Scary Alabama vs. Western Kentucky Stat

Submitted by WolverineinDallas on

Alabama rushed for 103 yards on 31 attempts today, which is an average of 3.3 a pop.

Thoughts?

One Inch Woody…

September 8th, 2012 at 8:47 PM ^

Did you actually watch the game?

Didn't think so.

All of their backs averaged at least 4 ypc. McCarron fumbled and got sacked for a combined -38 yards.

Alabama also scored quickly and easily. Almost at will. They had the ball for only 27 minutes, and if you take out garbage time with the backups and all, probably more like 20 minutes.

Stop freaking out. Please.

WolverineinDallas

September 8th, 2012 at 8:59 PM ^

I am not freaking out actually. I just thought that this was a very interesting and pertinent stat. I fully expected our defensive line to be the weakness of our team coming into the year. Although, I will admit that I am somewhat surprised that we gave up around three times the amount of rushing yards to Alabama that Western Kentucky did.

Also, your justification for why Alabama ran significantly worse against Western Kentucky is incoherent. You note that all of their backs averaged 4 yards a carry. Didn't they average around 6 yards a carry against us? This is Western Kentucky we are talking about... The other stats that you note don't change the fact that they only averaged 3.3 yards a carry when they ran the football, starters or not.

DrewGOBLUE

September 8th, 2012 at 9:29 PM ^

Seriously, Alabama's stats from today are irrelevant to making an assessment about Michigan. 

Also, consider the circumstances when we played Bama. It was the most hyped game leading up to the start of the season featuring a primetime matchup of the #2 team vs #8 team. I'm sure Saban wanted to take advantage of the spotlight to make a statement. 

cheesheadwolverine

September 8th, 2012 at 9:04 PM ^

Good info thanks, because no I didn't and most probably didn't because it was the same time as our game.  Somewhat encouraging to know

But no I will freak out, because we also got gashed today.  And as much as I want to say that AF was a different blocking scheme than we will ever see again, it's pretty tough to get blown up two weeks in a row and keep making (almost opposite excuses).

weasel3216

September 8th, 2012 at 8:51 PM ^

If Bama was playing a AQ team then i would give this some thought, but since they were playing WKU i am sure the second and third strings got some playing time today to avoid any injuries.  

Just enjoy the win today and Beat UMASS.

weasel3216

September 8th, 2012 at 9:19 PM ^

We are only two games into te season.  Our first game was up against a near NFL caliber line and today we played against a triple option line that cut blocked the hell out of us.  I think it is too early to draw conclusions regarding the run defense, plus the two games we are basing any early conclusions on are way opposite and unique circumstances.

If the line still looks like this after the Illinois game then i will be freaking out.

DeepBlue83

September 8th, 2012 at 9:55 PM ^

That we'll do great as long as we're playing against teams that block poorly and run right into our tackles?

Why the excuses for this team not being ready to play? I see plenty of teams at the top of their game right off the bat. We're not starting anyone without significant time in the program, and we have most of our top contributors back from last year, with spring and fall practice under their belts, and yet our defense has regressed.

johnnydoe

September 8th, 2012 at 9:01 PM ^

Was talking to my friend, who is an Alabama grad, about it earlier. He said last week their O-line played really good except for that first series. This week it was pretty poor and if they played like that next week they will get destroyed by Arkansas

Purkinje

September 8th, 2012 at 9:10 PM ^

Transient property in football is a no no. In 2010, we only scored 7 on Ohio. EMU scored 20 on them. It would be stupid to assume that Eastern's offense was more potent than our 33 ppg 2010 offense because of this.

WolverineinDallas

September 8th, 2012 at 9:29 PM ^

This CAN be true but not always. Consistency plays a big role in determining these kinds of things. In other words, the fact that our defensive line got gashed in two straight games may mean that there is at least some connection between Alabama's poor rushing performance today and our extremely poor defensive line play in general.

