Sunday Hangover: Florida State

This game started out as positively as an Alabama would have wanted it to. The Tide marched down the field on a long sustained drive that ate up over half the first quarter. 

Ty Simpson looked good, and we were running the ball. 

For the next 2 quarters the Crimson Tide defense looked confused, took bad angles, seemed unprepared, and got distracted with Florida State's eye-candy offense. The offense was equally inept. 

I like to think the defense would have looked at how Gus Malzahn runs his offenses. He's been around a long time, and there's tape out there of how he runs his show. 

By the time the Tide started getting its collective shit together, they had to go for it a number of times on fourth down. 

There were a number of notable blunders. The two unnecessary roughness penalties were just flat-out stupid. And on a crucial fourth down play, instead of throwing a bad pass to Williams, Simpson could have easily run for a fourth down. 

Florida State played well. Or should we just call them Transfer Portal State University? They had a revamped team based on the portal. 

In contrast, Alabama didn't lose anyone in the portal and only brought in a handful of players. 

It didn't help that the Tide didn't have its starting running back, left guard, and nose tackle playing in the game. Those missing in action made a difference. 

If a team is going to lose, it's better to lose early. 

However, the performance yesterday afternoon doesn't not inspire confidence in me that this team will make the playoffs. 

I hope they prove me wrong.   

Sunday Hangover: Florida State

One of the more hyped opening games of the college football sort of lived up to expectations. 

Both defenses played pretty well. I was a little worried when the Seminoles scored pretty quickly on that early drive. Francois was on fire. 

Alabama answered, and it was 10 to 7 at half. 

The Crimson Tide offense looked lethargic a great deal of the time. Hurts threw a huge touchdown pass to Ridley, and the rushing game rarely got runs over a few yards, but the team grinded out 184 yards by four runners, Hurts included. 

Alabama's passing game was not consistent. But I think that was mainly because of Florida State's outstanding front seven. 

With all of the the fine work the special teams and defense did in the second half (two interceptions and a blocked punt), the game would have been a blowout if the offense would have capitalized on great field position more than once. 

On the other hand, the Tide gave FSU poor field position most of the second half, and the Tide's D played salty. 

I noticed a lot of second-team players playing in the front seven during the game, and there are, as I find out now, reasons for that. As for the DLine, I suspect they just wanted to rotate people to keep the big men fresh. 

But for the linebackers, the Tide's D exited the contest with serious injury problems. Three outside linebackers are hurt. Starter Christian Miller is out for the season with a biceps injury. Key backup Terrell Harris is out for the season with an elbow injury. Another crucial outside linebacker, Anfernee Jennings, is out for a maybe four weeks with an ankle injury. And starting inside linebacker Rashaan Evans is out for a few weeks with a groin injury. 

The next four contests break down this way: vs. Fresno State, vs. Colorado State, at Vanderbilt, and vs. Ole Miss. 

The last two games of those four are a concern because Vandy has a good defense, and Ole Miss can be dangerous. Sure, they're in serious trouble with the NCAA, but infractions they'll likely get won't affect them this season, and they still have plenty of talent to give any team problems.