. I chuckled each time.

And yeah early in the game he was getting all the time in the world to throw the ball. Made a huge difference when we start getting some sacks and pressure on him. And he was making good throws as well, if he plays that well all year Wisconsin is probably top25 quality.

We'll see in a few weeks how we do against Ole Miss, they put up over 70 on a FCS cupcake.

Bo Wallace's graduation will go down as the greatest moment in Rebels football history.

 

[4down20]

Watch Nick Saban's post-game press conference following Alabama's win over Wisconsin

Saban Post game.

Says Wisconsin had a good gameplan and knew what they were doing, well coached etc.

Basically, they were abusing a mismatch early bringing their RB out of the backfield to convert a bunch of 3rd downs. So they adjusted and moved someone other than the LB to cover him, removed him from the game and forced Wisconsin to throw the ball down the field more, more time for pressure, etc.

Makes me feel better.

 

[4down20]

Bo Wallace's graduation will go down as the greatest moment in Rebels football history.

Maybe. Chad Kelley could end being Bo Wallace X 1000. Dude is a bit unhinged and has had a troubled past/attitude problems. We'll see how he does under pressure.

 

[Mistaken4193]

Coker is no doubt the Fucking QB. I think he is way better than Sims was last year. If he learns to throw the ball away he could have a special year.

Also MInkah Fitzpatrick is a fuckin stud. I was very impressed with him tonight.


Finally, Why did Saban put in the backups so soon??

 

[bamafan4evr12]

Great analysis @theSabanator20 I agree with a lot of what you said. Coker looked very uncomfortable on that first drive but settled down. Needs to learn when to throw the ball away, but I noticed he was finally getting to his 2nd and 3rd reads which Blake never could do. Henry and Drake...just wow, no need to go on there.

Defense could be great this year. We made Wisconsin do what they don't do a whole lot of, which is throw. They're passing yards were mostly racked up on short intermediate throws. Hopefully the secondary continues to progress and get better because we are going to need them when we get to teams that pass down field more. Bull shit PI calls hurt us.

Bobby Williams is useless...looks like he finally got to JK Scott

 

[fredmccallyRTR]

Fire Bobby Williams, other than that I'm feeling good about where we're at.

 

[bamabear82]

Great analysis, @theSabanator20. I agree with pretty much everything. I think if they can get the ST in order and Coker learns a little more pocket awareness this could be a really good season, even with the hellish schedule. I feel alot better about the secondary too. They could very well end up being just as nasty as the front 7 as the season progresses. It's insane how well Fitzpatrick played as a true freshman on that big of a stage in a Saban/Smart defense. Dude is a special player with a special future ahead of him. Intensity and conditioning were great too. It was nice to see these guys playing with a purpose and not living off of the mean, physical teams of the past like last years team seemed to do.

 

[bamabear82]

*I take no responsibility for validity of Twitter accounts.

 

[4down20]

Every Coker pass:

 

[bamabear82]

Every Coker pass:

Got a big arm just needs to tighten everything up a little and things could get nifty.