Another opening weekend of football has come and gone and offered Alabama fans a brief glimpse of what the future may hold for the football team. If you happened to miss that hyped-up match against Michigan – it was more of a beat down, really, then here are some of the things I think are worth mentioning.
Alabama’s offensive line is good – really, really good.
No surprise here. Every single player on that line has playing time from last year. And, unlike last year, Saban doesn’t appear like he’s trying to rotate the linemen to see how they gel best. They hit the ground running, which is something that backs Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon will be able to appreciate. But more on that later… Anyway, Barrett Jones was incredible, as always, and Cyrus Kouandjio performed admirably at the left tackle position.
You know who else is good? T.J. Yeldon.
Easily the biggest storyline to come out of the Michigan game was how well Yeldon played in his first game for Alabama. If you haven’t heard, he became the first true freshman to run for 100 or more yards in his debut game at the Capstone. He proved not only to be a powerful runner, but versatile as well, catching the ball out of the backfield. Now, granted, part of that came from increased number of carries due to a Lacy injury, running behind one of the best offensive lines in the nation, and running against a weak-sauce Michigan defense. Still, the feat was impressive and, Bama fans hope, a sign of things to come.
The defense wasn’t half-bad, either.
But that’s old news, right? I mean, no one expected the Wolverines to run against Alabama anyway. Even Denard Robinson, easily the Wolverines’ most potent rushing threat, was held in check by Alabama’s disciplined front seven. Robinson sometimes had a little too much time in the pocket, but otherwise, it was a great performance from the first line of defense. But what really jumped out to me was how well the defensive secondary played. Before I begin, I do acknowledge that it got beat at times (especially on those throws of 44 and 71 yards, respectively). Still, the secondary held its own, and for a relatively young group, that’s impressive. Robert Lester looked good, as always, and Dee Milliner looked impassable for a majority of the game. This unit still has a long way to go under Saban, but if it can keep up its dominant performance, look for this to be another typical Saban/Kirby Smart defense.
While we’re at it, special teams looked pretty special, too.
Something a little atypical of Alabama, but exciting nonetheless. Alabama punter Cody Mandell had four punts, averaging 47 yards per punt, and had a few key punts that were downed inside Michigan’s five. Alabama also had four punt returns, averaging 14 yards per return. It was also good seeing Saban put faith in Cade Foster, who went one-for-two on the evening, but added a 51-yarder to his resume. Overall, it was a very solid performance all around from this group.
