If there’s a cause for concern about junior wide receiver Amari Cooper’s terrific start for the University of Alabama, it’s that the other playmakers aren’t getting involved enough in the offense.

Granted, it’s hard to argue with 33 receptions for 454 yards, which have him on pace to shatter Crimson Tide single-season records in both categories, but no one else had a pass thrown to him against Southern Miss on Saturday until there was approximately 10 minutes and 20 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

“I think we need to get more people involved offensively,” Coach Nick Saban said. “Coop’s had a great start here, but we have other guys that are capable players.”

Getting senior wide receiver DeAndrew White back from a shoulder injury this week should help, as he too was on pace for a 100-yard game when he got hurt against West Virginia.

Regardless, Cooper’s unofficial 234 yards after the catch is roughly 100 more than anyone else’s total yards (Christion Jones, 133 on nine receptions).

  • Play of the game: There was no single play that was the difference or a turning point, but Alabama’s longest play was junior running back Kenyan Drake’s third touchdown, a 29-yard carry around the right side that was aided by a block from senior fullback Jalston Fowler.
  • Player of the game: Normally we don’t like shared honors, but junior Cooper and junior safety Landon Collins were clearly the best players on the offense and defense, respectfully. Cooper had eight receptions for 135 yards and one touchdown while Collins was credited with 12 tackles including ½ for a loss and a hurry.
  • Hit of the game: On the game’s opening possession senior linebacker Trey DePriest drilled running back Jalen Richard over the middle after he made a short reception, and dropped him for no gain.
  • Statistic of the game: One of the reasons why senior quarterback Blake Sims has been so successful has been his completion percentage on third downs. Sims was 2-for-2 against the Golden Eagles, both for first downs, and is 10 of 11 for the season (90.9 percent).
  • Did you notice? Yes, that was offensive tackle Dominick Jackson in the backfield for Drake’s second 1-yard touchdown run. It takes a pretty big guy to make Fowler look relatively small as a blocker.

Here are 10 other things of note from Alabama’s 52-12 victory at Bryant-Denny Stadium:

1. Injuries: It wasn’t obvious when sophomore running back T.J. Yeldon sustained his hamstring injury, but the guess here is that it wasn’t the play the piece of plastic went flying off him (we’re not sure yet what it was, but he still had his mouth guard). More likely is that it occurred on his 13-yard carry on Alabama’s first possession when an USM safety Emmanuel Johnson’s helmet hit him square in the thigh. Sophomore cornerback Eddie Jackson’s quad injury happened on running back Tez Parks’ 24-yard carry when he was blitzing and seemed to get twisted around. Junior linebacker Denzel Devall’s shoulder injury occurred on Alabama’s kick return midway through the third quarter when he took the full brunt of a charging player.

2. Yards after the catch: One thing vastly different from the previous game was that Alabama didn’t have a single quick-out pass to a wide receiver. It’s a big reason why the yards after the catch dropped significantly from 246 against Florida Atlantic to a season-low 101.

3. The inside/outside running game: Five Crimson Tide running backs took handoffs and each averaged at least 6.2 yards per carry as Alabama tallied 333 rushing yards. Yet there was a huge difference running between the tackles vs. on the outside. By our count, Alabama averaged 11.9 yards running around the right end and 9.27 yards outside of the tackles. Minus junior quarterback Jacob Coker’s 11-yard sack the ground game averaged 4.59 years in the interior. “I think we have to be able to run the ball a little bit more consistently and effectively,” Saban said. “We seem to do pretty well when we run the ball on the perimeter, but our inside running game has not been as good as we’d like for it to be.”

4. Explosive plays: Saban, defines an explosive play a run of 13 yards or more or a pass of 17 yards or more. Alabama’s goal is nine per game. Even though the biggest gain was just 29 yards, it had nine on the ground plus five in the air to score 14 for the second straight week. Cooper leads the team for the season with 11, ahead of Yeldon’s seven and sophomore running back Derrick Henry’s five. After giving up one explosive play against FAU the defense yielded five, only one of which was on the ground.

5. Mistakes index: Basically, it’s a measure of mistakes, but it could arguably also be an indirect indicator of maturity and discipline. The mistakes index is fumbles lost + interceptions + penalties + sacks. Alabama scored a season-best five, but senior safety Nick Perry’s targeting penalty will keep him out of the first half next week. Look for junior Geno Smith to start in his place. Even though Alabama has had only three turnovers lost this season, look for it to be stressed with the defense this week as the Crimson Tide has had just one fumble recovery and no interceptions. Note: If the pass rush continues to improve don’t be surprised if they start to come in bunches.

6. Most around the ball: With Alabama playing without safety Jarrick Williams (foot), and had both Jackson and Perry out midway through the third quarter, Collins came up huge. Defensive “touches” is found by adding together tackles, assists, sacks, passes broken up (interceptions are included in that statistic), hurries, forced fumbles and fumble recoveries. His score was 13.5, followed by senior linebacker Xzavier Dickson (9), DePriest (7.5), and sophomore defensive end Jonathan Allen (5). Collins has a big season lead at 28.5, with Allen second at 15. BTW, notably absent in the box score was linebacker Reggie Ragland, who wasn’t credited with a tackle.

7. Who was thrown at: Like every other opponent Southern Miss challenged the cornerbacks and had some success. Junior Cyrus Jones was thrown at five times with two receptions for 30 yards and a dropped pass. Jackson had two balls thrown his way including the 36-yard sideline gain that was the longest of the game. True freshman Tony Brown has four passes thrown at him with none completed. Twice the Golden Eagles got the H-back behind DePriest for gains of 15 and 16 yards, so look for other teams to try and copy.

8. Cooper’s non-carry: This almost ended up being our play of the game even though the coaches were probably mumbling “Where is he going?” along with the fans. Cooper took the shovel pass as if he was going on an end-around, but once he hit the sideline decided to backtrack all the way across the field for the longest 13-yard gain anyone’s seen in a long time. Among those making blocks were Yeldon, sophomore tight end O.J. Howard and Sims. “I was thinking about it hard,” Sims told reporters about his hit on linebacker Alan Howze. “Should I do it? Should I do it? But like I said, I just want to give my body to the team.”

9. Who played: After not getting a chance to really clear the bench against Florida Atlantic due to the game being suspended and called midway through the fourth quarter, Alabama did so Saturday. But with the second-unit needing reps only a couple of extra players got playing time. Making their season debuts were defensive lineman Darren Lake, defensive back Jonathan Cook, tight end Brandon Greene and third-string quarterback Alec Morris. Walk-ons who played included Parker Barrineau, Jerrod Bierbower and Tyler Owens.

10. Records chase: With his second touchdown catch of the season, Cooper has 17 for his career. That ties him with DJ Hall’s 17 (2004-07), and just one behind Dennis Homan with 18 (1965-67).

With 135 receiving yards Cooper has 2,190 and needs 733 to break the Alabama record held by DJ Hall (2,923). At his season pace he’ll do so in the fourth quarter at Tennessee on Oct. 18.

With his 56 rushing yards Yeldon has 2,568 career yards. He needs 998 to break Shaun Alexander career record of 3,565. He needs to average 111 yards to catch him during the regular season.