First half: 138 yards on 31 plays, 4.5 yards per play Second half, before they started running clock on the last two three-and-outs: 224 yards on 28 plays, 8.0 yards per play. If you want to play the what-if game and take out the touchdown with the hold, it's still 6.6 yards per play. For reference, national average is around 5.4. Alabama's offense averages 5.5. Defense was great in the first half. They were a liability in the second half. They weren't the only liability in the second half, but they had plenty of chances to keep us on top, and they let Alabama play significantly above their usual offensive prowess. If that's 2022 Bama on the other side, the second half performance is fine. Against the 2023 bunch, it was subpar.
I'm starting to wonder if Heupel hasn't pissed off the referees over the last couple of years. Obviously, all the coaches get after the refs, but I'm wondering if instead of the normal criticizing Heupel is going with the personal "I [uck fay]ed your mother, you blind mother[uck fay]er" type of attacks. Umps don't like Vitello and it impacts the way they call our games. Are we seeing the same thing with Heupel?
They did, no doubt. The defense was put in some bad situations because of bad calls or bad offense. But they didn't respond. And in the first half, they did. Last week, they did. They've got the dudes to get us out of some jams, and they didn't in the second half.
Yeah I like a running qb. Milton really isn’t one and him being leading rusher with 40 yards isn’t good.
It’s not. It is actually considered an invalid fair catch. If done after the ball is caught you get the ball where you waived your arms (end zone, touch back) or if before ball is caught then where the ball is caught or downed.
Almost every good thing you get out of Milton has to be micromanaged by the coach/play call. You need your qb to be able to go out there and just play football.
Hard to respond when your best pass rusher is getting held by and if the dbs play physical they get holding calls on them. You can’t really do much as a coordinator with that.
I can see that. It requires them to move with urgency and actually be on point with what they are doing instead of wandering around the field between plays.
This is 100% how he is, he's a damn robot with no feel for the game or any situational awareness. He stands flat footed in the pocket and has never stepped up
The dumbass 6th year senior qb with no feel for the game and the striped shirts completely changed the game in the 2nd half.
The game we got out of him today was about the best game we can expect from him. I thought the offensive coaches did a fantastic job coaxing every ounce of production they could out of him. Because he can't improvise at all. This is why you won't hear me complaining about the in-game coaching on offense. The issues on the line, yes. But we were up against a very good defense with a quarterback who has no feel for the game and we were absolutely getting ours until we started committing stupid penalties (and Mincey got hurt).
They gave up 7 points in the first half. That’s more important than yards per play. As Groves said, refs kept multiple drives alive, and we went 3 and out on 4 out of our 5 second half offensive drives prior to going down 14. The defense was set up to fail the entire afternoon.
