I know we looked slower and fatigued

Adams was slowed. Wimbush appeared to lose all confidence including showing indecisiveness running the ball. Our defense tackled poorly down the stretch at times. They did not swarm to the ball as well like earlier in the year. Why I’m not sure.

Wake was the first team that really spread us out and had some athletes that could make plays. It seemed to shake our defensive confidence for whatever reason.

Offensively I do not think Kelly began calling plays but what I do think happened was a combination of a couple of mindsets. Led by Kelly and probably with collective agreement even if reluctantly by others, the staff felt to win at Miami and at Stanford as well as possible playoff games, they had to improve the passing game. Whether that opinion by the staff was true or not we will never know but it’s clear to me they came into that Wake game looking to get some passing reps in during a game situation. Clearly the plan went sideways.

On Monday night, Saban knew he was going to have to throw to win that game probably very early in it if not before it even started. I think this was Kelly and the staff’s mindset right or wrong for the home stretch and possible playoff. I do not necessarily disagree with that ideology but I believe they went about it the wrong way. There is no doubt even with our OL there would come a point where we would have to make plays in the passing game to win a big game. The problem is they tried to do that by making our QB run pass plays he isn’t able to execute. There are other ways we could have made plays through the air besides putting him in the gun and trying to make him Aaron Rodgers. That’s the issue IMHO.