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Alabama football: 3 things that have worked, 3 that haven’t as Crimson Tide head to the bye week
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They made it.
They aren’t undefeated anymore, and they aren’t even ranked in the AP top 5, for now at least.
But they made it.
At last, Alabama has made it to its bye week, stashed this season on the final Saturday of October — a tad late in the 2022 proceedings, and after the 8th game of the season, so very much on the back end of the schedule.
That’s not ideal. And this season hasn’t been ideal for Nick Saban’s team as a lot of other seasons in his first 15 years at Bama have.
But the Crimson Tide are a still-solid 7-1 overall. They have a 4-1 record in the SEC that still makes Atlanta doable, with that ugly, dramatic loss at Tennessee on Oct. 15 sticking out like a sore thumb, of course.
And, as Saban pointed out after Saturday night’s 30-6 shellacking of then-No. 24 Mississippi State, Bama is getting healthier as the weeks go on, and the long-awaited bye week will only enhance that health. At the top of that food chain of health, of course, is Bryce Young, who didn’t wow you with stats against the Bulldogs but got in and got out without aggravating his sprained right shoulder and threw for 249 yards and 2 touchdowns without an interception.
He played a clean game. The Tide played a very clean game, going 60 crisp minutes without a turnover and with only 3 penalties, 2 of which came on the final drive, when Mississippi State was hell-bent on ruining Alabama’s shutout. It was about as good a performance as Saban could’ve hoped for coming off the Tennessee loss, and with that bye week dangling before the Tide like a carrot they couldn’t wait to swallow and enjoy.
And, now, they will rest. And while they begin that rest, we will look at 3 things that have worked well and 3 things that haven’t worked so well during the season’s first 8 games:
What has worked well
1. The evolution of Jahmyr Gibbs
That 2022 evolution wasn’t at work on Saturday night, when Gibbs managed only 37 yards on 10 carries and 33 yards on 4 catches. But even on a night when Gibbs wasn’t putting up the ferocious numbers like he has for most of the season, he was somehow a difference-maker. His 19-yard touchdown run early in the 2nd quarter was the lightning bolt that gave Bama a 14-0 lead and some needed separation.
When it comes down to it — factoring in Young’s sprained shoulder and his somewhat slow start to the season even before the injury — Gibbs has been the Tide’s most consistent offensive force during his 1st season in Tuscaloosa after transferring from Georgia Tech. Coming into Saturday night, the junior had piled up 635 yards rushing in 7 games, averaging 7.2 yards per carry with 5 rushing TDs. He has shown the ability to run between the tackles and take it outside, as his season-long carry of 76 yards proves.
And that’s just part of the Gibbs Equation. He also had 268 yards receiving on 27 catches coming into the Mississippi State game, and he was averaging just a hair under 10 yards per catch. Gibbs has 3 receiving touchdowns, too. He has become a certifiable all-purpose monster for the Tide this season, and we’re guessing that they wouldn’t even be 7-1 if Saban hadn’t come calling at the transfer portal for his services.
The cherry on the cake regarding Gibbs is that he doesn’t fumble. Not once. Gibbs doesn’t have a fumble or a lost fumble to his name this fall, and that’s a pretty amazing thing when you consider the attention that’s devoted to him and how much the Tide have leaned on him as the season has progressed. Gibbs already had 903 yards combined rushing and receiving in 7 games (add 70 to that total from Saturday), and there are still 4 more regular-season games left to terrorize defenses.
The Tide will keep feeding him and throwing to him, because, well, they need him. He has become Young’s sidekick and even a weapon 1A alongside the Heisman Trophy winner.
2. Will Anderson Jr.’s want for excellence
We know what the near future probably holds for Alabama’s all-everything junior linebacker. This is almost assuredly his final season in Tuscaloosa; he’ll leave for the NFL Draft and go very, very high. But for now, Anderson is on a mission to get the Tide back to where they fell short last season, in the national championship game. It’s really the only thing left for him to accomplish in college.
The sack numbers might not look gaudy. He has 6 in 8 games, which is fine but not out of this world. But when you factor in his quarterback hurries, the sheer number of times he has been in the opponents’ backfield making life miserable for quarterbacks like Will Rogers on Saturday night, then you can see Anderson’s sheer effect on the game. He’s a merciless factor who changes everything — how opposing offensive coordinators call games and adjust in-game — and he’s probably going to keep being that at the professional level.
