Years from now, Alabama’s 50-17 home win over The Citadel may be remembered as a second coming of the infamous “Tin Horn” game in which Alabama again struggled to defend the triple option.

The offense, however, had first-half travails of its own that will likely be overshadowed by The Citadel’s running-game prowess.

On its first two drives, the third-highest-scoring offense in the FBS (48.6 points per game) looked out of sorts, with minimal gains on early downs breeding 3rd-and-7, 3rd-and-9 and 3rd-and-11 situations.

“You want to stay in front of the sticks,” left tackle Jonah Williams said. “You don’t want to be in 3rd-and-7-plus situations. … An efficient play on first down is four yards, so you want to be in 2nd-and-6 and then you want to get half that, so 3rd-and-3. Those are considered efficient downs.”

Once the Crimson Tide did start moving the ball, though, other issues arose.

Sophomore wide receiver Jerry Jeudy lost a fumble on the next drive after an 11-yard gain. Its following possession resulted in a field goal after 1st-and-10 at The Citadel’s 13-yard line.

Those were Alabama’s only four drives of the first half. It held the ball for less than 11 minutes while The Citadel was chipping away at the clock.

Head coach Nick Saban told the SEC Network at halftime that The Citadel ,was limiting Alabama’s possessions by “shrinking the game”. That may have been the only way a game with a 53-point spread could have been tied 10-10 at halftime.

“I talked to the team about, ‘What are you really made of?’” Saban said. “You’re talking about a team that doesn’t have maybe any players on their team that could play for our team. And yet we’re not beating them. We’re not dominating the line of scrimmage. We’re not finishing.”

Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa completed eight of his 12 passes in the first half, including a touchdown to freshman receiver Jaylen Waddle, but he agreed that all was not well with the offense.

“I think we made a lot of mental errors out there,” Tagovailoa said. “We just got too casual. We only had four possessions too, so we had to make use of every opportunity and we didn’t. Coming into the second half that was the plan: Every time we got the ball, score.”

They almost did.

Alabama fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half, but after that the Crimson Tide found the end zone on its next five drives – and that’s not including an 18-yard scoop-and-score by junior linebacker Anfernee Jennings.

The Crimson Tide’s first possession of each half ended with a touchdown pass from Tagovailoa to Waddle, netting the freshman his first career game with multiple receiving touchdowns. He caught a career-high six passes for 90 yards.

The second connection between the two was Tagovailoa’s second passing score of the game and his 30th of the season, tying A.J. McCarron’s single-season school record from 2012.

He had to wait a whole four minutes to break it. When junior tight end Irv Smith Jr. crossed the goal line on a 68-yard catch-and-run, the record was Tagovailoa’s alone.

“A lot of credit does belong to my teammates,” Tagovailoa said. “It’s a tremendous opportunity that we’ve done as an offense to have gotten to this point. I mean, 31 touchdowns? That’s cool.”

Panicked fans wondered why the quarterback was playing against The Citadel at all, but for the first time since Oct. 6 at Arkansas, Tagovailoa did not wear a brace on his injured knee.

He and the rest of the team look to put a bow on one of the finest regular seasons in school history when Alabama (11-0) hosts next week’s Iron Bowl against Auburn (6-4).

“I like to think of games as more surgery than a fistfight,” Williams said. “You can’t go in there emotional. You can’t think about it that way. So our preparation is going to be the same. Coach Saban tells us to enjoy a win for 24 hours. (We’re) probably going to enjoy it for about 2.4 and then start watching film on Auburn.”