Nick Saban will always find something his team can improve on and Monday was no different, even after a 48-7 road win in the SEC in which his team put up nearly 700 yards of offense and held the opposition to just 170 yards.
But the score could have been much higher and the yardage totals greater were it not for two lost fumbles in the redzone on the Crimson Tide’s second and third possessions of the game.
“I think the lesson to be learned there is if you just compete well and you play the next play, sometimes you can miss the four-foot putt and still win,” Saban said. “That’s what I was really pleased with, the way our team just kept playing in the game and really did a nice job on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.”
First it was Kenyan Drake, who fumbled at the 17-yard line. On the next possession T.J. Yeldon fumbled at the five.
Both players bounced back and recorded 100-plus yards and two touchdowns each. But the ball security was a point of concern.
Still, Saban scoffed at the notion that Alabama had a slow start.
“I just didn’t think we finished the drives like we needed to to cash in,” Saban said. “But like everybody in the world, if you don’t get the results, don’t get the immediate self-gratification – instant coffee, instant tea, instant everything – it’s bad.
“Well, the bad things were the fumbles and the dropped balls. So you gotta be technical about what was bad. Just because we didn’t score the first three times we had the ball even though we moved the ball down the field, doesn’t necessarily mean it was all bad. I fully expect that would be your reaction.”
The other major concern was dropped passes by receivers. On the first drive of the game, Kenny Bell dropped a pass on third down that ended the drive. Yeldon and Jalston Fowler both dropped passes that had a good chance to be touchdowns.
“For a little bit, I was like, ‘Aw man come on. Let’s pick it up guys,’” receiver Kevin Norwood said. “I got worried for a minute. But there was still a lot more ball game to be played. I didn’t get down to much.”
Cooper’s production a good sign
Wide receiver Amari Cooper, who received freshman All-America honors last year, hasn’t had the same impact he had in his explosive 2012 campaign. He had just 100 receiving yards coming into Saturday’s game.
Against the Wildcats, Cooper recorded three catches for 64 yards. He didn’t exactly light the world on fire, but players and coaches were encouraged by the performance.
“It’s great for him, gets his confidence level back up,” Norwood said. “We need him down the stretch and he knows that. He prepared hard last week, this is what he wants.”
Tide to see traditional offense
After facing spread and hurry-up offenses in its first three SEC games, Alabama will see a more traditional offense from Arkansas. The Razorbacks under first-year head coach Bret Bielema have put an emphasis on power running, rather than throwing it down the field.
Freshman running back Alex Collins is second in the SEC with 720 rushing yards so far this season, and Jonathan Williams ranks sixth in the league with 564.
“They’ll probably do something a little similar to everyone else that’s affected us in a negative way,” Alabama safety Vinnie Sunseri said. “We’ll prepare for everything, but playing a team that will be able to run the ball a little bit will be different since we’ve faced all these spread teams that like to sling the ball around a little bit. It’ll be fun to play the run a little bit more.”
