Alabama football’s report card vs. Arkansas
Offensive Line: B
Alabama football has tweaked the starters for the offensive line this year. Some moves have been due to injuries, but it appears Chris Owens is out of the rotation. He struggled at right tackle, and the interior linemen progressed past him while he was on the outside.
There were a few bad sacks, but some of those were because Bryce Young held onto the football for too long. He was trying to make a home-run play, and the line wasn’t built to do that.
The last time that Alabama football played an SEC team, the offense was stagnant due to inept offensive line play and a poor running game. That part was fixed for this game, so progress is being made to some degree. Still, it will take more to win against Georgia.
Defensive Line: B+
The defensive front played well in this game. The running backs had a few plays break free, but they mostly found no room to work in the trenches. Also, DJ Dale was unavailable for the game, so the Tide did a good job of adapting to the situation.
Phil Mathis is still a mauler, and the depth has been crucial for the Tide. You would’ve liked to see more tackles for a loss, but the group wasn’t the problem on defense. We’ll get to the real issue later in this report card.