It was a tale of two halves today, as Alabama struggled early then dominated late for a 45-17 road victory to open SEC play.
The first half of this one was a comedy of errors. Keelon Russell looked very much like a superstar talent making his first road start. He completed 72% of his passes for more than 11 yards per attempt, which is awesome. Unfortunately he also threw two interceptions, one inside his own five yard line for a pick six, fumbled the ball and held it too long on a couple of occasions,
including one that drew an intentional grounding flag. He didn’t get much help from an offensive line that was sorely missing Michael Carroll, but the mistakes were an issue nonetheless.
Kentucky’s other touchdown came on a long drive aided by two defensive holding penalties, one on a run play and the other a phantom call on Caleb Woodson, and a 4th down “conversion” on what was pretty clearly an incomplete pass. The best play for Alabama was a pick six by Luke Metz to offset Kentucky’s, which allowed the Tide to go into the half down only 17-13 despite all of the above. Daniel Hill had a decent half running the ball with 7 carries for 36 yards, and Connor Talty was perfect on two field goal attempts plus an extra point.
The second half started unceremoniously with a three-and-out, but the defense held up again to give the offense great field position at their own 40. Russell was able to hit Ryan Williams for an explosive play to get inside Talty’s range again. He was true again to pull within one at 17-16, but the inability yet again to get the ball into the end zone was concerning.
Fortunately, the defense came ready to play. Devan Thompkins got his second sack of the game and dislodged the football in the process. It was recovered by Isaia Faga deep in Kentucky territory, and a few plays later the offense finally broke through with a rushing touchdown from EJ Crowell. On the next possession, Kentucky coach Will Stein got a little desperate and tried a fake punt. It failed like most everything that Kentucky’s offense tried on the day.
All of a sudden, Alabama found a run game. Daniel Hill ripped off what looked to be a 34-yard touchdown until it was absurdly overturned to 1st and goal on replay because he supposedly stepped out of bounds. No matter, he punched it in from the three for a 31-17 advantage. The defense did its thing again, and Kentucky’s continued to wilt. Hill and Trae’shawn Brown ran it down their throats to set up a short touchdown pass from Russell to Rico Scott. It was 38-17 with nine minutes left, and fans started pouring out of Kroger stadium. Alabama’s defense had thoroughly dominated the afternoon, holding Kentucky to only 1-of-13 on third down headed into garbage time.
The blueprint for this season was always the defense and running game affording Russell time to grow up. It took some time for the run game to show up today, but when it finally did things started humming. Russell made some gorgeous throws but also some disastrous rookie mistakes. Continue developing the former and learn from the latter, and this may well turn out to be a special season. There is much work to be done though, starting next week against Florida State.
There is plenty of ball on for you the rest of the day, headlined by Texas vs Ohio State.
Schedule below courtesy of CFBgrid.com.
Roll Tide.
