Alabama football: Tide still seeking answers on the ground despite lopsided victory
One performance can be chalked up to shrewd coaching. But a second pedestrian running game effort by the Alabama Crimson Tide?
That’s a whole different story.
On paper, Alabama rushed for 318 yards and 4 touchdowns on 32 carries in Saturday’s 62-10 blowout of New Mexico State. But the eyes tell a different story, as the second-ranked Crimson Tide struggled to get Najee Harris and Brian Robinson going all game long.
“I think we’ve still got to work on running the ball a little bit more efficiently and effectively,” Tide coach Nick Saban said after the game.
Harris finished with 68 yards rushing on 12 carries and 1 TD against the Aggies, while Robinson totaled just 57 yards on the ground in 11 carries.
The stats are also misleading, because Alabama’s first play from scrimmage was a designed pass from Tua Tagovailoa to Henry Ruggs, a quick-hitter to the outside. The play — which resulted in a 75-yard TD — was later ruled a lateral and a rushing play.
Other than a 19-yard run from Harris, Alabama’s main two running backs totaled just 3.6 yards per carry during the first half (50 yards on 14 carries). That’s the number that matters.
It’s a significant concern, given that the output was against a New Mexico State defense that ranked sixth-worst nationally in 2018 against the run, and an Aggies unit that allowed 12.8 yards per carry to Washington State running back Max Borghi in Week 1.
That said, Saban believes the Alabama running game took a step forward from where it was last Saturday against Duke, when Harris ran for only 52 yards on 12 carries and Robinson was held to 9 yards on 9 carries.
“I think it was better (Saturday),” Saban said of the Tide’s running game. “(New Mexico State) did a lot of stunting. They were bringing the (nickel back) a lot with five-man pressures to try to stop the run. But still, we’ve got to be able to block those things and be able to run the ball effectively.”
Encouraging for Saban was the play of Keilan Robinson, a 5-foot-9, 190-pound freshman who broke his first carry of the game for a 74-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter.
“We’ve been wanting to bring Keilan Robinson along because he’s the one guy that has juice, that is a guy that’s a little bit different style of back than the other two guys that we play, really the other three guys that we play,” Saban said. “So hopefully he’ll gain some confidence from making a great long run today and that’ll help him and we can utilize his skill set in the future.”
New Mexico State coach Doug Martin said that Alabama’s team speed will give any team problems, whether defenses decide to key on the run or the pass.
“No. 1 is their team speed on both sides of the ball,” Martin said. “They’ve just got electric players all over the field, so their margin of error is so small. If you turn the ball over, they’re going to make great things happen, and if you just give them a step, a wide receiver can get behind you and run it back without being tackled. They’re just an elite team.”
While Saban was optimistic about the Crimson Tide’s running game — which at 32 carries almost perfectly balanced the passing attack with its 33 attempts — he was unhappy about how the offense finished the afternoon.
“We didn’t move the ball on offense,” Saban said of the fourth quarter. “We didn’t take the air out of it at all. We didn’t take any time off the clock, didn’t make any first downs, and the defense never stopped them for the last 10 minutes of the game.”
That said, Alabama has now defeated 84 consecutive unranked teams under Saban, the longest streak in FBS history. Alabama’s last loss to a team not ranked in the Associated Press poll was a 17-10 defeat by Auburn on Nov. 24, 2007.
The current streak began with a win over Colorado on Dec. 30, 2007 in the Independence Bowl. The previous record was 72 games, shared by Miami (1984-95) and Florida (1989-2000). Under Saban, Alabama holds an 88-3 (.967) (84-3, .966 after vacations) mark against unranked opponents.
Saban indicated that he would much rather play 12 Power 5 opponents every season instead of scheduling paycheck games like New Mexico State, “but we can only play the teams willing to play us.”
Saban is also 22-2 (.917) all-time in home openers across his four stops as a head coach. He is currently riding a 19-game winning streak in the first game at his home stadium, with the last loss coming in 1998 when his Michigan State Spartans fell to Colorado State, 23-16.
In home openers, Saban’s teams are outscoring the opposition 932-275 (38.8-11.5 ppg) and have shut out the competition on three occasions, with the most recent shutout coming in 2014’s rain-shortened, 41-0 victory over Florida Atlantic. For his career, he owns a 1-0 record at Toledo, a 3-2 mark at Michigan State, and perfect records of 5-0 at LSU and 12-0 at Alabama.