Alabama Football: After sloppy win Saban warns Tide could get shook

On paper, the Alabama Football win over Mercer wasn’t horrible. Not covering a huge spread early in the season has no value in measuring how well the Alabama team performed.

A more complete review of the Mercer game follows below. First, what can be gleaned from Saturday, that has bearing on next Saturday in the Swamp?

Will Anderson Jr. not only left the game early in the third quarter, The dynamic Alabama football, outside linebacker left the field as well. He walked off without assistance. After the game, Nick Saban said Anderson needed to have a knee checked out and,

"He’s questionable as to what his circumstance will be here for the upcoming week."

Playing the Florida Gators or any other team without Will Anderson Jr. would be a major blow for the Alabama Crimson Tide.

On Saturday, the Alabama Football team gave Nick Saban plenty of other reasons for concern. There were multiple blown assignments leading to big plays and scores by Mercer. In one case, it happened between two of the Tide’s most reliable players, safeties Jordan Battle and DeMarcco Hellams.

Saban called the Tide’s frequent penalties “ridiculous.” Alabama Football committed nine penalties for 95 yards of infractions. Saban elaborated,

"You gotta play with intensity, but not out of control. We gotta make better choices"

The things that went wrong in Bryant-Denny Saturday afternoon, are perfect examples of what Saban warned his team about earlier in the week. There was never a question about Alabama beating Mercer. The challenge was, against a weaker opponent, would the Crimson Tide play up to its own standards. Against Mercer, in too many ways the Crimson Tide failed to do so.

In the post-game review, Saban made no excuses for his team. He did compliment the defense for playing well until late in the game. Before Saban left the field, Cole Cubelic asked him, if after last week’s warning to the team and Saturday’s performance, did the coach think they would get the message going forward. His response was,

"Oh they’ll understand this week, because they’ll be playing a good Florida team, so if they don’t wake up and shake themselves, they gonna get shook!"

Neither team rushed the tempo in the game. That was one reason Mercer held Alabama to 48 points. The Crimson Tide had 424 yards of offense but was only 5-for-13 on third downs. Mercer was held to 216 yards. Bryce Young was 19-for-27 for 227 yards and three touchdowns.

On the opposite ends of good and bad from the Mercer game – the Crimson Tide scored a ‘non-offensive’ touchdown off a blocked punt – and Will Reicherd is no longer perfect this season.