Alabama football easily handled Louisville in the season-opener, winning in dominating fashion by a score of 51-14. Check out Nick Saban’s take and key stats.
Alabama football more than handled the predicted 24.5-point spread in the 2018 season opener. The Crimson Tide win was one-sided at 51-14. It could have been even worse, if not for so many Tide mistakes.
Alabama football led 28-0 at halftime. The four touchdown lead did not satisfy Nick Saban. He was not concerned about the score. He was quite concerned about not being able to run the football consistently. More to his displeasure were frequent first-half defensive mistakes. Alabama football players probably thought the halftime break would never end.
In the second half, the Crimson Tide had more success running the ball. Also in the second half, the re-building Tide defense began to put pressure on Louisville QB, Jawon Pass.
The improved second-half play was still marred by too many mistakes, particularly careless penalties. As senior Christian Miller can attest, no one escaped Saban’s wrath. The Crimson Tide players will have ample time to review their long list of miscues before moving on to Arkansas State.
Nick Saban was no less testy after the game than he was at halftime. Here are two samples.
"We made some mental mistakes in the secondary. When you see a guy running wide open and nobody around him, that means somebody messed up. We don’t have any defense where the guy doesn’t get covered. We don’t have any. Everybody’s got somebody."
"… undisciplined type penalties basically gave a team a touchdown – just gave them a touchdown – stopped them on third down twice and have penalties two times in a row"
For the Alabama football fans who may have thought Nick was willing for the 2018 offense to carry the defense – think again.
Putting aside the perspective of Nick Saban, Alabama football fans will be encouraged by game one. Louisville was outmatched, but the Cardinals are not a terrible team. The Tide has room for improvement. There is time for its considerable talent to develop and mature.
Let’s look at some numbers from the game
Since most of the fourth quarter was spent with the Tide offense on auto-pilot, let’s review the numbers after three quarters.
- Score: Alabama 44 – Louisville 7
- Total Yards: Alabama 425 – Louisville 195
- Passing: Alabama, 14-for-22, 263 yards – Louisville, 16-for-30, 191 yards
- Rushing: Alabama, 162 yds, 5.8 yds-per-carry – Louisville, 4 yds, 0.02 yds-per-carry
- Third Down Conversion: Alabama, 7-for-10 – Louisville, 3-for-11
Also after three quarters, Alabama football had two turnovers, seven penalties for 85 yards and a missed extra point. The Crimson Tide finished the game with 11 penalties for 111 yards.
There are two key themes from the Louisville game. One certainly centers on Tua. The other one is less obvious but also important – Nick Saban is not slowing down.