THE GOOD 1. Mettenberger looked like a pro out there. Poised in the pocket and deadly accurate. 2. Beckham might be national player of the week. 3. The new sound system in the stadium has some serious woofers, but it needs an equalizer. 4. Our fullbacks can catch and run, they aren't light guards who line up in the backfield anymore. 5. Play selection was unpredictable, Cameron is definitely working out. 6. The offensive line protected Mettenberger well. 7. Many young defensive backs and offensive linemen finally got some PT. We need the depth there. 8. The officiating was very good. THE BAD 1. Our punter hit two shanks to go along with a couple of boomers. He must find some consistency. 2. Depth on defense is thin, when the reserves were in UAB started looking good. 3. Whoever is running the sound system in Tiger Stadium needs to be fired. They played some really horrible music, very loudly . . . while announcers were trying to speak, when Tiger Band was trying to play, whenever there was a short lull in the action. 4. Blue and Hilliard have still not hit their strides. Hill will be moving up the depth chart rapidly. 5. Defense let its foot off the gas in the 2nd quarter. 6. UAB out-rushed us. Run blocking must improve and a feature running back must emerge. 7. Loston underperformed as usual before going out with an injury. THE UGLY 1. Jennings' red-zone fumble for a huge loss was ugly. He's not ready yet. 2. The linebackers can't cut it. They bit on misdirection and got themselves blocked all night.
Don't know that I agree on Blue and Hilliard, if only because they were not getting a lot of room to run early. By the time Hill got in, we had worn their defense down and he had huge avenues to take. Same for Hilliard in mop up time. Change this entry in The Bad to "our run blocking wasn't very good" and I'm with you.
We gave Uab the corner a few times because of bad angles, the lb's get caught up in the wash too often and are a step slow, especially Welter. Glad the young guys have another 2 weeks of practice and a game before we get to sec schedule.
What I saw was less about getting blocked (which is scheme) and more about being out of position (which is instinct). The coaches will have to make some adjustments to make up for their players lack of experience. Stunts and blitzes will get these guys to where they need to be but will also leave the defense vulnerable to the big play.
The LB's were hit for miss. They would have a really good play, and then proceed to get blocked into next month. We do not have a clear set of LB's that fill the gap with purpose.
I don't know about the linebacker play. They seemed to 'overpursue' and were vulnerable to cutbacks inside or out. Of course, they did make quite a few tackles and some good plays. But there is something just not right with the group yet.
As they should be until our idiot student section can learn to act like they are in college and not jr freaking high.
