Alabama football opened the season with a resounding win over Middle Tennessee in Tuscaloosa and the Tide will be home once again in Week 2 to take on an even better opponent.
No. 11 Texas comes to town on the back end of a home-and-home and if you remember last year’s meeting in Austin, these two teams had an epic battle. Texas is looking for revenge after losing a tight one and Steve Sarkisian is hoping to beat his former boss.
Let’s get bold ahead of this huge matchup in Tuscaloosa.
3. Alabama football wins the turnover battle 3-0
How do you beat good teams? You win the turnover battle. Well, that and you win in the trenches. I believe Alabama does both of those things.
The Crimson Tide will force three turnovers on Saturday night (one pick, two fumbles) which should really back Texas into a corner. Texas will fumble the ball more than twice, but it’ll only lose the ball two times. These will both be back-breaking turnovers.
Defenses like Alabama’s thrive in the turnover battle. The Tide are going to be aggressive all game long and it’ll cause Texas to slip up.
Alabama, on the other hand, won’t turn the ball over once.
A nice 3-0 victory in the turnover battle should ensure an easy win for Alabama, right? I guess we’ll have to see.
2. Jalen Milroe finishes with five touchdowns (again)
What a first game it was for new starting quarterback Jalen Milroe. He finished with five total touchdowns, leading the Tide to a 56-7 blowout win over Middle Tennessee.
How could he follow that performance up? With five more scores, of course.
Although his Week 2 opponent is just slightly tougher (I kid, Texas fans) than Middle Tennessee, I see Milroe rushing for another two scores and passing for three touchdowns because, well, he’s going to need to in order to one-up this electrifying Texas offense.
Milroe is one of the better running quarterbacks out there and he’s going to finish with over 50 rushing yards and he’ll pass for over 200 yards. I think his ability to throw the ball is overlooked just because he didn’t win the job right away after spring ball.
The Texas defense is going to struggle mightily to contain Milroe.
1. This game will be tight (again)
While Alabama will force three turnovers and Jalen Milroe will have the best game of his young career, Quinn Ewers still exists and he’s just not afraid of the Tide. We saw how well he played last season in this matchup before he left the game with an injury. Many believe that if he never got hurt, Texas wins that game.
But let’s not live in the past.
Ewers will have another solid game in this one despite throwing a critical interception. He’s going to pass for around 300 yards and a few touchdowns and this game will turn into a shootout, of sorts.
For the second straight season, Alabama will have to sweat out a win. While Milroe will have a solid game, he’s not Bryce Young and he can’t make every throw to keep the Texas defense honest. The Longhorns are going to hang around for the entire contest.
Alabama will come away with a win, but I think Texas covers the spread.