Film Study: Alabama primed to end Mississippi State's dream season
The now 8-1 Alabama Crimson Tide are sitting pretty after escaping “Death Valley” — with their dreams still intact, I may add — in a thrilling 20-13 overtime win over the rapidly ascending LSU Tigers.
While most critics won’t admit it, as just about everyone expected the Tide to roll in emphatic fashion, this game says more about Alabama than any of the previous eight.
While it’s been widely known that the Tide undergo a bit of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-like transformation on the road — mainly due to the 23-17 loss at Ole Miss, and the 14-13 win at the University of Arkansas — anytime you can come away with a victory it doesn’t matter what the rhetoric is behind it.
From a critical standpoint, you have to wonder if Bama made the game more difficult than it needed to be by employing a head scratching in-game philosophy on offense — one that seemed to be right out of an episode of the Twilight Zone opposed to being out of the playbook of the great Lane Kiffin (Alabama’s oft-criticised offensive coordinator).
But you can afford to go off the deep end on offense when you execute, almost to perfection, on defense the way the Tide did. As we’ve seen with recent championship teams, sometimes you need the necessary breaks to continue to advance, especially in as highly competitive of a division as the western section of the Southeastern Conference is.
Now Alabama gets the fortunate break of playing possibly the two toughest teams on its schedule at home — the No. 1-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs and the heated rival Auburn Tigers.
But once Alabama procures that spot in the College Football Playoffs, we may look back on this game as the one that galvanized the entire program.
This win was huge, folks.
Blake Sims Is The Glue For This Team/Back Story
It seems as though it was yesterday that Bama quarterback Blake Sims was fodder for criticism and skepticism alike. Pundits such as ESPN’s David Pollack proclaimed that he didn’t have the prerequisite skills needed to function at a program like Alabama.
He actually went as far as to say “Alabama can’t win with Sims,” which made very little sense as Sims never started a game in his four previous years in the program. Other ESPN personalities like Danny Kanell and Paul Finebaum pretty much echoed that sentiment.
And when it came down to the competition between Sims and Florida State transfer Jacob Coker, you could plainly see that it was a lot more involved than just football.
Who can forget when just about everyone proclaimed that on-air commentator Andre Ware showed favoritism to Sims over Coker in an earlier tilt against Florida Atlantic University when the former clearly outplayed that latter.
Even some journalist couldn’t come to grips that Sims was the better option over the highly touted Coker — going so far as write preposterous statements like this:
“The guess here is Ware wants Sims, a fellow African-American, to be the Crimson Tide’s undeniable starter,” Bradley Zimanek of the Montgomery Advertiser wrote. “He cheered and campaigned for him enough during the SEC Network’s broadcast.”
But it was clear that Ware was just calling it like he was seeing it, much to the chagrin of the general public.
And when yours truly suggested that there was a disturbing undertone to the QB battle (click here to read that hot-button article), many suggested that I, too, was going the route of Mr. Ware.
But as we presently sit, Sims has been just what the doctor ordered for a team many felt wasn’t up to snuff with previous incarnations of head coach Nick Saban’s squad. Anyone questioning his leadership needs to be examined for a serious case of “Haterade.”
His personality is infectious and you can tell the team will do anything for him. He’s constantly getting everyone lined up and shows a passion for what he’s doing and does so in a more encouraging manner than his predecessor, A.J. McCarron.
I’m not implying that he’s a better player than McCarron, I’m merely shedding light that there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
As far as his on-field play, as it pertains to the LSU game, Sims played good in spite of his play-calling.
Going into the game, we knew that LSU’s defensive backfield was full of future NFL players, despite the fact that its No. 1 corner, Rashard Robinson, was surprisingly suspended before the game.
But that still left the duo of Jalen Collins and Tre’Davious White to man the corners with Jalen Mills, Ronald Martin Jr., and Jamal Adams filling out the safety spots; those are five players who will undoubtedly play in the NFL.
We also knew that LSU had been susceptible to the run against top-notch rushing outfits, which is exactly what Alabama is at its core. But for some odd reason Kiffin decided that it would be wise to put the ball in the air a whopping 46 times against the league’s most talented secondary.
