Players that usually spend time on the bench got a chance to shine today and they did. (Photo-TDA Magazine)

Alabama’s Bench Looked Good in Huge Blowout Win

By: Larry Burton

As expected in playing a team like Mercer, Alabama emptied the bench and what was nice for Tide fans and the coaching staff was that the bench looked pretty darn good.

In his first start at inside linebacker, Dylan Moses was given a long hard look at taking the place of one of the many hurt starters at linebacker and he registered a team high 11 tackles, four of which were for a loss. Last week Alabama started Keith Holcombe in this spot and rotated in Moses who appeared to handle it better, thus earning the start this week. Holcomb did come in the week and look better himself.

In all, Alabama had 25 players who recorded a tackle and this rotating defense did not give up a single point all day.

And the Alabama offense, who put up 56 points had most of the starting and starting rotating players pretty much on the bench the entire second half.

After a shaky start, backup quarterback Tua Tagovailoa settled in and led the Tide on half of those 56 points and everyone had a chance to keep the offense rolling.

Fifth string running back Brian Robinson Jr. ran the ball 7 times for 7.1 yard per average. Sixth string running back Ronnie Clark rushed the ball 4 times with a 5.3 yard per carry average as well. It’s almost embarrassing the wealth of talent Alabama has on the offensive side of the ball.

Alabama had nine players run ball and 10 players catch passes. The team rolled for 530 yards of total offense and in a perfect example of a balanced offense, Alabama rushed for 265 yards and passed for 265 yards as if it were scripted.

Sportswriters and opposing coaches often wonder how Alabama can sustain injuries and still keep rolling. Today was a perfect example of how they do that. They give folks opportunities to get their jerseys dirty by rotating them in and out and playing special teams. This way, when it’s next man up, they’re more ready than opposing players who sit on the bench.

As happy as Saban was with the win today, you can bet that he will be happier with the play of his second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth string players that got work today. It’s one thing to get them some playing time, but it’s more pleasing to see them play well when they do. There’s a lot of happy folks in Tuscaloosa tonight.

Larry has been published in almost every media outlet for college sports and now primarily writes here for Touchdown Alabama. Follow Larry on Twitter for inside thoughts and game time comments at https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter

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