The Crimson Tide’s early dominance on both sides provided fans with a peek of Alabama football’s future in the second half.
The No. 10 Alabama Crimson Tide overwhelmed Mercer on Saturday, winning 52-7 at home.
Alabama has been on fire lately, defeating Missouri, LSU, and now Mercer, one of the top FCS teams. The Crimson Tide has shined on both sides of the ball in each of these games, providing a tremendous sense of camaraderie every time the offense scores or the defense stops a play.
There is so much to analyze in this game at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Here are five takeaways.
Two-Riffic Start in Tuscaloosa
49 days after Alabama freshman wide receiver Ryan Williams caught the go-ahead touchdown against Georgia and freshman cornerback Zabien Brown hauled in the game-sealing interception moments later, this young duo, which has both players donning the No. 2 jersey, shined again on Saturday.
Williams, a 17-year-old college football world phenomenon, got the scoreboard operating with a 29-yard run off a sweep on Alabama’s opening possession. On the Tide’s next drive, Williams found the end zone for the second time in the first quarter, this time coming by way of a thunderous block by fellow wide receiver Germie Bernard.
Following a touchdown catch by Alabama tight end/full back Robbie Ouzts, Mercer trotted back onto the field 21-0 desperate to break the Tide’s momentum. The Bears reached near midfield but following a short completion, Alabama defensive back DaShawn Jones LAID THE BOOM and Zabien Brown picked up the loose ball and returned it 68 yards to the house, creating a commanding 28-0 lead not even midway through the second quarter. Brown’s touchdown was the defense’s first of the season––a goal the unit and defensive coordinator Kane Wommack have been outspoken about achieving for quite some time.
“Yeah, those [defensive touchdowns] are exciting,” DeBoer said during the postgame press conference. “The guys talk about it when they come up short. They think they have a chance to score they always hear about, you should’ve kept it along the sideline, or cutback and for us to get him in the end zone with that long return was something that was exciting for the whole team because they’ve gotten the takeaways, we just haven’t ended up with one in the end zone like that.”
Brown didn’t add any more touchdowns the rest of the first half but his sticky coverage prevented Whitt Newbauer from targeting him much as the Mercer quarterback often looked in the opposite direction.
The two No. 2’s were responsible for 21 of Alabama’s first 28 points of the game. Williams’ and Brown’s touchdowns helped Alabama build a large enough of a lead to take many of the starters out roughly midway through the third quarter as it was 38-7 at that point.
Swarming Takeaways
Alabama’s defense has forced at least three turnovers in five straight games and six of the last seven overall. Yes, you read that correctly. Zabien Brown’s scoop-and-score following a forced fumble by DaShawn Jones, defensive lineman Damon Payne’s fumble recovery after cornerback Domani Jackson’s punch-out and WOLF linebacker Qua Russaw’s wild on-the-ground interception were the contributors to extending this incredible streak.
“I like that we got three more takeaways,” DeBoer said. “I think there’s a mindset about our defense in three of the first four possessions to do that. I just really like where we’re at. We’re hunting the ball.”
Winning the turnover battle is crucial to a game’s outcome and Alabama’s now last three games have shown that. Of course, Alabama is outscoring opponents 128-20 in the past three weeks, but its early takeaways have provided a major momentum boost to both sides of the ball, especially against ranked teams Missouri and LSU.
Between the second half against Georgia and hours prior to the Mizzou game, Wommack and his unit have undisputedly been the most attacked part of the program by the college football world. This is certainly understandable as the Tide defense couldn’t get off the field.
The appalling third-down numbers are the most indicative of this fact as Vanderbilt converted 12-of-18 attempts, South Carolina converted 7-of-15 and Tennessee converted 6-of-14. The numbers against the Gamecocks and Vols might seem a lot better than against the Commodores, but the majority of their third-down conversions came in the second half.
But the aforementioned takeaways and score differential show that Wommack’s Swarm D is in full effect as Alabama aims for a spot in the College Football Playoff under its inaugural 12-team format.
Jalen Milroe Remains Consistent
Milroe’s performance during the loss to Tennessee was widely considered the worst in his Crimson Tide career. He needed a big rebound against Mizzou and got one. Additionally, he followed it up with a record-setting night in Baton Rouge.
Milroe remained consistent on Saturday afternoon completing 11-of-16 pass attempts for 186 yards and two touchdowns in just 2.5 quarters of action. The dual-threat also recorded six carries for 43 yards and another score.
