ANALYSIS: Alabama plays cleanest game of the season
It was the not-so-secret problem that reared its ugly head time and time again throughout the first three weeks of the season, and it was driving the head coach crazy.
Penalties, penalties, penalties.
Coming into Saturday’s breakfast with the Crimson Tide and late-morning kickoff, Alabama averaged more than eight flags a game for 63 yards a game. What made them especially more and more frustrating for the coaching staff was that the majority of those infractions occurred due to mental mistakes, and a good deal of them were false starts.
To that end, Saturday’s results were perhaps more well received than just the final score and the shutout.
The final tally? Two total penalties for 20 yards with just one false start (a mental miscue) and a face mask, a penalty that is normally classified as an effort penalty.
It was in that fact coupled with a more cleanly and effectively-played game that pleased the head coach.
“Yeah, it was better,” UA coach Nick Saban said. “Much better. It’s what we’ve been trying to emphasis. I think we only had one false start today, which is monumental.
“I thought we did a nice job of controlling the line of scrimmage. Good balance on offense and did a pretty good job of executing overall.”
The false start was charged to starting right guard Alphonse “Shank” Taylor, and on the very next offensive series he was on the sideline with Tuscaloosa-product Lester Cotton in at right guard. Whether that had anything to do with the false start or that was the plan all along wasn’t revealed postgame, but regardless the offensive line cleaned up its play.
The offense was fairly balanced with 502 total yards (285 on the ground and 217 through the air).
“It’s always good to not have penalties or any negative yards,” starting center Bradley Bozeman said. “It was a major point of emphasis this week.”
The offense also protected the football with no turnovers, a week after a mental mistake led to a fumble returned for a touchdown against Ole Miss.
All in all, it was a much clearer performance for the home team.
“What I was looking for today was for our team to play a complete game,” Saban said. “That was the goal. I don’t think we had played one all year long, whether we started poor in the Southern Cal game, or I wasn’t really pleased with the Western Kentucky performance, last week we’re getting behind 24-3 and then going on a 45-6 run, I mean, we’ve got to be more consistent. That was the goal for today.
“Incomplete can be a habit and complete can be a habit. We’d like to develop the habit of being a complete team that can go out there and compete down in and down out with some kind of consistency and not make mental errors that are going to contribute to the other team and make them beat you physically. That was the goal that we had today for whoever played. I think for the most part we got that done.”
Reach Aaron Suttles at aaron@tidesports.com or at 205-722-0229.