On Texas Football – Tale of the Tape examines strengths of Longhorns and Alabama
On the inaugural video episode of On Texas Football’s Tale of the Tape, Inside Texas’s Bobby Burton and Paul Wadlington discuss the comparison between the Longhorns and Alabama in advance of the teams’ titanic clash in Tuscaloosa on Saturday and where the squads may have an advantage.
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“We’re going to try to go position by position or actually strength versus strength, whatever you want to call it, where it’s basically a battle between different pieces of the teams in this game,” Burton said about the YouTube channel video.
The duo began with a discussion about how the teams’ running games match up.
The first order of business for the Longhorns defense on Saturday is to contain Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe in the run game.
Wadlington said there are two aspects of Alabama’s run game: the standard Alabama run game and the Crimson Tide’s run game on a passing down or even if a play begins as a pass and it becomes a run because of Milroe.
“So let’s talk about the standard Alabama running game first, with the planned run and whether it involves the running back or Milroe or some variety of empty sets if its third down and nine,” Wadlington explained. “If Texas doesn’t stop the standard Alabama running game, then there is no third and nine to worry about. This game is over before it starts.”
Wadlington said he believes Texas is going to stop Alabama’s run game because he loved what the Longhorns showed on defense in their 37-10 win over Rice in week 1.
“I love the talent level on the defensive line and I love the depth,” he said. “Obviously you have (linebacker) Jaylan Ford. And you’ve got a secondary that’s more than willing to put their nose in there and tackle when they need to.
“Most of all, what was interesting when I watched the Middle Tennessee State-Alabama game is that Alabama did not get good push from their offensive line. Alabama running backs, although they ran effectively, if you look at the raw stats they only went about a yard and a half until they had contact against Middle Tennessee State. Now they ran through that contact sometimes.”
Wadlington opines that Texas has a little higher level defender and they’re going to be a little better tacklers than what Middle Tennessee State was going to offer.
“That Alabama offensive line struggled a little bit with coordination with passing off blocks and with timing,” Wadlington said. “Sound familiar if you’re a Texas fan? And I think that’s something that they’re going to clean up. But I don’t think they’re going to have it completely clean when Texas comes to Tuscaloosa. So that standard Alabama running game is really going to be dependent upon who is able to push around the other group.”
Go check out the rest of the video for insight from the experts on the Longhorns and Crimson Tide.
