Alabama Football: The Good, Bad and Ugly of This Weekend's Practice in Pads

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer)

Like any coach watching a team scrimmage with itself, if the offense does well, he's not pleased with the defense. If the defense shines, the offense must have trouble. In other words, there's no pleasing a head coach when it comes to evaluating his own team against itself.

So what was good, what was bad and what was ugly?

The offense, the defense and the punting game in that order.

The casual fan would think that the defense, with all the starters returning, should have been able to contain an offense with two relatively new quarterbacks, missing the star running back, the top receiver and the left tackle.

Instead, the offense sliced and diced the defense, both quarterbacks had solid performances and the running backs ran over the defense.

In his post game news conference, Saban said, "I was really pleased with the quarterback play. They managed the game well, their leadership was good and we moved the ball. Eddie (Lacy) and Trent (Richardson) both had some big plays in the running game."

"Both quarterbacks got equal time. We worked them both with the ones and some with the twos. So it's not just about the numbers. You have to look at the protection. One ball was tipped for an interception. So you can't go just by the stats."

A.J. McCarron ended the day 18-of-33 passes for 189 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.

Phillip Sims completed 20-of-30 passes for 225 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions.

Interestingly enough, it was Eddie Lacy, not Trent Richardson who shined in the running game.

His 92 yards in just 10 carries was a whopping 9.2 yards a carry. That did include a long 45 yard touchdown run.

Richardson ran five times for 40 yards. That was eight yards a carry and higher than his normal average. He also added two catches for 25 yards with one touchdown.

Speaking of touchdown passes, Marquis Maze proved that he is ready to be the deep threat for McCarron the same way he was for McElroy. He took in a 59 yard pass for a touchdown.

The line looked aggressive and Fluker got a couple of pancake blocks.

"I thought we did a really good job offensively," head coach Nick Saban said. "I was really pleased with the quarterback play. Those guys played with a lot of poise, did a good job of throwing the ball, made a couple errors, had some drops and threw a couple interceptions I'm sure we'd like to have back. Overall, I thought they managed the game well and their leadership was good."

Here are the offensive stats

Passing Leaders

Phillip Sims - 20-for-30, 225 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT
A.J. McCarron - 18-for-33, 189 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT

Rushing Leaders

Eddie Lacy - 10 rush, 92 yards, three TD
Trent Richardson - 5 rush, 40 yards
Jalston Fowler - 5 rush, 31 yards
Demetrius Hart - 11 rush, 25 yards

Receiving Leaders

Kenny Bell - 7 rec., 89 yards, 2 TD
Marquis Maze - 4 rec., 76 yard, 2 TD
Darius Hanks - 5 rec., 61 yards
DeAndrew White - 4 rec., 61 yards
Brandon Gibson - 3 rec., 28 yards
Trent Richardson - 2 rec., 25 yards, 1 TD
Brad Smelley - 3 rec., 17 yards
Kevin Norwood - 2 rec., 16 yards

Scoring

Touchdowns - Nine. (Lacy 45-yard run; Fowler two-yard pass from P. Sims; Lacy six-yard run; Maze 18-yard pass from P. Sims; Richardson 18-yard pass from P. Sims; Lacy three-yard run; Bell 14-yard pass from McCarron; Bell seven-yard pass from McCarron; Maze 59-yard pass from McCarron.)

Here's what was bad: The defense looked a bit sloppy. Saban noted poor tackling across the board and he just didn't see the aggressiveness he wanted. He also bemoaned some breakdowns in the secondary.

But there were some highs to point to. C. J. Mosely was everywhere and led the team with six tackles and had one of the interceptions as well.

Also young freshman Trey DePriest looked like a veteran in making five tackles along with Nico Johnson and Dequan Menzie.

Another surprise is the continuing good play of Vinnie Sunseri at safely. This is an experiment that may pay off. He came up with one of the picks along with Courtney Upshaw and John Fulton, each getting one also.

For Saban though, the thing he may have enjoyed most on defense was seeing the Dont'a Hightower of old. With his imposing size and re-found speed, he led the team with two sacks.

Here are the defensive stats

Defensive Leaders

C.J. Mosley - 6 tackles, 1 INT
Nico Johnson - 5 tackles, 1 TFL
DeQuan Menzie - 5 tackles, 1 TFL
Trey Depriest - 5 tackles, 1 TFL
Dont'a Hightower - 4 tackles, 2 sacks
Courtney Upshaw - 4 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 INT
John Fulton - 4 tackles, 1 TFL, 2 PBU, 1 INT

And now for the ugly: The special teams. Saban grumbled about the inconsistency of both punters. He is just not pleased with what he's seeing from this group.

However, the kicking duo turned in a very respectable day with Cade Foster both hitting and missing on a couple of 52 yard attempts.

Field Goals

Cade Foster - Made: 32, 47, 52; Missed: 32, 52
Jeremy Shelley - Made: 29

The Tide returns to the practice field on Monday for more full pad scrimmaging.