The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Overall Experience: Williams-Brice Stadium is an awesome place to watch a football game. The atmosphere is incredible! All South Carolina fans that I had contact with were very pleasant. I had several tell me thanks for traveling up there, and, after the game was over, every Gamecock fan that I was sitting by wished me a safe trip home. I got tix on the 50 yard line for $20 a piece. It was great to watch Spurrier throw his headphones and clipboard in person. Priceless.

Defense: Overall the defense played great. It was actually encouraging to watch. The secondary stepped up to the challenge. I was impressed with the secondary play. The 2 pass interference penalties in the first quarter were absolute garbage. Callaway and his assistants were out on the field letting the defensive backs know that they had made a great play! Overall, pass coverage was very good...the only problem was that we lost contain of the quarterback several times (once 3 plays in a row) which allowed for 7 or 8 big gains even though all receivers were covered up. Containing the QB needs to be a priority for our defense.

The D-Line and linebackers played the run really well. The stop on 4th and goal from the half yard line was awesome to witness! They stuffed that even though the fullback was running forward a good 1.5 sec before the snap (should have been a penalty). Holding SC to 6 points in the second half was a great accomplishment. There was absolutely no pass rush in the first 3 quarters. Garcia and Smelley had all day to throw no matter if we blitzed or not. That's a credit to their offensive line, nothing that we did wrong.

The part that I was most proud to see was that the defense never quit. They played hard every single play of the game. We finally got pressure on the quarterback in the last 2/3 of the fourth quarter. A d-lineman or linebacker knocked the quarterback on his butt on pretty much every pass play starting then. The 3rd and long bug still haunts us and that needs to be fixed. Holding SC to only 2 TD's with all the times they were in the red zone is a testament to the heart and will of our defense. Overall, I was impressed with how the defense performed, and I left encouraged.

Offense: Anemic at best. Honestly I think that our offense is very repetitive. There was very little variety. It seemed like we ran the same 4 or 5 plays over and over again. Much more variety and creativity is needed to take us to the next level. I believe we ran the "midget-man" at quarterback look way too much. It didn't work when we ran it, yet it was still called for throughout the game. Webb's keeper up the middle was called way too much as well, and called in stupid situations (like twice in a row in the first quarter on 2nd and 3rd downs) When we actually lined up with Webb at quarterback and tried to run the ball between the tackles, we had success.

The offensive line really blocked well for our running backs. The SC fans around me even commented several times, "I wish our offensive line could block for the RB like UAB's." That was encouraging. Pass protection was average. There were times when Webb had a lot of time and times when he had none at all. Webb avoided several sacks (inclding one that should have been a safety) because of his athleticism. The passing game was a non-factor. The only guy consistently open was the running back out of the back field about 3 yards past the line of scrimmage (I couldn't tell if that was called too much or if that was indeed the only guy open. Regardless it didn't work). Nothing was open down field for the most part.

Webb has got to learn to stay in the pocket. He WILL NOT stay in the pocket and take a hit. It's almost like he's scared to get hit. When we had guys open downfield, Webb would short arm a pass to protect himself from getting hit. He would do this spinning thing so he wouldn't go to the ground (resulted in horribly inaccurate passes). It looked very..."sissy"...for lack of a better word. He could be good if he actually would sit in the pocket to set his feet and throw, whether this means he gets hit or not. When Webb sets his feet to throw he is very good. That did not happen Saturday night, and that must improve for us to get to the next level. I will say that the last drive of the game was very well called and executed (because Webb actually set his feet).

Special Teams: Pornstar was performed very well. His kickoffs were deep. His FG's were right on the money. His punts were good as well. Coverage on both kickoffs and punts needs to get better. There were several big runbacks on both.

Overall I left encouraged. We have the athletes to succeed on offense. We just need to get everything clicking. We need to execute. We need more variety and creativity. If the defense plays with the heart and execution that it did on Saturday for the rest of the season, we may win a few more ballgames then everyone may think. Coverage on Special Teams must get better. Pornstar needs to keep doing what he's doing.

I would highly recommend a trip to USC if we ever play there again. We had a blast!

That's all folks.

blazerman2006 Wrote:Offense: Anemic at best. Honestly I think that our offense is very repetitive. There was very little variety. It seemed like we ran the same 4 or 5 plays over and over again. Much more variety and creativity is needed to take us to the next level.

Before a Coog comes by, let me go ahead and point out that was one of their critiques of Helton. That said, this is the first time we've performed this poorly on offense, so I'm not calling for his head yet.

Go Webb was hurt ,you was not very fast and mobile and his best receiver was not playing
A win thursday and we are even with last year

Ok.. I'm behind... where does the "Pornstar" name come from?

Swayze Waters...the ultimate pornstar name.

Alright.. I agree with that one...

I made it to SC as well. First time I've seen the Blazers play this year. Defense was better than I expected, however offense was much worse. I honestly thought I was watching a High School team the first quarter, but after that, they settled in and played a pretty good game.

I give credit to SC's defense. They are the real deal, and we need a running back.

Hopefully some of you guys can make it out to Houston for the game next week. But first... BRING ON THE TIGERS!!!!

We have a running back: He's out with a rib injury...

Callaway said on the coach's show that Johns was good to go.

Blazer87 Wrote:Callaway said on the coach's show that Johns was good to go.

that is great news

If Johns plays, I hope he can last more than a few plays.. So far this year he has spend much more time on the sidelines hurting than he has spent on the field playing.