Alabama football dominates the Southern Mississippi Eagles at home in Tuscaloosa. What did we learn from the Crimson Tide win?
The Crimson Tide “rolled” over Southern Mississippi in their final tune up before they get into the meat of conference season. These are the types of games you check and see how focused the superior team is. This was a home game for the ‘Tide, and they came out and took care of business from the opening kickoff.
Here are three quick takeaways from the game:
3. Big plays on cue
The Crimson Tide found explosive plays galore in their domination of the Eagles. The Tide had passing plays of 74, 36 and 25 yards. Tua Tagovailoa had more touchdown passes (5) than incomplete passes (4). Alabama’s was led in receptions by receiver Jerry Jeudy who had six catches. Henry Ruggs III had a 74-yard touchdown reception. Alabama did whatever they wanted to do on offense all game.
2. Defense was good, but not dominant
This might be a bit nit-picky, but the defense wasn’t dominate; they were, however, very good against Southern Miss. It was very much a “take care of business” mentality today for the Crimson Tide on the defensive side of the ball. What was key in this game was it gave the young guys an opportunity to acclimate themselves to the system. The defense allowed 226 yards and had two sacks and generated two turnovers.
1. Run game looked like a good complement to the pass
When Brandon Jacobs and Damone Williams was drafted, depth seemed as if it were going to be an issue for the Crimson Tide, but it seemed as they found some talent behind Najee Harris. The ‘Tide ran for 176 yards at 5.0 yards per carry. We know the Alabama has fully transitioned to a passing team.
What Tua and the offense needs is a consistent complementary run game. What was most encouraging in this game was finding some good depth behind Harris. Brian Robinson, Jr. and Jerome Ford proved in this game they can give Harris a breather and make good contributions to the run game.
All in all we didn’t learn anything about Alabama that we didn’t already know. We will get a gauge on how good Alabama is when they take on the Texas A&M Aggies Oct. 12 in College Station.