Kalen DeBoer brought a tired and beat up team to face Texas A&M today
The first half of this game was enough to make your eyes bleed. Perhaps Alabama came in worn down from the thinned out depth chart and the last two physical contests, but for whatever reason they were playing an uninspired brand of football. The Tide got the ball first and did nothing per usual on the opening possession. Fortunately, Dijon Lee was able to jump a hitch on the Aggies' first possession for a pick six to put Alabama on the board first.
Immediately, Texas A&M QB Marcel Reed threw yet another interception on a nice diving grab from Chuck McDonald III and it looked like Alabama was in business. Unfortunately, the offense stalled out again and Conor Talty missed a 35-yard attempt to break his perfect streak to start the season. Things went downhill from there in a hurry.
All of a sudden, Alabama's defense had no answer for an Aggies offense that hadn't scored a single touchdown in eight quarters on the road. Reed easily moved the ball down the field on RPO slants, ending in a score to WR Mario Craver. After Alabama managed to advance the ball just into field goal range for a brief lead, Reed torched the secondary again before calling his own number on the goal line to lead 14-10.
The Tide was able to answer with a touchdown drive of their own, aided by a questionable defensive holding call when they looked to have stalled in the red zone, as Daniel Hill made a beautiful catch on a rollout from Russell. The Tide led 17-14, but a bad interception from Russell late in the half set up a tying field goal. To make matters worse, Red Morgan was lost for the game thanks to a targeting call.
The third quarter was mostly uneventful from a scoring perspective, as the Aggies took a 20-17 lead into the fourth. Russell was able to hit Rico Scott on a deep ball just as the quarter was ending, setting up a first and goal that culminated in a Marshall Pritchett touchdown grab to open the fourth. Fatutoa Henry got a huge sack on the ensuing possession to put Texas A&M behind the chains, and the Aggies were subsequently forced to punt.
Russell found his groove again, moving the ball down the field through the air before hitting Kaleb Edwards for a 31-20 advantage. Henry stepped up again with another sack, the defense got off the field again, and Alabama had a chance to take control.
Unfortunately, the offense wasn't up to that challenge. After converting one first down via penalty, the Tide went backwards on a TFL and sack before punting. Texas A&M had a chance, but Yhonzae Pierre beat the same tackle that Henry twice victimized. He forced a holding call to put the Aggies behind the chains again. Curiously, head coach Mike Elko decided to punt the ball down 11 with four minutes to play.
This time, Alabama was able to hold the ball sufficiently and salt the game away. There was a gut wrenching moment when Russell appeared to have fumbled the ball away deep in his own end, but much to the relief of the partisans at Bryant-Denny, replay was clear that the ground had caused the fumble.
So, Alabama survived if you can call it that. Another key player was lost to injury in guard William Sanders. To be frank, the roster that Kalen DeBoer had available to him in the fourth quarter of this one would be a heavy underdog at LSU. We don't yet know the severity of these two new injuries, but Alabama is going to need to get a lot of folks healthy in order to have a realistic chance n Baton Rouge, a difficult task even with a fully healthy squad.
There is plenty of ball on for you tonight, headlined by Ole Miss at Texas. Schedule below courtesy of CFBGrid.com .
Roll Tide.
