Grading Alabama football’s ugly win over South Florida
Alabama football played an ugly game on Saturday, but still managed to beat out South Florida. Despite only holding a two-point lead in the fourth quarter, the Crimson Tide added points late to come out with a 42-16 victory.
Next up, it’s on to Power Four play. UA hits the road on Saturday, facing Wisconsin at Camp Randall for its first excursion outside of Bryant-Denny Stadium in the Kalen DeBoer era.
As Alabama turns its attention to that game, here’s how we graded the Crimson Tide’s Saturday showing.
Offense: D
A “D” will pass a class. It won’t impress anybody.
Alabama’s offense had far more issues than expected on Saturday. It started up front, where an injury-depleted line struggled mightily
It wasn’t just that the Crimson Tide couldn’t block the Bulls. Even when it did, the success came with a high chance of the play getting negated by a penalty.
Alabama added touchdowns late to make the final score appear like far more of a blowout than the game actually was. If the Crimson Tide continues on the offensive path it spent most of the game following, it’s going to bring back some unsavory memories from before Nick Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa to save the program.
Defense: A-
On the other side, Alabama’s defense played well for the most part. Bulls quarterback Byrum Brown is a major threat, and the Tide limited his effectiveness the the passing game to great effect.
While the Alabama offense appeared broken and kept handing USF the ball throughout the game, the defensive unit kept it together. The defense was Alabama’s MVP for Saturday’s win.
It wasn’t totally perfect. Alabama didn’t manage to force a turnover, although a would-be interception did skitter off of Jihaad Campbell’s hands early.
Still, UA made all the stops it needed to. When the chips were down, the defense proved its mettle.
Special teams: B
Alabama let a few punts hit the ground that likely should have been caught to save some of the negative yardage that ensued. However, overall a solid day for the special teams units.
James Burnip punted the ball just fine on the far-too-many occasions he was called upon. Weirdly enough, reigning Lou Groza Award-winner Graham Nicholson hasn’t even attempted a field goal so far this season, but he’s made all of the extra points.
On punt return, Jaylen Mbakwe made a nice play late in the game, running one back 28 yards into Bull territory. Mbakwe’s play will be crucial going forward in that spot, after Cole Adams went down with an arm injury during Saturday’s game.
Overall: C
Not Alabama’s best effort. If the Crimson Tide is going to beat better teams as the season goes along, it’s going to have to make improvements across the board.
Still, a win is a win. If the Tide can pull things together once the offensive line returns to full health, it’ll be remembered more as a speed bump and less as the canary in the coal mine.
