Sunday, September 3, 2023

Sunday Hangover: Middle Tennessee State

Well, it looks like they started the right QB on Saturday. Milroe ran for two touchdowns and threw three of them to Bond, Burton, and Niblack, respectively. 

I was kind of surprised that Buchner came in second in the game because at least from what I've seen, Simpson has a great arm and has quite a bit of speed to his game. 

That showed up later in the game because both Buchner and Simpson are mobile QBs, but Simpson looked faster on his touchdown run than Buchner did. 

If there's any qualms I have about the team, I have three of them. 

I didn't think the Tide ran the ball well as they could have against the Blue Raiders. We had a some good runs from the running backs, but considering the competition, I thought McClellan and Williams would have done better because of the strength and size of Alabama's offensive line.

At halftime, Coach Saban noted the mediocre pass blocking, and I saw that too. MTSU did a good job of throwing everything at the line, and the Tide offensive line needed to do a better job of protecting the QB. 

My final issue was the run defense. We gave up too many long runs from Middle Tennessee. I thought our line would be more dominant. However, the linebackers, especially Deonte Lawson, played well. 

He was second on the team in tackles, only behind true freshman Caleb Downs who started at safety. 

From what I recall, we had two true freshmen start last night: Downs and left tackle Proctor. 

Next up is a difficult matchup at home against the Longhorns. Sark is a good coach, so I expect the game to be a tough one. 

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