My take on UAB

[Freak]

I was pretty upset after the game that the team played as poorly as they did. I watched the replay tonight and it's really not as bad as my first thoughts.

We only had three possessions in the second half, not counting the final one where we took a knee. Clausen moved the offense well and both of his drives ended on dropped passes (one was intercepted). I have no clue why Ainge was in the game on the next possession. He looked really bad on this series, almost like he was rattled. After sailing one over the head of Swain he looked really upset at something and looked like he was yelling. Obviously on the next play he did not see the safety and threw the pick.

Ainge seemed to really struggle throwing the ball on the move. Several of the passes where he looked terrible were roll out plays.

Clausen REALLY likes to throw the quick short passes. Obvioulsy this had something to do with the defense but I think it goes back to his philosophy of getting the ball in the hands of the playmakers. Only in the last TD drive before the half did he throw the ball down the field over the middle.

Riggs started strong getting 54 yards on his first 9 carries. He seemed to slow some after that. A couple of runs were blown up by missed blocks. I think it was Foster both times.

Arian Foster looked really good on the second series of the second half. He showed some really nice moves.

Bottom line is that yes, Ainge made 4 or 5 really bad throws but it looks like only one was a bad read. He really should not have been in the game on that last series of the second half. He looked very uncomfortable. Drops and pressure also contributed to his poor stats.

Clausen did what he needed to do, moved the offense well and did nothing to get us beat. He did throw mostly short quick patterns but his stats would also have been a lot better if not for the drops.

If we catch the ball in this game the score is not nearly as close as it ended up.

My biggest problem with the offense besides the drops? I was a little disappointed with the run game not being as physical as I had hoped. However, Riggs looked more physical than I have ever seen. He was really running hard and breaking tackles. I thought we would have had more big runs.

 

[BeltwayVol]

The more I think, the more I'm begining to worry about Ainge's shoulder.

Do you think that the tension on his arm when rolling out was causing the bad throws?

 

[Jmxvol]

pretty acurate summary, Freak, we catch passes and we probably never sweat like we did.

 

[Freak]

Beltway, I really don't think so. :dunno:

 

[duckman398686]

i think that when we have gandy and/or ligon back when we take florida the running game will improve. as for ainge's shoulder, im not really sure if its that that making him play bad or not. everyone seems to think he has mind issues. but nobody has gone into detail about it.

 

[BeltwayVol]

Well, I've gone into detail about my thoughts on him, and gotton smacked for it. I just thought about his shoulder, and wondered if maybe it could be a lingering affect.

 

[duckman398686]

i doubt it. i would be concerned about it if he had gone through with the surgery but he didnt. im more concerned about his confidence and how well he deals with certain things.

 

[BHAMVOLFAN]

His mind? Could be that Eric has put a lot of pressure on himself. A QB cannot afford to press in a ballgame or you get what we saw Saturday. I agree with Freak that our running game was a little lame Saturday. Could be that the OL in it's new lineup isn't as good as it will be when Ligon or Gandy return, but our run blocking wasn't that good Saturday.

We must catch the football!

 

[KYVolFan]

Well gang:

I can only say that I HOPE UAB proves to be a lot better than I thought they were before our game against them. :cross: If they aren't, then we have a long season ahead of us. I fully expected our depth would swallow them by the fourth quarter but that clearly did not happen. We seemed at times to do little more than give up. The fire just wasn't there at several intervals in the game. Adversity can't be permitted to demoralize the team and if it does our dreams of National Title competition will be seen as a laughable. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

Either we are worse or UAB is much, much better than I had thought.

From my perspective, our secondary showed little improvement over last year. We let this opponent take their crossing patterns for granted. Those patterns were open all day. In fact, we probably won this game as a result of the UAB's failure to run more crossing patterns. Had they run them more, they would have probably scored more points. You can bet your favorite Big Orange T-Shirt that Yourbane Myers saw this weakness in our pass defense and you can also bet that he will exploit it.

We must do something to have a respectable punt return game. Punts can't hit the ground and roll for 15-20 yards. We're just giving valuable yardage away. :bad: Hopefully, someone wearing orange and white can be found who will actually handle the ball and take it up field.

I was impressed with our run defense , particularly Jason Allen. Allen is a hitter. :gun: :gun: Our front seven did little to hurry-up Hackney in passing situations. We must improve our pass rush. We simply can't allow the opponents quaterbacks to sit back there for 5-7 extra seconds and pick us apart in the games to come.

 

[rwemyss]

Originally posted by BHAMVOLFAN@Sep 5, 2005 9:50 AM
His mind?  Could be that Eric has put a lot of pressure on himself.  A QB cannot afford to press in a ballgame or you get what we saw Saturday.  ...