Let me say it like this: in 2010, if our offense continued to play poory throughout the year and EMU's offense continued to play decent throughout the year, then the conclusion that "EMU's offense was more potent than ours" would probably be true. The fact that we ended up averaging 33 ppg that year is the only thing that makes your example an abberation.

Because our front played so poorly today, the stats that I cited become much more relevant. Of course, it has only been two games. So we will see if anything changes in the next couple weeks....

snoopblue

September 8th, 2012 at 9:25 PM ^

Basically, we might not be so hot on defense and the offense is still developing. But look at our conference? The Big Ten isn't very good either. Sooooo what does that mean for Michigan's season? Basically, this is going to be a very interesting season - with close games that we lose, close games that we win.The future is very bright with all these young kids getting so much playing time on such a road warrior schedule.

 

cheesheadwolverine

September 8th, 2012 at 9:43 PM ^

You know the offense actually wasn't terrible against Alabama.  In fact it was one of the better performances any offense has had against Alabama recently, really no complaints there.  I didn't expect the AF defense to offer much resistance and it didn't.  The only reason we only got 31 was because they ran the ball 80% of the time and we had few posessions.

DeepBlue83

September 8th, 2012 at 10:07 PM ^

Denard made a few big plays and that was pretty much it. More than half his yardage came on two plays, and we had 13 rushes out of 28 go for two yards or fewer. That's not the kind of consistency that wins against Big Ten defenses. And Fitz? Why do we have to wait three or four games for him to hit his stride? He was the freaking starter last year..he knows the offense and he knows what a hole looks like. Face it...we have no running backs worth a darn, and none in the pipeline for at least another three years.

WolverineinDallas

September 8th, 2012 at 9:37 PM ^

Absolutely! I am not suggesting that we are going to end up losing the rest of our games this year. I still think we have a shot at winning the Big Ten, which, as you alluded to, sucks this year. Both of our lines are what concerns me, but every Big Ten team seems to have major concerns somewhere. Yeah, the future is extremely bright. We just need to keep the recruiting momentum going.

LSAClassOf2000

September 8th, 2012 at 9:36 PM ^

So it is out there, Alabama also put up 225 passing yards, went 15-20 on attempts with 11.3 YPA. Between this and the rushing stats, my thought is that Alabama really did need to do a whole lot to beat Western Kentucky - the fact that A.J. McCarron was sacked four times in the  second half leads me to believe that Alabama did not have the first string out there or he gets hours to throw against a Sun Belt team.  The Crimson Tide gave carries to seven different rushers and threw to seven different receivers, several with comparable stats. It probably didn't help that half of Western Kentucky's first half drives ended with fumbles either. Actually, the box scores tend to say that they took us more seriously. 

bronxblue

September 8th, 2012 at 9:36 PM ^

This game was decided as soon as Alabama walked off the bus.  I doubt that they even really game-planned for WKU.  So to compare the two teams' performances against the Tide is silly.  One game was a major contest with a top-10 team; the other was the week after against a middling FBS team.  Alabama was able to score at will through the air, and in the first half Bama was ripping off 8-10 yard runs by their packs.  

WolverineinDallas

September 8th, 2012 at 9:54 PM ^

"I doubt that they even really game-planned for WKU"

Do you seriously believe this? There are only 12-13 games in their season. You really think that they didn't bother to game-plan for WKU? Does Saban take you as a coach who would come into a game unprepared? I doubt it. Yes, I am sure these stats are not as alarming as they may imply. However, I think they might give us at least some glimpse into the fact that our defensive line is shaky at best.

lhglrkwg

September 8th, 2012 at 11:38 PM ^

but fortunately the rest of the B1G looks downright awful except for State (untested as of yet) and Ohio (ineligible). I still feel good about winning the title in the terrible B1G

AZBlue

September 9th, 2012 at 1:14 AM ^

in my doctoral thesis?

I am proving that Georgia Southern deserved to be ranked #2 last year by virtue of scoring more points against 'Bama than any other team.  It may not be obvious to all these "laymen" on the board that Alabama tries just as hard and puts the same emphasis on every opponent they play, but I can see that we know differently.