Coming from the Hal Mumme - it's supposed to be high excitement on the offensive side of the ball, with much of the defense bend/no break. There really hasn't been great defense tied to an air-raid offense that I know of. When they get middle of the pack statistically, you should have amazing years because the offense is putting up so many points comparatively.

I've never been enamored with Snyder - but I've had a hard time evaluating him this year. With the unexpected attrition this summer, I think everyone including Snyder thought we were going to have issues. Seems like defense is playing better with each game - not championship defense, but serviceable. This game...well...

The offense is a huge issue - don't care if Spavital is in his first year I will evaluate him harshly. An air-raid offense that can't score is a team that's gonna suck. You expect that your games will be shootouts and the offense will score more that the other team - that's how you expect to win. How many 3 and outs did we have? How many punts did we have? Our defense wasn't off the field for a couple minutes before they had to take on another sustained drive from bama again. Do we really expect our defense to be out on the field the entire game and do well? If we stop half of a good teams drives, that should be enough for an air raid offense to win.

Defense didn't have a good game (obviously). But more disappointing is the offense. That's how this team is built. Don't understand all of the fire Snyder threads. Air raid is never going to produce top 10 defenses and they aren't supposed to be on the field as long as we had them out there. The offensive issues are truly the problem. Fix that and we win again.

There aren't but a few air raid type teams that win consistently. And even fewer that win conference championships. The teams that beat them and control them have good defenses. We have neither. Air raid is shot down for what it's worth.

I tend to agree with you. OP, that the offense is a hot mess, and unpredictably so. Granted we knew there would be a drop off in offensive production after JFF left. But the South Carolina game showed an offense that could still line up and move the ball.

The offense can no longer do that. The defense was putrid last year, but JFF was able to pull out some improbable wins. Remember the look of dismay on Johnny's face when the defense would allow another score and it was up to him to go back out and score yet again??

This year, the defense is making progress in getting more stops, particularly in the second half, but the offense keeps sputtering.

And not having a bye week until now, after a stretch of three top ten teams, 2 on the road, the D is tired and dinged up. You saw that on the field yesterday. No spark, no energy. Just too tired.

In the SEC West, defenses are much faster and stronger than any league in the country. IMO to succeed you must have a truly mobile, dual threat QB. Or you must have a line than can block to near perfection to allow routes to develop.

If the QB can extend the play a few seconds longer or pose a serious running threat, the defensive coordinators will have nightmares.

Call it the JFF factor or whatever, but we proved it could be unbelievably effective against even more talented and physical defenses last year and before.

I'm tired of the "air raid". Give us a great Defensive coach and pair that with a good/decent OC and we will be much better off.

Florida won 2 Natty's with the spread/air raid. And they had a pretty salty D

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Florida won 2 Natty's with the spread/air raid. And they had a pretty salty D

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This.

They don't have to be mutually exclusive like everyone assumes. Why did Saban hire Kiffin as OC?

Oklahoma's last natty was spread too (Leach).

I'm so sick of all the bs sip propaganda that spread teams don't play defense. That's ridiculous. That's like saying all smart girls are ugly.

Or that all short black hobbit head coaches should be coordinators. Ok. Bad example.

U get the point.

Good offensive teams can have good defenses. We just don't happen to have either right now.