We must catch the football!

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Yeah, look at what Boise's QB did on Saturday.

 

[Freak]

Originally posted by KYVolFan@Sep 5, 2005 10:26 AM
Well gang:

I can only say that I HOPE UAB proves to be a lot better than I thought they were before our game against them. :cross:  If they aren't, then we have a long season ahead of us.  I fully expected our depth would swallow them by the fourth quarter but that clearly did not happen.  We seemed at times to do little more than give up. The fire just wasn't there at several intervals in the game.  Adversity can't be permitted to  demoralize the team and if it does our dreams of National Title competition will be seen as a laughable. :banghead:  :banghead:  :banghead:

Either we are worse or UAB is much, much better than I had thought.

From my perspective, our secondary showed little improvement over last year.  We let this opponent take their crossing patterns for granted. Those patterns were open all day. In fact, we probably won this game as a result of the UAB's failure to run more crossing patterns. Had they run them more, they would have probably scored more points. You can bet your favorite Big Orange T-Shirt  that Yourbane Myers saw this weakness in our pass defense and you can also bet that he will exploit it.

We must do something to have a respectable punt return game. Punts can't hit the ground and roll for 15-20 yards. We're just giving valuable yardage away. :bad:  Hopefully, someone wearing orange and white can be found who will actually handle the ball and take it up field.

I was impressed with our run defense , particularly Jason Allen. Allen is a hitter.  :gun:  :gun:  Our front seven did little to hurry-up Hackney in passing situations.  We must improve our pass rush. We simply can't allow the opponents  quaterbacks to sit back there for 5-7 extra seconds and pick us apart in the games to come. 

   

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Allen was a manchild out there. He was on a different level than everyone else. It was fun to watch him play.

 

[bigzurc420]

Allen is a manchild

 

[Blazer85]

UAB IS much better than you probably thought. You probably thought I was just trying to toot my own team's horn coming in here and telling you not to take us lightly. I am surprised, however, that you didnt listen to your own Vol fans that live in Birmingham and have seen the things UAB is capable of.

 

[JJ Jackson]

Originally posted by vol_freak@Sep 5, 2005 12:35 AM
I was pretty upset after the game that the team played as poorly as they did. I watched the replay tonight and it's really not as bad as my first thoughts.

We only had three possessions in the second half, not counting the final one where we took a knee. Clausen moved the offense well and both of his drives ended on dropped passes (one was intercepted). I have no clue why Ainge was in the game on the next possession. He looked really bad on this series, almost like he was rattled. After sailing one over the head of Swain he looked really upset at something and looked like he was yelling. Obviously on the next play he did not see the safety and threw the pick.

Ainge seemed to really struggle throwing the ball on the move. Several of the passes where he looked terrible were roll out plays.

Clausen REALLY likes to throw the quick short passes. Obvioulsy this had something to do with the defense but I think it goes back to his philosophy of getting the ball in the hands of the playmakers. Only in the last TD drive before the half did he throw the ball down the field over the middle.

Riggs started strong getting 54 yards on his first 9 carries. He seemed to slow some after that. A couple of runs were blown up by missed blocks. I think it was Foster both times.

Arian Foster looked really good on the second series of the second half. He showed some really nice moves.

Bottom line is that yes, Ainge made 4 or 5 really bad throws but it looks like only one was a bad read. He really should not have been in the game on that last series of the second half. He looked very uncomfortable. Drops and pressure also contributed to his poor stats.

Clausen did what he needed to do, moved the offense well and did nothing to get us beat. He did throw mostly short quick patterns but his stats would also have been a lot better if not for the drops.

If we catch the ball in this game the score is not nearly as close as it ended up.

My biggest problem with the offense besides the drops? I was a little disappointed with the run game not being as physical as I had hoped. However, Riggs looked more physical than I have ever seen. He was really running hard and breaking tackles. I thought we would have had more big runs.

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[volinbham]

I agree with the assessment. Hackney performed very well. Our run game was not dominating - it must be.

In watching highlights of other games over the weekend and thinking about the last couple of years of the Vols, I have to wonder - WHERE ARE THE BIG PLAYS!

Why don't we stretch the D with deep passes. I see teams throwing deep sidelines routes and deep post routes but I don't see us doing it.

On a final note, I did think our tackling was improved from last year. And as others have commented, Jason Allen was AWESOME!

 

[OWB]

Originally posted by volinbham@Sep 5, 2005 1:36 PM
In watching highlights of other games over the weekend and thinking about the last couple of years of the Vols, I have to wonder - WHERE ARE THE BIG PLAYS!

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This is something that I've been wondering about too. We just don't seem to have them much anymore.