tndeer.com/threads/alabama.381231/post-4823087
I wrote a sermon on that very thing last year when Bama lost to Clemson in the National Championship that gets people very uncomfortable when they hear it. I'm assuming here, but you said you wrote a sermon, so you are a preacher in East TN? And you wrote a sermon about alabama football? If...
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I joke, but I don't think you realize what a perfect storm it was this year for any team facing Alabama. I also don't think you realize how hard it's going to be to replace Sarkisian. The guy is a master RPO play caller. He is not going to be another guy that Saban just goes out and finds the next reclamation project and just rinse and repeat. And it sure as heck ain't Bill O'Brien.
On top of having it's usual outstanding O line and a good, but not great, defense, Alabama was advantaged by having Smith and Harris return. They very well could be playing in the NFL right now. Mack Jones was very experienced in Sark's system. On top of that, whether the opponent was Florida, Georgia, Texas A&M or Ohio State, the opponent's defense has to be multiple to beat a team running such an efficient RPO-based offense. To be multiple takes (a) depth in the secondary, and (b) the time to install multiple packages. I don't know how deep the other teams were in their seconday, but I know Ohio State wasn't deep due to injury and 2017-2019 recruiting mistakes and misses. On top of that, a team needs time (meaning a full Spring season and off-season) to install the packages. None of the opponents had that time. This is also where playing only six games and the start/stop/start nature of the Big Ten season was a disadvantage for Ohio State. Not only was there less time on top of no offseason to install, the lack of games meant this Ohio State team and staff weren't faced with situations to know if the players could play different packages. Last night demonstrated the coaches lacked confidence in the secondary. I really thought Ohio State should have played a lot more cover 1 last night, but it's clear the D staff just doesn't have the confidence in the DBs to run it much. When they did try, Sark just put Smith in motion or, because Ohio State rarely ran cover 1 this year, the DBs got no press. So, Ohio State ran what they ran most of the season an elementary spot and drop cover 3. RPOs are death to a cover 3 unless it is a pattern matching scheme. But that requires better coaching and more time to learn. Basically a pattern match cover 3 is a cover 3 that turns into man-to-man as the routes develop. Good RPO offenses will shred a spot and drop cover 3, which is exactly what happened. To beat this Alabama team, you have to be able to mix in cover 4, cover 6, run a lot of cover 1, and mix in zone pressures, but you've got to have the personnel and the time to install those packages. You saw it this year with Clemson. Venables is famous for all of his multiple packages, but he didn't have the personnel to run them effectively and when Clemson finally played a good offense in Ohio State, they got roasted because he didn't have the D line or the back end to run them.
So, Ohio State picked its poison and it was running a lot of 4-4 LB sets to stop the Bama run game while sitting back in a cover 3. This was successful, as they held Harris to 79 yards on 3.6 YPC, but they were shredded through the air. The loss of Togiai (NT) and Tyreke Smith (DE) to Covid really hurt, and it was clear the coaches felt they needed the extra backer in the run game and to pressure Jones. Sark ate them alive by either putting Smith in motion or putting him in the slot to get him isolated on a LB, and that was death. I was yelling at the TV to go nickel, but even that wouldn't have helped. See lack of depth and inability to run multiple packages. Harris would have killed us then.
Ultimately, however, I think it was losing Trey Sermon after the first carry. I love Master Teague, but he's not shifty. No cut back. Vision is only ok. Sermon was the key to the entire play action, which we shredded Clemson with. Master is a straight line bull runner. Great in the red zone. Sermon is the key. I don't think there was one designed run for Fields given his hip. Everyone knew Bama was going to score, and Ohio State just had to keep up and hope to get enough stops or limit Bama to FGs in the red zone. The ability to keep up ended a minute into the game, and Alabama's offense took care of the rest.
Hats off to Alabama. Just an incredibly well-coached, clean, efficient team that just takes care of its business.