The biggest question for Alabama going into Saturday’s game was what would the offensive line look like when it takes the field against New Mexico State.
Starting center Darrian Dalcourt was sidelined with an ankle sprain and guard Javion Cohen was a late scratch with a wrist injury. That left two large holes on a unit that has seen its struggles over the past few games.
But on Saturday it rose to the occasion even with the new faces stepping up.
There were three key adjustments along the line starting with Chris Owens shifting from right tackle back to his original position at center to fill in for Dalcourt. Coming in to replace Owens’ spot at tackle was Damieon George who subbed in during the LSU game last week when Dalcourt originally sustained his injury.
Finally replacing Cohen in the game was junior Tommy Brown, who got the first start of his career against the Aggies.
All three were able to step up in their new roles and help deliver a dominating offensive performance albeit against a lesser Aggies team.
“I think they did well,” Saban said. “But you know, we’re gonna play against better competition. Better front seven. Bigger, stronger, more physical guys. I think they did a good today. I thought they did a good job all week in practice. These guys all wanna play well. We need to do a good job to prepare them so that they can play well. I think we challenged ourselves as coaches a little bit this week to try to get more players to be able to play well on our team and make sure that we’re doing a good job in preparation in terms of how we practiced the things that we looked at, the things that we saw. And I think the players responded well to it and I think they played well today which shows in the balance that we had offensively in the run and pass.”
Alabama boasted a balanced attack offensively passing for a total of 340 yards and rushing for 247 yards on the ground. The Crimson Tide pulled away in the second quarter putting up 35 points in the 15-minute window including a 63-yard touchdown run from running back Brian Robinson.
“It felt good to just see that opening,” Robinson said about the long run. “Just to see the offensive line still working.”
Quarterback Bryce Young was given a chance to sit back and evaluate the whole field with the time given from the line. Young was sacked just one time on the day, coming on his final play of the game at the beginning of the third quarter where the Aggies sent pressure.
Other than the one hit, Young thrived throwing for 272 yards and five touchdowns on the day.
“There was some movement, there were people that had to step up,” quarterback Bryce Young said. “It was really great to see people step into those roles and embrace it. We had some shifts throughout the week. There was a lot of change but everyone was ready, everyone adapted. There were guys that got opportunities that hadn’t played as much this year up front but when they stepped in we didn’t miss a beat.”
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