Two weeks ago in the escape-act victory over Texas A&M, Anderson had an astounding 8 quarterback hurries. He became Haynes King’s close, personal friend that night in Tuscaloosa, not that King wanted any part of that friendship. Anderson had 0 sacks that night, but his continued success at getting to the quarterback and causing havoc kept the Tide afloat on a night when Young was out with his shoulder injury.
He was the star who willed Bama to victory on the night its other star was missing in action, and if the Crimson Tide ultimately survive the SEC West and get to Atlanta, that night against the Aggies will count for something really big. A week after the Texas A&M win, Anderson was the ultimate leader, sniffing out his teammates’ lack of energy and intensity before the showdown at Tennessee and calling them on it publicly, along with Saban, when they spoke to the media the following Monday.
That’s leadership. That’s courage. And that’s what somebody at the next level is going to get, likely starting next fall.
3. Young’s rapid return from injury
When Young went down in Week 5 on the hot afternoon in Fayetteville, nobody knew how long Bama’s reigning Heisman Trophy winner would be out.
Would it be for 2 weeks? A month? Gulp, the season?
The answer: 1 whole game, when Young led his team out of the tunnel before the game against Texas A&M but ultimately erred on the side of caution. He stood on the sideline, helmet in hand, and was both a soothing voice and a raucous cheerleader to backup-turned-starter Jalen Milroe. Young wasn’t duplicating his 2021 season all over again in 2022 even before the injury, but the dropoff in Bama’s passing game that night against the Aggies was stark, and Bama survived that night on gumption, just enough defense and, yes, the running of Milroe and Gibbs.
But then we wondered if Young could make it back for the showdown with college football’s new “it” team, Tennessee, in Knoxville. He was a game-time decision for nearly the entire week until he wasn’t. Young was playing between those checkered end zones at Neyland Stadium, and it was revealed during Saturday night’s ESPN broadcast of the Bama-Mississippi State game just what Young went through to return from his injury so quickly.
When the words “specialized machinery” are used to help describe what steps Bama took to help Young get back on the field, then you know the program went to the extreme. They are being cautious with Young’s reps during the week. But his rehab is a straight-up 24-7 process, and Young has been committed to that over the past month almost since he went down at Arkansas on the 1st day of October.
It has been an incredible process, and it’s ongoing, each and every day. The bye week is here, but Young’s grueling workload will surely continue straight through to the Nov. 5 showdown at LSU.
What hasn’t worked well
1. The Jermaine Burton Saga
The Georgia transfer was supposed to be a difference-maker coming over from Bama’s latest chief rival, but he has been a huge disappointment so far. Saturday night was the latest example, as Burton caught a pedestrian 2 passes for 40 yards and for the 6th time in 8 games had 0 touchdown catches.
Burton shined in the Week 1 win over Utah State, catching 2 TDs, and everybody thought his rhythm with Young was just getting started. Well, it has sort of stopped since that night. And though the process has been stalled somewhat because of Young’s shoulder injury, there’s no way Burton should enter the bye week with just 20 catches and a hair over 300 yards receiving.
If the onfield failures weren’t enough, now comes the off-field stuff, as video reportedly surfaced that showed Burton strike a woman who stormed the field when Tennessee knocked off Alabama on Oct. 15. Saban said he had no reason to suspend Burton from Saturday’s game, and that’s being called into question, of course. But regardless of suspension or no suspension, the fact that it happened is just a bad look during an already bad 2022 season.
Is there still time for Burton to turn it all around? Of course. But time is quickly running out.
2. Absurd lack of turnovers forced
This curious saga continued on Saturday night, as the Tide forced only 1 Mississippi State turnover, and that was on a fumbled punt return.
There is only 1 number you need to know through 8 games, two-thirds of the way through the regular season, about Alabama’s inability to force turnovers consistently or much at all. That number is minus-4, which is the Tide’s turnover margin heading into their bye week.
Bama has been able to get by despite all this. But eventually, to win the SEC title or get to the Playoff, you’ve got to start forcing some turnovers, and in bunches.
3. The penalties — but only on the road
Bama was at home on Saturday night, so everything was fine — again. The Tide had only 3 penalties, and 2 were in the final minutes.
But on the road, the floods of flags have been out of control.
At Texas: 15 penalties for 100 yards.
At Arkansas: 10 penalties for 101 yards.
At Tennessee: A whopping 17 penalties for 130 yards.
The Tide survived in Austin and Fayetteville, but it eventually caught up with them in Knoxville, and they got the loss they deserved.
And guess what’s coming after the bye week? Stiff road tests at LSU and Ole Miss. The flags have got to stop on the road, or else it could lead to Loss No. 2 and the end of any championship dreams in 2022.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
