The Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the South Carolina Gamecocks by a final score of 49-18 on Saturday night.
Alabama was able to play at an extremely high level on both sides of the football throughout the majority of Saturday evening’s contest. Star quarterback Keelon Russell had the best game of his young career, as Russell recorded an impressive 365 yards through the air in addition to four passing touchdowns during the victory.
Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer recently took a moment to comment on Russell’s success last night, as DeBoer credits the offensive line’s pass protection for protecting him during his excellent performance in week four.
“Yeah, and you know when you got a guy like six on the other side, Dylan Stewart, you know you’re very conscious about that and making sure that your protection is in place,” DeBoer said. “And I thought we had a good plan, you know, to make sure that the right opportunities, you know, were at the right time, and our guys got the job done. And so it’s a combination of offensive line. You know, our tight ends are involved in that at times, along with our running backs doing their job. We saw some pressures that we communicated and picked up well. We’ve, you know, maybe over the last couple weeks had a couple times where one-off plays where there was a guy in our backfield coming free. I think we’re shoring that stuff up and just another getting trust in each other, doing your job not just mentally but also physically. And so when Keelon (Russell) gets time back there and our guys can run down the field and go make plays, it’s great to see that you got the deep shots, but then you also you’re hitting the intermediate stuff too, and you know getting a real well-rounded offense right now with the play action coming off the run, and then the run game getting its time too. But they were playing down so low, you saw our play action, you know, shots get down the field behind people time and time again, and so you know just had to take it when it was there.”
Russell recorded 35 yards on the ground and one rushing touchdown in addition to his success through the air. The talented sophomore looked calm and collected throughout all four quarters against the Gamecocks, and Russell will undoubtedly continue leaning on the offensive line in hopes of creating more big play opportunities moving forward.
