Alabama Football Swagger: 2017 Week 5 All-Stars

A weekly article series examining two players walking with swagger for the Alabama football team. Week 5 was loaded with choices.

Now to fully understand what the Alabama Football Swagger is, it means to have reason to walk with a confident, proud air around you. Some people mistake it for vanity, arrogance, or being pompous. This incorrect assumption is not what we mean. The Swagger is about knowing that your deeds showed off your amazing skills to the football-loving public.

The game against Ole Miss was a 66-3 victory. When a scoreline drops like that, it seemed like everyone was firing on all cylinders. However, choices have to be made about which players are the most deserving for this week’s Swagger.

Offense – Alabama Crimson Tide’s Offensive Line

No specific player on offense had a dominant game above his teammates; that’s because the offensive line man-handled the Ole Miss defense so well that Alabama football was able to score at will.

Starting quarterback Jalen Hurts did fairly well, completing 12 of his 19 passes for 197 yards and two touchdowns. However, his protection was solid, allowing him to make throws with lots of time, even if they went for errant passes. Hurts made up for that with 10 carries for 101 yards and a rushing touchdown.

In fact, five different players scored rushing touchdowns because of how easy it was to run on Ole Miss. The offensive line didn’t just punch holes in Mississippi’s defensive line, they parted it like the Red Sea, allowing gaps so big that a small child could have easily run through without being touched.

Six Alabama football players averaged 4.9 yards per carry or more, the most being Josh Jacobs’ 25.5 yards per carry on two runs combining for 51 yards.

In total, Ole Miss had no sacks and only mustered a single QB hurry for the entire game. Protection like that looks more like security at Fort Knox, rather than for a quarterback.