The Tide defeated Western Kentucky Saturday 38-10 in front of their home crowd to start the season 2-0. WKU’s defense returns just four starters from a year ago, but they added former Louisville linebackers Keith Brown and Nick Dawson-Brents this offseason. They were able to shut us down and we didn’t have a whole lot of answers.
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“I thought Jalen did OK, missed a couple of throws”.
WKU redshirt junior quarterback Mike White struggled against the Tide, following up his 517-yard debut going 10-24 for 135 yards and an interception. That man? Well, Nick Saban of course. But the offensive effort was rife with penalties (a total of 12, most against the offense), dropped balls and missed blocks.
Alabama’s two quarterbacks, starter Jalen Hurts and backup Blake Barnett, threw 42 passes for 351 yards.
With Ole Miss looming on the schedule for next week in Oxford, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows for the Tide offense.
“Our defense played unbelievable”, Lamp said.
ESPN’s “Team Efficiency” rankings after week one are out. “We are pretty ready for the game. All the leaders on the team, including myself, we got to come out and we got to prepare better throughout the week”. “He’s a smart, athletic player who can run”. “We made some explosive plays”. In rushing, Anthony Wales ran 58 yards and two touchdowns in 15 attempts while Quinton Baker added 42 yards in 9 attempts.
“They’ve got athletes all over”.
The defense held Western Kentucky’s offense to 239 total yards, including 23 rushing on 22 carries for an average of 1 yard per carry. Hurts played the first five series of the first half.
“I’m really disappointed we couldn’t finish the game on offense”, Saban said. “We had the one trick play early but other than that it was hard to move the ball effectively and get yards”. “When you’re arrogant, it makes you complacent, and it creates a blatant disregard for doing things right”.
During last week’s 52-6 defeat of Southern California, sophomore defensive back Ronnie Harrison shoved and even clenched his fist in a sideline scrape with teammate Avery Reed. Stewart recorded five catches for 90 yards.
Spread: Alabama is now a 24-point favorite over WKU. He was replaced by Tyler Ferguson.
However, Alabama let the Hilltoppers drive late, including a late touchdown pass from quarterback Drew Eckels to receiver Lucky Jackson with 46 seconds left in the game.
“I think Mike will be OK”, Brohm said. Kiffin hasn’t abandoned the run this way since the second half of the Ohio State playoff loss, but that team had Derrick Henry.
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“We’ll learn a lot”, Iyeigbuniwe said. “I think the people around him, whoever’s the quarterback, need to play better”.
