Nick Saban reviews play calling on Alabama’s last 5 plays from loss at Tennessee
By Keith Farner
Published:
Nick Saban and Alabama have been criticized for the play calling at the end of the Tennessee game, and the coach reviewed the scenarios at his Monday press conference.
“The last 5 plays of the game, we didn’t execute,” Saban said. “We can talk about running the ball, but we dropped a pass and the clock would be running and we would be closer.”
Critics have said that running the ball would have not only drained the clock, and possibly forced Tennessee to use timeouts. But Will Reichard’s field goal attempt would have been shorter than the 50-yarder he attempted, which sailed wide.
About the game in general, there wasn’t one specific area to focus on.
“After watching the film, this is kind of a collective loss by our team. I don’t think we played the way we wanted to play, for sure,” Saban said.
But he noticed something different early on.
“I thought we were tight, especially starting the game,” he said. “Coming out of the locker room, our players always chant. They weren’t chanting. I said, ‘Why aren’t you guys chanting? What’s up with that?'”
The Tide now turn to Mississippi State this week, and Saban said, “Mississippi State’s an outstanding team. Mike Leach is one of the most difficult guys offensively to try to defend.”
H/T Charlie Potter.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
