University of Alabama coach Nick Saban held a meeting with the offensive line this past week, during which the coach made it pretty clear that he expected more out of them both individually and as a group.

He recalled saying: “Look guys, you guys are starting to feel pressure and you’re being criticized. You’re not sort of being the sergeant-at-arms that we need you to be in terms of how you control the line of scrimmage and how you dominate the line of scrimmage because none of these other guys are going to make plays unless you do that. I believe in you, and I trust in you.”

Obviously the “gathering,” as Saban described it, worked, as Alabama crushed Texas A&M 59-0. The Crimson Tide ran for 295 yards and didn’t allow a sack of senior quarterback Blake Sims, while also not having a single penalty.

Senior left guard Arie Kouandjio believed that the meeting helped the players.

“We got into a little bit of a rhythm, we’ve been having a tougher time, I think,” he said. “We’re been using that as motivation.”

When asked if the line was the key to the offense cranking out 602 total yards, Saban said, “I don’t think there’s any question about it.”

  • Play of the game: There were numerous standout plays, but Sims’ 43-yard touchdown run was the one to break the Aggies. On the play-action and initial move he got past three defenders, including the one assigned to keep him in the pocket, freshman lineman Myles Garrett (who had a long day going up against Cam Robinson). He juked safeties Donovan Wilson and Armani Watts while making another player miss, and then simply outran linebacker Donnie Baggs to the end zone. Incidentally, it wasn’t just the Alabama’s longest run of the game, but of the season.
  • Player of the game: It gets shared between junior running back T.J. Yeldon, who looked like he’s finally playing at full strength, and the starting offensive line, which responded to the criticism in a big way. For example, the first time Alabama had third-and-1 it blasted Texas A&M off the line for a 7-yard gain that was aided by an Aggies penalty. Yeldon finished with 114 rushing yards and 159 all-purpose yards.
  • Hit of the game: Split it between linebackers Reggie Ragland and Reuben Foster for terrorizing the Texas A&M kick and punt returners, and Ragland dropping running back Tra Carson for a 1-yard loss on third-and-short.
  • Statistic of the game: Saban is big on what he calls “explosive plays,” which he defines as a run of 13 yards or more or a pass of 17 yards or more. Last year Texas A&M had 11 against Alabama. On Saturday it had just one.
  • Did you notice? On Yeldon’s 9-yard touchdown run, which was Alabama’s first carry to the left, Kouandjio took out three Texas A&M defenders. A number of other Alabama players had nice blocks on the play including wide receiver ArDarius Stewart.

Here are 10 other things of note from Saturday’s game at Bryant-Denny Stadium:

1. Who played: Coaches finally got a chance to make the Florida Atlantic game being called up to the players. According to Alabama’s statisticians 70 got into the A&M game, with the reserves filtering in during the second half. Among them, freshman center J.C. Hassenauer burned his redshirt by playing the entire fourth quarter. Also of note on the offensive line, when the second unit came in sophomore Grant Hill went from replacing injured senior Austin Shepherd at right tackle to playing at left tackle, and senior Leon Brown switched from right guard to left guard. Isaac Luatua was in at left guard and got beat for the sack of Jake Coker.

2. Explosive plays: Alabama’s goal is nine per game. It had just 13.

Game leaders
Amari Cooper 4
T.J. Yeldon 4
Derrick Henry 2
Blake Sims 1
Altee Tenpenny 1
DeAndrew White 1

Season leaders
Amari Cooper 20
T.J. Yeldon 15
Derrick Henry 10
DeAndrew White 5

Game-by-game
West Virginia 12
Florida Atlantic 14
Southern Miss 14
Florida 11
Ole Miss 7
Arkansas 3
Texas A&M 13

Game-by-game opponents
West Virginia 8
Florida Atlantic 1
Southern Miss 5
Florida 5
Ole Miss 4
Arkansas 7
Texas A&M 1

Season totals
Alabama: 74
Opponents: 31

3. Special teams: One of the players not pulled in the second half was senior Christion Jones on returns as coaches were obviously trying to get his confidence back up. He initially bobbled the punt he returned 47 yards, but was otherwise incident-free. A trainer was keeping a close eye on sophomore kicker Adam Griffith during warm-ups and freshman punter J.K. Scott got some work in as his emergency replacement. Scott averaged 50 yards on four punts, had five kickoffs (no touchbacks) and even scored his first collegiate point by making the final extra-point attempt.

4. Yards after the catch: Like usual, junior Amari Cooper led the way, but he had a lot of company including sophomore running back Derrick Henry’s 41-yard screen for a touchdown, and Yeldon having a pair of nice receptions.

