Alabama Football Offensive Line: C
After generating a lot of preseason hype, the Alabama offensive line may have some wrinkles to iron out. Still, I think this unit is easily one of the nation’s best. Most of the mistakes can be attributed to first-game jitters. Expect this massive offensive line to get more cohesive as the season progresses.
The Bama offensive line protected the quarterbacks well for the most part, but it did allow two Blue Raider sacks. It will face much more athletic pass rushers next week against Texas and into SEC play, so the line must show improvement.
Although it wasn’t overly dominant, the offensive line still paved the way for over 200 yards on the ground. As the season progresses, this group (in tandem with the running backs) has to become one that the Tide can rely on, as this is still not a pass-first offense.
Perhaps the most concerning part of the offensive line performance was a couple bad snaps by senior center Seth McLaughlin. A runaway snap actually led to Bama’s first touchdown, but this obviously has to get cleaned up. Grad student Darrian Dalcourt briefly replaced McLaughlin at center, but McLaughlin took the vast majority of the first team reps.
Overall, this was a solid performance from the Alabama offense. Jalen Milroe showed plenty of promise and, quite frankly, looked like “the guy.” he has plenty of weapons to distribute the football to, and the offense will only improve as the line continues to gel.