Sunday Hangover: Florida Atlantic

This game turned out to be about what most people expected except for it being stopped with a little under eight minutes in the fourth quarter because of a storm and lightning in the area. 

The on-the-field lightning yesterday was another stellar game from Amari Cooper. He tied the single-game reception record for Alabama with 13. Cooper amassed a career-high 189 yards in the game. 

If he stays healthy, he could be as good if not possibly better than Julio Jones. But no one will ever be better than Don Hutson. 

The Tide defense welcomed back two key players: Trey DePriest and Eddie Jackson. DePriest is key because he makes all the calls for the front seven, and Jackson is probably Alabama's best corner right now. 

The offense gained 620 yards with 416 yards coming from the passing game. 

Jacob Coker got his chance to "show out," as they say in the South, but Blake Sims looked more confident, threw the ball with more velocity on the short passes, and overall commanded the offense quite well except for a major screw up on the goal line. 

Here are the QBs' respective stats from the game:

• Blake Sims: 11 completions on 13 attempts, 214 yards, 2 TDs
• Jacob Coker: 15 completions on 24 attempts, 202 yards, 1 TD

Those stats disguise reality though. Sims threw a bunch of short passes that then turned into long pass plays because both Cooper and Drake caught the ball and ran like hell for touchdowns of 52 and 39 yards.

Coker looks the part of the pro-style passer ~ tall, big body, big arm ~ but he missed some pretty basic reads, and some of short throws looked lethargic. 

I doubt Coker can do this though.

What I'm a little perplexed by is that Sims didn't have many pass plays called where he could attempt to stretch the defense with vertical throws. If Sims is going to be the starter, he has to be able to make the big throws against SEC defenses, and I can only recall a handful over the first two game that might approach the moniker of "deep balls."

He's going to have make longer passes sometime, so he might as well start doing so against Southern Miss next Saturday.