Even when so many things went wrong, Alabama continued to fight.
Nick Saban and this fan base is never one for moral victories, but to cut down a 20-point at halftime versus LSU and coming close to pulling out an incredible win was something.
Despite the strong second half effort, the Crimson Tide fell by a score of 46-41.
It first blemish of the season hurts – especially after the first week of College Football Playoff rankings – however, Saban knows how he is going to correct things. During his postgame press conference, he attributed the loss the lack of balance (offense) and miscommunication (defense).
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Alabama had a chance to get points on its first drive of the game, unfortunately a fumble by Tua Tagovailoa started the downward spiral. Najee Harris was everything and then some, but two turnovers, dropped passes and a lack of consistent rhythm hurt the offense. When it comes to defense, not getting a stop on third down was its problem. The Tide had multiple chances to force punts and create negative; nevertheless, Joe Burrow and the Tigers moved the chain.
“We could not run the ball very well, which was an issue,” Saban said.
“I think we got some pressure at times in the pocket. I just don’t think we executed on all cylinders. We got a few penalties and it put us behind the eight ball. We have to have more balance and consistency on offense. We make a lot of big plays, which is great, but when you play a team like this who is a very good offensive team themselves… Having the balance on offense, you can control the tempo that you can control the game with your offense is also important and we didn’t have that consistency.”
On defense, Saban said the lone disappointment the coaching staff has from this loss is that it wants each player to do their job.
“There were a few occasions where there was a miscommunication, or maybe a player did not take the quarterback on a zone read, or we did not play the gaps exactly right, we did not cover them correctly… we had a couple of busts in the secondary that were very critical, but they do a lot of different formations that take a lot of adjustments. We played six defensive backs a lot in the game thinking we could adjust better to that and I think we did, but we still made some mistakes that gave them plays and you have to give them a lot of credit for it.”
No matter if it was lack of balance or miscommunication, the Tide did not look like self after Tagovailoa fumbled the ball on its first drive. He gave it a great effort in trying to play, following his surgery, yet it was not the performance neither he nor the wide receivers wanted.
Alabama needs to get back to fundamental tackling on defense.
So many missed tackles came versus the Tigers, especially in situations where multiple crimson jerseys were in the area and none could secure a stop. National media definitely got what it wanted, but next week will be interested at practice as the Tide looks to forge on.
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Stephen M. Smith is the managing editor and senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
