Alabama fans were rightly worried about an undefeated Vandy team that has had one of the nation’s most prolific offenses to this point of the season, led by veteran run-first QB Diego Pavia who reminds of FSU’s Thomas Castellanos. Early in the game, it felt like one of “those” days as everything seemed to be going Vanderbilt’s way. Give this Alabama team credit though, they didn’t fold after a red zone turnover and missed field goal on the first two possessions.
Forcing the red zone fumble from Pavia
proved to be huge in the game, and Pavia ended up having a pretty rough afternoon. He turned the ball over three times, managed only 198 yards through the air, a paltry 5.5 per pass attempt, and 58 yards on 12 carries. This team showed resilience that last year’s team seemed to lack at times. . And, for the second straight week, they demonstrated discipline with fewer penalties than the opponent. Consistency in these areas will be the key to the season.
A few impressions:
Maybe Alabama’s defense can stop the run?
This seems like a strange thing to say after they surrendered 136 rushing yards on 18 carries, but it’s worth noting that Vanderbilt busted two runs early in the game, one each from RB Sedrick Alexander and Pavia, that accounted for 101 of those yards. Holding any team to 22 yards rushing over three quarters is an accomplishment, particularly against an opponent that has run for well over 200 a game on the season.
It probably isn’t a coincidence that Vandy found running lanes tough to come by after James Smith entered the game. While the Tide’s depth has developed, he and Tim Keenan III appear to be critical pieces. Hopefully both are able to stay healthy and round into a dominant duo come playoff time.
And, maybe the offense can run it a little bit after all?
No matter how explosive the passing offense is, it will always turn the stomach of Alabama fans to watch a Crimson Tide team struggle to run the football. There wasn’t much trouble in that area yesterday as Jam Miller was able to get chunk gains right out of the gate, and even put the exclamation point on the win with a personal 4 carry, 28 yard touchdown drive. With sacks removed, Alabama managed just over five yards per carry on the afternoon. That isn’t world-beating, but it is plenty good enough.
Red zone offense was uneven.
Alabama kept hurting itself in the red zone, and it really wasn’t because they struggled to run the ball. Ty’s interception didn’t technically come in the red zone since the ball was snapped outside the 20, but it was a missed scoring opportunity. The missed field goal was set up by a holding call to get behind the chains and two imcomplete passes. The first made field goal followed the head scratching 3rd and 5 wildcat play, the second was caused a 10 yard sack on first down, and the third followed an incompletion after two runs had set up 3rd and 4. It wasn’t all bad news as they did manage to punch it in on their first and last red zone chances, but they will have to find a way to limit the critical errors in order to compete for championships.
The kicking game was a shop of horrors.
At this point, you have to wonder if they should even bother with a field goal try beyond 40 yards. That clearly isn’t a strength of Connor Talty’s, though he has been quite reliable inside 40. Blake Doud had only the aforementioned punt attempt that was shanked badly from his own end zone. Doud has shown the ability to pin people deep, but uneven kicking tends to hurt in the worst moments. Here’s hoping both players find some consistency.
This is Ty Simpson’s team, and he continues to make Sunday plays.
Ty has gotten to the point where he’s taking some bad sacks because he’s so confident in his ability to make a play. There is a clearly a line there where he has to learn to throw it away on occasion, but he is making things happen. The ball he ripped down the sideline to Horton early in the game was a thing of beauty, as was the first touchdown where he evaded the pass rush, stepped up, and fired a bullet into the bread basket of Ryan Williams. Seriously, watch the third and fourth views of this play and look where it was delivered.
You simply can’t do it any better than that, folks. Ryan was wide open, but where that throw was delivered he didn’t need to be. Ty looks like a guy who a team can ride to a title, and sounds like a coach in interviews after the game. It only gets tougher from here, but you have to be encouraged by what we are seeing from him on the field, and it’s impossible not to love the dude.
Next up is a huge road trip to Mizzou, the third of a seven game stretch featuring six ranked opponents plus a road trip to currently 3-2 South Carolina. This team is taking it one game at a time because they simply have to thanks to a murderous schedule. May they continue to make strides and improve in a few of the areas mentioned above.
Roll Tide.
