After some nervous moments the last two weeks (and the two previous meetings with South Carolina), Alabama blew out South Carolina, 49-18, on Saturday night.
It was another big night offensively for the Tide as they put up 489 yards of offense as they improved to 4-0 overall (2-0 SEC). South Carolina fell to 2-2 (0-2).
While Alabama will quickly turn it's attention to a road trip to Starkville for a matchup next week with 4-0 rival Mississippi State, here are three takeaways from tonight's blowout win over South Carolina.
Alabama finally gets off to a quick start
On the first play, it looked like it was going to be the same old, same old slow start for Alabama as South Carolina opened up the game with a 56-yard run, but Alabama held South Carolina off the board. Then Alabama went three-and-out,
which had fans worried once again. However, the rest of the first half was all Alabama.
On their second drive, it took just one play for Alabama to score on a 75-yard touchdown pass from Keelon Russell to Lotzeir Brooks. All-in-all, Alabama outscored South Carolina 14-0 in the first quarter and 21-10 in the second quarter to take a commanding 35-10 lead into halftime.
This game was almost a reverse of the last two weeks with Alabama's weak quarter coming in the third quarter this week (both teams were scoreless in the quarter), but Alabama ended the game strongly in the fourth to finish out the blowout.
Third down defense
One of the things that allowed Alabama's defense to be bend-but-don't-break early and to control the game throughout was their work on third down. South Carolina had a good game offensively yardage wise, but Alabama's defense was great on third down. For the game, South Carolina was 3-for-14 on third down, just a 21.4% conversion rate. While Alabama's defense would still like to clean a few things up, Alabama's third down defense was a big improvement over last week where Florida State converted at over a 50% clip.
Linebacker Luke Metz had a big night with 13 tackles and several big hits. His linebacker-mate Caleb Woodson also made 12 tackles.
Big passing plays
Keelon Russell and the Alabama passing attack has fully arrived. Alabama's first touchdown came on a 75-yard touchdown pass to Lotzeir Brooks. Their second touchdown was a 32-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Coleman-Williams. Their third touchdown was a 42-yard touchdown pass to Coleman-Williams. NC State transfer Noah Rogers also had a 36-yard catch that almost resulted in a touchdown in his Alabama debut. That pass set up a fantastic one-handed touchdown catch from Josh Ford.
Keelon Russell finished up the game with a superb statline of 21-of-27 passing for 365 yards and four touchdowns. He also spread the ball around with nine different players hauling in catches. If Keelon Russell keeps playing like he is right now with the weapons Alabama has on the outside, this offense is going to be very difficult to stop.
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This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: 3 takeaways from Alabama's impressive win vs. South Carolina
