College Football Playoff potential party-crashers after Week 11 rankings
By Josh Yourish
CFP party-crashers: No. 8 Alabama
It felt like Alabama should have made a jump in the rankings after beating No. 13 LSU last week, but Texas held serve with Maalik Murphy at quarterback, so with the head-to-head win over the Crimson Tide, the Longhorns hold onto the No. 7 spot.
That won’t matter for long because Alabama is almost certainly headed for the SEC title game and a matchup with Georgia. We get another edition of this great rivalry after a down year for Bama last season that saw LSU win the SEC West. That will be Bama’s only test left and if they beat Georgia then they’re into the playoff, it’s as simple as that.
Left on the schedule for Nick Saban’s team is Kentucky, Chattanooga, and Auburn, so the path is clear. A win over Georgia would usurp a Week 1 loss to Texas in the minds of the committee, so it’ll come down to one game. Now, if Alabama is capable of winning that game is another story.
The defense is good enough, it ranks 23rd in the country and 23rd in yards per play. The pass rush with Dallas Turner is elite and they are top 10 in sacks per game averaging 3.3. Bama has allowed a few two many deep shots and they did that again against LSU, but that’s not really Georgia’s game.
The offense is the question and in my opinion, Tommy Rees deserves so much credit for fixing it. The Alabama OC engineered an offense that is tailor-made for Jalen Milroe. It allows him to move the chains with his legs and then hit deep shots, which is what he does best. Milroe is No. 2 in the country in average depth of target and despite a 64.6% completion rate, he is averaging 10.5 yards per attempt which is second in the country to Jayden Daniels.
The offensive line could be this team’s fatal flaw, but Milroe is playing great right now and I think this resurgence is real.