There were a lot of questions surrounding Kalen DeBoer and Alabama heading into Saturday night's road tilt against Georgia in Athens. Had the Crimson Tide actually turned the corner from the season-opening loss to Florida State? Could they actually face adversity in a road environment and come out victorious?
Both questions were answered with an emphatic yes between the hedges.
Road games had been Alabama's kryptonite under DeBoer. The team had not proven to be able to handle adversity well in hostile environments. Coming into this weekend, Alabama was 2-4 in true road games and 2-5 away from Bryant-Denny overall under DeBoer. Blowout wins over Wisconsin and LSU could not overshadow the fact that the team looked unprepared and lifeless in Nashville, Knoxville, Norman, and Tallahassee.
The blowout wins were nice, but at some point, Alabama was going to have to prove it could stare adversity in the face on the road and not blink if it wanted to be a championship team. Beating Georgia on Saturday night doesn't automatically make the Crimson Tide a championship team, but it's a nice start.
“It’s a mindset going in," DeBoer said. "Especially against a team like this, you’re gonna get punches thrown at you. You’re gonna take, you’re gonna get some. And we got some tonight. And it’s just, what’s your response gonna be? And our response was to punch back and punch back harder. And I really felt like, even when it isn’t perfect execution, just felt like there was an attitude and energy that our guys had. And there’s gonna be no regrets when we walk off the football field, because we gave it everything we had.”
Alabama looked like a well-coached football team against Georgia
Too often in the 16 games under DeBoer prior to Saturday night, Alabama looked like a team unprepared. It was clear early on in Athens that that wasn't going to be the case. Regardless of how the game finished, Alabama had a good gameplan, and the players executed at a high level right out of the gate.
Alabama's defense forced an immediate three-and-out, then the offense went on a 14-play touchdown drive to take an early lead. Four plays later, Georgia was punting again. Alabama went on another 14-play touchdown drive to take a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter.
Alabama played complementary football all night. When the defense surrendered a late first-half touchdown to cut the lead to just three, the offense responded with a touchdown drive before the half to push the lead back to 10.
And in the second half, with the offense consistently sputtering, the defense stepped up time and time again with key plays to preserve a Tide win.
That's what championship teams do. We'll find out if Alabama is a championship team as the season keeps going. But for one night, they sure did the things required for that to become a reality.