Spring is over for Alabama Football. The end on Saturday was an A-Day that showed the Crimson Tide’s deep roster of talent. With the ‘good vs. good’ format, the A-Day winners were the second-unit offense and the first-unit defense.
Alabama Football’s first-unit offense will eat beans and franks, compliments of the Tide’s first-unit defense. Inconsistency by the Crimson Tide’s offensive starters was also a factor in them coming up short.
Immediately after the game, Nick Saban provided a precise summary, saying the game had too many bad plays.
Later in the post-game media review, Saban had some more positive comments.
"I like this team’s toughness. They’re physical. They play hard. We don’t have a bunch of guys that are soft or looking for an easy way."
Expanding on the ‘too many bad plays’ Saban talked about mental errors, including, drops by receivers, interceptions and quarterbacks drifting out of the pocket and not working through progressions.
At halftime during the game, Nick Saban also talked about the quarterback play.
"It’s been the same way all spring. What we’re trying to get the QBs to understand is you need to eliminate the bad plays, the plays that got you beat."
Alabama Football Spring Game Stats
The spring game had four interceptions, three of them during an often ragged first half. Jalen Milroe passed for 245 yards and had two of the interceptions. Ty Simpson also threw an interception, as did Eli Holstein. Together the four Crimson Tide quarterbacks threw 83 passes and completed just over half, with a total of 42 completions. Wide receiver, Jermaine Burton threw one pass that was also incomplete.
The flip side of so many incompletions was the strong play from Crimson Tide defensive backs. The d-backs took numerous receptions away and combined for a credited 14 pass-breakups in the game.
The leading rusher in the game was Ty Simpson. Simpson rushed for 58 yards, with 47 of the yards coming on one play. Roydell Williams with an average of 5.8 yards-per-carry (ypc) and Jase McClellan with an average of 5/3 ypc led the running backs.
The first-unit offensive line had problems with pass protection, especially coming from the line’s left side. Touch sacks on QBs magnified that weakness, as well as taking several potentially explosive runs away from Jalen Milroe and a couple from Ty Simpson.
It was clear Alabama football must improve at quarterback. Milroe and Simpson made some good throws but too many bad ones. The drops by receivers were a surprise given that all spring their pass-catching consistency had been lauded.
A bright spot came from the promise of depth in the Crimson Tide’s secondary. Multiple second-unit guys showed the ability to step up if needed.