ALABAMA MUSCLES UP TO CRITICS
Easy win vs. LSU shows team belongs in title picture
TUS CALOOSA, ALA. Yes, it’s hard to believe, but Reggie Ragland swore he didn’t know. He was asked, long after Alabama’s 30-16 victory Saturday night against LSU, if he’d considered the impact of another game that was played earlier in the day.
“I wasn’t worried about Arkansas or Ole Miss,” the Alabama senior linebacker said. But when someone informed him Arkansas had won in overtime, he couldn’t help but laugh — maybe he really didn’t know — and said, “Well, we control our own destiny.”
It’s true. Alabama is back — as if the Crimson Tide ever really were gone. And the key word isn’t destiny, it’s control.
Mississippi’s loss opened Alabama’s path to winning the Southeastern Conference West — and from there, to so much more. But never mind the math or the feeling that, somehow, things always seem to fall Alabama’s way. This team only faintly resembles the bunch that lost to the Rebels on Sept. 19.
That No. 4 ranking last week in the College Football Playoff selection committee’s initial Top 25 was premature. Alabama didn’t have the body of work, to use a favorite selection committee term from last season. And it hadn’t passed the eye test, either. But after Saturday?
Check. And check. And it’s clear now that the obituaries were premature.
Alabama shut down Leonard Fournette — he had 31 yards on 19 carries, suddenly making the Heisman Trophy race wide open — while Derrick Henry rolled up 210 yards and three touchdowns on 38 carries. If the formula was familiar, so were the results.
“You heard about Fournette all week,” Ragland said. “Derrick came out and made a statement. He took the ball 40-something times, right? He ran the ball. That’s what grown men do. He’s a grown man.”
No argument there. Seven weeks after that loss that seemed so defining, Saturday’s performance seemed like a pretty defin- itive statement: This team has clearly grown up, too.
“We’re a different team,” senior center Ryan Kelly said, than when they committed five turnovers and trailed Ole Miss 30-10 in the fourth quarter, with fans leaving Bryant-Denny Stadium in droves.
Early in the fourth quarter Saturday, Henry scored his third touchdown, Alabama’s lead was 30-10. A full house was rocking, and with good reason. It was easily the most complete performance of the season, accomplished in a fashion coach Nick Saban loves: defense and a ballcontrol offense that combine to strangle an opponent’s will.
CLEAR PATH
We don’t know if Jake Coker can beat anybody with his arm. But we also don’t know if he’ll ever need to. As good as the defense was Saturday and has been for much of the season, Alabama hasn’t played a dynamic quarterback or one of those explosive offenses that infest other conferences. At least not since Ole Miss, for a few plays on one night, provided a reasonable facsimile of one. The Tide probably won’t face that kind of threat unless it’s in the Playoff — which is why college football fans should salivate at the idea of, say, Alabama vs. Baylor. Or maybe Clemson. Think that might be fun?
Maybe one of those offenses, rather than LSU’s one-dimensional attack, would create havoc the Tide couldn’t handle. But maybe not. Which is why college football fans should prepare for the possibility of Alabama winning it all.
This team has flaws. But this season, what Playoff contender doesn’t? If nothing else, Alabama is not going away soon. The Crimson Tide have no margin for error. But at this point in the season, who does?
What we’ve seen from Alabama, ever since its loss, is steady maturation. It wasn’t an easy position, chasing Mississippi in the standings — “You have to keep playing ball and have the chips fall your way,” Ragland said, “and they did” — while knowing any slip would be deadly. Saban has always liked this team’s grit, which might have been a more important ingredient during the last seven weeks than the abundant physical talent.
“They haven’t always executed right,” Saban said. “We can criticize the penalties and the negative plays that we have sometimes, but the ability to overcome adversity has not been an issue with this group so far. So hopefully we can persevere.” LEARNING PROCESS If so, it might be because of that loss. Saban also thinks the Tide might have matured because of Ole Miss rather than in spite of it.
“That game taught this team a lot in terms of what they needed to do to develop the kind of consistency we needed to have to be a good team,” he said.
Coker has settled in at quarterback, and if he’s not a consistent playmaker he’s not making critical mistakes, either. There were days when the Tide could have been beaten — a 27-14 win against Arkansas was very tight for far too long. Two weeks ago, they needed a late touchdown from Henry to escape Tennessee’s upset bid.
But Alabama was just better than LSU. Instead of a showdown between SEC powers, it was a showcase for Alabama’s resurgence.
There was plenty of symbolism in how it ended, Alabama on a 13play, 78-yard drive that chewed up the last 9 minutes, 18 seconds. Henry carried 10 times, bringing the Tide’s total to 250 yards on 55 carries.
“That’s what we want to do,” Kelly said. “That’s what we came here to do at Alabama.”
In the final moments, while the offense slowly grinded away, several defensive players danced on the sideline. When Coker knelt one last time, the celebration was intense after what Kelly called the Tide’s most complete performance.
How far have the Tide come since losing to Ole Miss?
“I don’t want to talk about Ole Miss,” Kelly said. “We just beat the No. 2 team in the country.”
Unlike last week, no one should complain if Alabama slides right in to fill that sudden vacancy in the rankings. At least for now, it’s right where the Tide belong.
“The ability to overcome adversity has not been an issue with this group so far.”
Alabama coach Nick Saban