Despite reports that Austin Mack was going to make his first career start against Vanderbilt, Keelon Russell was able to play after looking good in warm-ups. That made little difference for an Alabama offense that was once again stuck in the mud.
Mystifying play calls by Ryan Grubb, poor execution, and a pair of turnovers kept Alabama from ever blowing the game open. Fortunately, Kane Wommack's defense stepped up time and time again in Nashville to keep the Commodores bottled up.
If it wasn't for that, then Alabama might have found itself on upset alert. The truth is, this offense has a whole bunch of work to do if the Crimson Tide wants to be a serious contender in the national title race.
309 yards and 21 total points - seven of which came courtesy of an 83-yard kickoff return by Dijon Lee - are not good enough. Not by a long shot.
Alabama's offense has a lot to work out for the Tide to be a serious contender
Grubb giveth and he taketh away. He called a masterful second half last week against LSU, and then could not figure out how to attack a mediocre Vanderbilt defense. He got greedy, as he always does, and refused to stack plays and commit to running the football.
Daniel Hill ran for 89 yards on 14 attempts. He should have gotten 20-25 carries with the way he was running.
Instead, Grubb kept wanting to go for the kill shot. And he opened Russell up for some unnecessary hits as a result.
There was no better example of that than in the fourth quarter with a 21-6 lead. After Daniel Hill broke a 12-yard run on a 3rd-and-2 down to the Vanderbilt 33-yard-line, Grubb got greedy. He gave Hill one more carry, which resulted in just one yard.
On 2nd-and-9, he called a shot play for Russell that saw him get high-lowed by two Vanderbilt defenders as his pass went begging. On 3rd-and-9, he called another slow-developing pass play, and Vanderbilt got home on the edge to hit Russell again and force a strip-sack.
With a QB who is banged up and a two-possession lead with a defense that had dominated all day, why are you opening yourself up to those possibilities? It's greedy, stat-padding coaching. Things could have gone much worse for Alabama as a result.
The only thing that mattered today was getting the win. This was always going to be a tricky spot after the win over LSU in Baton Rouge last week. So mission accomplished in that vein.
But for a team that fancies itself as a legitimate national title contender, they have to be better and more consistent as an offense. That might not be possible with Grubb calling the shots.
Add us as a preferred source on Google