Game leaders
Amari Cooper 54
Derrick Henry 43
T.J. Yeldon 38
DeAndrew White 18
Total: 173

Season leaders
Amari Cooper 432
T.J. Yeldon 145
Kenyan Drake 102
DeAndrew White 92
O.J. Howard 81
Total: 1,100 of 2,036 (54.0 percent)

Per game
Opponent, YAC, Receptions, Average
West Virginia 116/24 = 4.83
Florida Atlantic 246/26= 9.46
Southern Miss 101/17= 5.94
Florida 246/24 =10.3
Ole Miss 117/18 = 6.5
Arkansas 101/11 = 9.2
Alabama 173/21 = 8.23

5. Most around the ball: 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. Although senior Trey DePriest had his best game of the season, Ragland again led the defense.

Game leaders
Reggie Ragland 7.5
Ryan Anderson 7
Trey DePriest 7
Nick Perry 7
Geno Smith 6
Rueben Foster 6

Season leaders
Landon Collins 59
Reggie Ragland 56
Trey DePriest 40.5
Xzavier Dickson 34
Nick Perry 33

6. Who was thrown at? Although Texas A&M used a lot of bunch and four-man “diamond” receiver sets, they led to essentially nothing against Alabama’s defensive backs. The Aggies completed one of three passes thrown at junior cornerback Cyrus Jones, for 14 yards, and had a couple of completions under his coverage. They didn’t throw anything at sophomore Eddie Jackson, but had two attempts at his replacement, freshman Tony Brown, without a catch. Three completions, including the 26-yard gain, were against a blitz, and most of everything else that wasn’t a shovel pass or screen was against a zone.

7. 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 just missed a rare perfect score when Texas A&M recorded a sack against the Crimson Tide reserves.

Game-by-game
West Virginia 0+1+7+0 = 8
Florida Atlantic 0+0+6+1=7
Southern Miss 1+0+3+1=5
Florida 3+1+11+1=16
Ole Miss 1+1+8+1=11
Arkansas 2+0+4+2=8
Texas A&M 0+0+0+1=1

Game-by-game opponents
West Virginia 0+0+6+3 = 9
Florida Atlantic 1+0+3+3=7
Southern Miss 0+0+6+1=7
Florida 1+2+5+0=8
Ole Miss 1+0+3+2+7
Arkansas 2+1+4+4=11
Texas A&M 0+1+2+6=9

8. Red zone not so Crimson: Here’s your surprising statistic from the game, Sims was just 1-for-5 in the red zone and probably should have had a pick-six on Alabama’s first position. For the season he’s 11 of 22 inside the 20, with four touchdown passes. By our count Cooper has been targeted 14 times by Crimson Tide quarterbacks in the red zone with just five catches and two touchdowns.

9. Third-down passing: One of our favorite play-calls was the short pass to fullback Jalston Fowler on third-and-1 for a 12-yard gain. The two incompletions by Sims were near the end zone on the dropped interception and a miss to Cooper. Something that’s been very impressive this season is how the receivers always seem to know how many yards they need for a first down.

Sims passing on third down, game-by-game
West Virginia 8-9-0 0 TD, 90 yards, six first downs
Florida Atlantic 1-1-0 0 TD, 10 yards, one first down
Southern Miss 2-2-0, 0 TD, 26 yards, two first downs
Florida 6-8-0, 1 TD, 89 yards, five first downs
Ole Miss 5-7-0, 0 TD, 36 yards, five first downs
Arkansas 5-9-0, 2 TD, 72 yards, three first downs
Texas A&M 6-8-0, 1 TD, 98 yards, six first downs

Sims’ totals: 33-44-0 (75.0 percent), 4 TD, 421 yards, 28 first downs
Last season: 50-76-3 (66.14 percent), 6 TDs, 582 yards
2012 season: 56-90-2 (62.2 percent), 8 TDS, 724 yards

10. Records chase: For the season Cooper has 62 receptions for 908 yards and seven touchdown catches. The Alabama single-season records are 78 and 1,133 (Julio Jones in 2010) and 11 (Cooper in 2012). He’s on pace to break the receptions and yards records at LSU, and the touchdowns mark against Auburn. Cooper’s on pace to finish the regular season with 106 catches, 1,557 yards and 12 TDs. With 2,644 career receiving yards he 280 to break the Alabama record held by DJ Hall (2,923). At his current season pace he’ll break the record during the first quarter against Mississippi State.

With his 114 rushing yards Yeldon has 2,909 career yards. He needs 657 to break Shaun Alexander career record of 3,565.