Can Improvement be Measured by... (v. Bama thread)

[HogFanatic]

A single damn touchdown against Alabama this year?

Or how about like 3 field goals? How many points do we score in the Alabama game this year guys? If we score 10 or more points will you be satisfied with that amount of progress?

Or how about, how many points do we need to hold Alabama UNDER considering they are replacing a heisman trophy candidate QB?

[Calling All Hogs]

It would be nice to hold Bama under 50 points since they have only scored 50 or higher three times in the past three years and we have been two of those.

[HogFanatic]

It would be nice to hold Bama under 50 points since they have only scored 50 or higher three times in the past three years and we have been two of those.

That is so depressing...

[onebadrubi]

A single damn touchdown against Alabama this year?

Or how about like 3 field goals? How many points do we score in the Alabama game this year guys? If we score 10 or more points will you be satisfied with that amount of progress?

Or how about, how many points do we need to hold Alabama UNDER considering they are replacing a heisman trophy candidate QB?

What kills us against bama is depth.  1v1 they are better but we are not night and day different, 2v2 is when the game is taken from a 20-30 point beating to those extreme scores. 

[tophawg19]

you can't tell anything by the score . We might be better , they might be worse or any combination of the two. Turnovers can also play a big role . 3 or 4 turnovers on short fields could even produce a win. Watch the game and you should know if we are better or not. If we are still in the game going into the 4th qtr and it isn't luck of the breaks then you know we are better

[jgphillips3]

Improvement against Bama is not measured by how much we score, but how much less points we can hold them to.  If we can hold them in the 20's and make their first string play the entire game, that would be huge.

[Prosciutto]

A single damn touchdown against Alabama this year?

Or how about like 3 field goals? How many points do we score in the Alabama game this year guys? If we score 10 or more points will you be satisfied with that amount of progress?

Or how about, how many points do we need to hold Alabama UNDER considering they are replacing a heisman trophy candidate QB?

Ashley, are you Ricks's wife, daughter, or sister?

Just curious.

[SemperFi]

I think we'll play Bama tough this year. Bama should win, but it will be a tight game. Our one's are as good as most in the SEC, we just lack the depth to not have to rely on luck intervening. I expect a moderate scoring game like 24-17, 21-13. Win or lose the Hogs will be much improved and will give every team they play fits. This will be a team that will not go quietly into the night, but will play their hearts out and will leave it all out on the field.

[Hoggish1]

What's Bama's record coming into the Hog game?  Could it be 3-2, or 2-3?  We can beat them this year.

I'm not worried about these guys, this year!  I'll be there, so that will make it all the sweeter!

[SPAL]

You are what your record says you are....

This is how we measure improvement...

This and people who expect nothing less than 9 wins are the cause of so many problems.

This guy can't see progress and the other side has such ungodly expectations that they start a riot when they aren't met.

Sadly,  the vocal majority fit into one of these categories.

[fakebobholt]

Until the quality of the Alabama QB play is shown to be at least adequate, there exists a great unknown.  This is the best opportunity to beat Alabama in several years (prior to McCarron).

bama replaces great players with another great player. Getting to the top isnt the only hard part. Feeding the machine is the hard part.

[Phil D]

Saban could start me at QB and have a legitimate shot at an SEC title most any year. Let's be realistic here.

doubt even he could do it with you at QB but i understand what you mean :razorback:

[GlassofSwine]

That's a great way to get beat.

Saban has proven he CAN steamroll right past 8 or 9 in the box.

No he hasn't, Alabama punished teams that stacked the box on them by going vertical with MCcaron the last 2 years.  Notice the games Alabama lost with MCcarron at QB were directly tied to MCcarron struggling in those games. Alabama doesn't rely on the QB to win games but if they make mistakes they lose. Their running game dominated Oklahoma and they still lost.

[Phil D]

On occasion, yes. But we've also both seen many games where the Bama QB had a subpar performance and Bama still won.

The bottom line is you don't want to rely on trying to make Bama's QB beat you b/c Saban can and will figure out a way to get around that. Of course that is much easier when you have an OL and a backfield full of All Americans.

if putting eight in the box is what it takes to stop the run i'm all for letting the new QB for bama try and win the game, to me it would seem the right way to approach the game.

[GlassofSwine]

On occasion, yes. But we've also both seen many games where the Bama QB had a subpar performance and Bama still won.

The bottom line is you don't want to rely on trying to make Bama's QB beat you b/c Saban can and will figure out a way to get around that. Of course that is much easier when you have an OL and a backfield full of All Americans.

  There are very few games where Alabama's QB's have played subpar. MCcaron completed 67% of his passes with 77 TD's and 15 Int's in his career at Alabama. Greg McElroy completed 66% of his passes for 39 TD's and 10 Int's in his career. That's the last 4 years, these QB's are called on to be efficient and make completions when the opponents key on the run. There is a reason that Alabama has only lost 7 games in 4 years, and I guarantee that Saban would agree that the QB position at Alabama is critical for them to win. 

[ifghog]

This and people who expect nothing less than 9 wins are the cause of so many problems.

This guy can't see progress and the other side has such ungodly expectations that they start a riot when they aren't met.

Sadly,  the v
ocal majority fit into one of these categories.

Preach it sir

[GlassofSwine]

By subpar I meant very few attempts and few yards, as opposed to a poor passing percentage or something.

My mistake for not being clearer. What I was trying to say was Saban can and does win games while barely throwing the ball.

  So I dug up some stats from last year. I don't know what you consider few attempts to mean, since that could be many things. There are some interesting stats from last years Alabama team.

     Alabama ranked last in the SEC in rushing attempts per game.
     Alabama ranked 2nd in yards in rushing.
     Alabama passing attempts ranked 10th in the SEC. 
     Alabama was ranked 4th in passing TD's and 7th in Yards.
     Alabama had a TD pass for every 12.16 attempts which was the best in the SEC even ahead on A&M who was as 12.225.
     Alabama passed 44% of the time on average.
     Alabama ranked 10th in offensive plays run in the SEC.
     
     The LSU game was the game Alabama had the greatest disparity only passing 20 times while rushing 42 times. The 2nd lowest No. of passing attempts was 24 in one game on two occasions.


I personally consider their ratio of run/pass to be average. They were highly efficient on offense both running and passing.   

[PonderinHog]

That's just one season you're looking at, rather than looking at Saban's philosophy as a whole.

With no mention of his defensive philosophy I'd have to agree that that is not a complete picture of Alabama football.  But if they were last in rushing attempts and second in rushing yardage, I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that they were first in yards per carry.