For much of the night against Virginia Tech, Alabama struggled to consistently move the ball offensively. They did however show flashes of big play ability on one play with 3:49 left to play in the 3rd quarter.
'Bama comes out on 3rd &11 in a two by two shotgun formation with one back in the backfield who happens to be #4, TJ Yeldon. The formation has the twins on each side inverted, meaning that the inside receiver is on the line of scrimmage and the two receivers flanked wide are off the line.
To the left we have DeAndrew White #2 (off the line) and Christion Jones #22 (on the line). To the top of the screen we've got true freshman OJ Howard #88 (on the line) and #83 Kevin Norwood (off the line).
Like Virginia Tech had been doing all night they're still crowding the line of scrimmage even with the spread formation 'Bama is showing and the down and distance. Virginia Tech has six men within five yards of the ball and even blitzes a seventh! As the play begins to develop the free safety creeps up and comes straight through the 'Bama offensive line just as AJ releases the ball.
As the play starts to take shape above we see 'Bama show a familiar play on 3rd down. The two outside receivers run crossing routes all the way across the field at about 5-7 yards. This is a nice concept to run against man coverage, which it appears the Hokies are playing. However, the sticks are at 11 yards. I'm guessing that this play was called with AJ being told to read this play long to short. The two inside receivers, Jones and Howard are both running deep routes, which would normally blow the top off of the defense specifically for the underneath crossing routes. Christion Jones runs a streak with a bit of a stem and hesitation to help him blow by the Hokie corner. Howard on the other side of the play runs a corner route. The coverage and matchups all work out in 'Bama's favor as Jones beats his man by about 5 yards. TJ Yeldon also does a great job of picking up the stunting linebacker. Watch the play here.
Above is the exact point where Christion makes his move that is decisive for the score. #26 for the Hokies is the corner who is playing man on Jones. He is only about 3-4 yards off of Jones which is good news for the Alabama offense. #17 is playing man on DeAndrew White of Alabama and he is almost 10 yards off of the football. The same situation is present on the other side of the field where Virginia Tech has their deep defender playing the shallow route and the rolled corner playing the deep corner route which is eventually run by OJ Howard.
Even though this play came toward the end of the game it was a welcome sight to Bama fans who had been waiting to see some explosiveness from the Alabama offense.
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