Sims’s statistics, 20-of-46 for 209 yards with two touchdowns and zero interceptions, may have looked a lot better if not for the stifling pass defense the Tigers were playing on all-world receiver Amari Cooper — who only finished with eight catches for 83 yards and a TD — and the plethora of drops from a host of targets.
And when you consider star running back T.J. Yeldon was averaging 4.5 yards per carry, on only 15 attempts, you can plainly see the gravity of the situation. But it was Sims that held the entire operation together.
Look at the placement of this quick hitch against extremely tight man coverage.
Kiffin leaning on Sims in the most hostile environment a QB can play in says a lot about where he thinks the fifth-year senior is in his development. Sims has the highest QBR in the SEC and is second in the nation behind Oregon’s Marcus Mariota; he’s thrown 17 TDs opposed to just three INTs.
He’s also completing 62 percent of his passes with 9.16 yards per completion (for those who said he was inaccurate and couldn’t throw the deep ball).
His success is directly tied to Saban as the coach could care less what the media thinks and will run his program how he sees fit.
The fact that he hired Kiffin in the first place, and the team is in position to achieve all of its goals behind the Sims-Kiffin combination, is the reason why he’s the greatest to ever put on a headset.
Especially when you factor in how great his side of the ball is playing.
This Defense Is Every Bit As Good As Past Units
It doesn’t matter how efficient your offense is if you can’t back it up with sound defensive play — especially in the SEC — as Texas A&M and the University of Missouri have found out on many occasions since entering the conference three seasons ago.
A team must first and foremost have the ability to stop the run and that’s exactly what Alabama has excelled at this season. LSU’s run game had been on fire behind the stylings of uber-recruit Leonard Fournette and senior Terrence Magee.
While LSU still managed to gain 183 yards on the ground, it took them 56 carries to achieve it!
I’ve made it my duty to mention Tide junior inside linebacker Reggie Ragland whenever I write about the defense. I thought it would be a while before Alabama would see another player the caliber of former star C.J. Mosley (Baltimore Ravens), but I’m thoroughly convinced Ragland is his equal.
The 6’2″, 254-pound athletic marvel is a tackling machine with some serious sideline-to-sideline ability. He has penchant for making splash plays and brings the thunder upon impact.
After going with more of a speed scheme out of a 4-3-based alignment for most of the season, the Tide were able to morph back into a “34” against LSU and its between-the-tackles run game; we may see more of that in the next game against State.
Case in point: Look at how Bama operated out of its heavy package out of the “34.” Nose tackle Darren Lake showed why it will be tough for anyone to consistently run on Bama’s defense; he applied the stack-and-shed technique on the way to a backfield stop.
The secondary is rounding into its own behind the play of all-world safety Landon Collins. His ability to play as an in-the-box safety or in the back-half is virtually unmatched. The corner duo of Eddie Jackson and Cyrus Jones has been solid, as well.
But it’s been the pay of the deepest defensive line in the country that may cement this team’s spot in the final four.
Mississippi State Is In Trouble
If you were to pick a unit to defend Mississippi State’s multiplicative, power-based spread attack, it would be one with an impenetrable defensive line that possesses sideline-to-sideline linebacker play.
Additionally, you would like that unit to be multiple in alignment, and you would want it to be stout against the run.
It would also need to be able to oscillate between zone- and man-based principles to limit the disconnected runs State QB Dak Prescott breaks off. Sure-tackling is also a must as the SEC’s best running back may very well be State’s rising star Josh Robinson.
Do those descriptions sound familiar?
Here’s a quick look at how efficient State is running an old-school sprint option. Prescott is tough enough to run this type of play to the boundary or field side of the formation. Robinson is nearly impossible to bring down with one man — until he meets up with Mr. Ragland, of course.
Once the Tide slows down State’s run game, they can put the focus on stopping the passing game — which is not nearly as advanced as most make it out to be. They have good talent out wide, but nothing the Tide secondary can’t handle.
On the flip side, State must devote extra attention to Cooper as its secondary is highly suspect despite the presence of a couple of good players. But Alabama does have to contend with one of the best defensive fronts in football that loves to get after the QB (tied for the SEC lead in sacks with 32).
But bringing the 89th-ranked defense to Tuscaloosa will prove problematic for the Bulldogs. Alabama will take back its rightful spot at the top of the college football landscape.