He’s recently done a really nice job of knowing when to run the ball. He scrambled far more often last game but the constant open lanes against LSU pretty much forced him to run for easy long gains. Mercer was made aware of this, but Milroe was still accurate on short, medium and long passes, which not only shows his efficiency as both a runner and a passer but also a fantastic game plan by offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan.
Milroe also spread the ball around a ton up until he was relieved of duty, as in the first half, he completed nine passes to six different pass catchers––wide receiver Germie Bernard tallying the most with three receptions for 58 yards. Mercer came into this game with an FCS-best 21 interceptions, but the wide target share when Milroe was in may have prevented the Bears from extending that league lead.
The Clock Runs Through Alabama
A common theme of Alabama’s offense during wins this season revolved around explosiveness and quick drives with a plethora of long gains. Because of this, another fast-paced style of offense was expected against Mercer, but that surprisingly wasn’t the case besides a few big plays.
First and foremost, Alabama defeated Mercer 29-10 in the first down category, which led to 77 total plays vs. the Bears’ 46. This was also a result of the Tide’s time of possession victory by a score of 33:48 to 26:12. Overall, Alabama defeated Mercer in every single stat category except for penalties (6-5).
As the score continued to grow on one side, Alabama constantly chewed the clock as Mercer couldn’t stop the Tide due to its very efficient 6.6 yards per play compared to Mercer’s 4.4.
Of course, Alabama’s defense is heavily responsible for the ball control as it allowed just 202 yards and a 1-for-9 slate on third down to an offense that never saw the red zone. Crimson Tide linebacker Jihaad Campbell, who was named the SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week and the Reese’s Senior Bowl Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against LSU, was stout once again on Saturday afternoon as he led Alabama with nine tackles (next closest had five), including one for loss, and a sack.
“That’s a great example of you don’t have to have the “C” to be a leader,” DeBoer said. “Jihaad is exactly that. He’s been a leader for us ever since I could remember. I’ve counted on him. I go to him expecting big things, expecting that leadership. He can run, it starts there. But I think more and more he plays ball, executes the plays, understands what our defense is and how it matches up against what he’s seeing, trusting the others around him, not trying to do too much and just attacking. He’s feeling it and there’s confidence that he has that you see coming out in the playmaking ability. That’s not just him, but a lot of guys, but it starts with some of those guys that are making plays consistently and Jihaad’s one of them.”
A Glimpse of the Future
As previously stated, Alabama’s starters on offense and defense both left the game during the second half as the offense finished its day midway through the third quarter and the defense wrapped things up shortly into the final period. During that time, we got to catch a glimpse of the future of Alabama football, as many freshmen and sophomores who hadn’t really seen the field yet took a good sample size of snaps.
Quarterbacks Ty Simpson, Dylan Lonergan and Austin Mack combined to complete 12-of-19 attempts for 133 yards, including a stellar touchdown connection between Mack and freshman wide receiver Rico Scott, plus a 43-yard play between Simpson and backup tight end Josh Cuevas.
“There’s that fine window of trying to let these guys run the offense and getting that experience and an opportunity to do what they work on each and every day,” DeBoer said. “I was proud of the way they just handled everything from the execution to even just the procedural things where making sure guys are lined up before we motioned, all that stuff. I thought it was a good day for all of them as a whole.”
Freshman running back Richard Young has seen a fair share of carries over the past couple of games due to some dominance by the first-teamers, and he added another touchdown to his season while recording seven carries for 26 yards against Mercer. Fellow freshmen running backs Daniel Hill and Kevin Riley also saw time on the field, combining for 17 yards on seven rush attempts.
In addition to Rico Scott, freshman wide receiver Caleb Odom played a good amount of snaps even before the score got out of hand. Freshman wide receiver Bubba Hampton and tight end Jay Lindsey also found themselves even in the stat sheet among a couple of other pass catchers.
Not as many scholarship players filled the stat sheet during their first appearances of the game in the fourth quarter, but linebacker Justin Okoronkwo, defensive back King Mack, Cayden Jones, Hunter Osborne, Zavier Mincey and Keon Keeley did.
Perhaps most notably, many walk-ons across several positions got the chance to play in a real game for the mecca of college football. These moments when each walk-on who works just as hard as anyone on the team to finally get their shot is a big part of what makes football special. Campbell called it “precious” after the game.
The Crimson Tide will strive for more growth next week as No. 10 Alabama hits the road to face Oklahoma on Saturday, Sept. 23 at 6:30 p.m. CT on ABC.
