Alabama's Hurts wasn't perfect, but he didn't need to be
Alabama came away with an impressive 24-7 victory over Florida State on Saturday night. Overall, the defense and special teams did their parts to ensure victory and put the rest of the college football world on notice.
Still, there are people who believe sophomore quarterback Jalen Hurts isn’t capable of leading the Crimson Tide to a national championship, despite him getting them to the title game as a true freshman in 2016.
After finishing last season as the SEC Offensive Player of the Year, Hurts still has his share of critics, and they probably won’t go away for the foreseeable future. There are deficiencies to his game.
While Hurts’ play against the Seminoles didn’t do anything to silence his critics, he did show noticeable improvement in a couple of areas.
The first area is his ability to manage the game. There were no costly mistakes from Hurts, and that allowed the strength of Alabama’s roster to step up and win the game for the Tide. With both team’s defenses showing that ability, this game came down to which quarterback could make the least amount of mistakes. Hurts didn’t commit any turnovers, while Florida State’s Deondre Francois had two — both interceptions.
Hurts’ play was actually praised by head coach Nick Saban following the game.
“Well, I thought Jalen did a good job,” Saban responded when asked about Hurts’ performance. “He did what we asked him to do.”
Saban did point out some issues the offensive line had, however.
“I think a lot of the things that could have been really good plays for Jalen didn’t turn out so well because we didn’t protect very well. Now, he will tell you that sometimes he’s responsible for that because he can redirect the protection, but there were other times where we made mental errors up front and didn’t block them, and we had people open but couldn’t get them the ball.
“So the whole deal on offense, we have to do a better job of executing, especially when it comes to the passing game.”
People are quick to point to Hurts’ limited production in the game after he finished with only 96 yards passing and one passing touchdown — completing 55.6-percent of his throws. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.
.@JalenHurts throws the perfect ball to a wide open @CalvinRidley1 for a 53-yard TD! #FSUvsBAMA pic.twitter.com/IhkB7QNs2M
— Chat Sports (@ChatSports) September 3, 2017
When watching Hurts’ key 53-yard touchdown throw to Calvin Ridley early in the second quarter, pay attention to how much smoother he looks compared to last season. Hurts does a nice job selling the play fake, then shows a lot more confidence in his footwork, timing and release — resulting in a perfectly thrown ball.
The play showed that Hurts is a lot more comfortable this season trusting the play’s design. Instead of waiting to see that Ridley was open, he trusted that he would be — especially when you consider that Ridley was lined up against true freshman Stanford Samuels III. That’s the type of recognition that Hurts didn’t display consistently last season.
While he wasn’t perfect in this area, Hurts showed a willingness to throw the ball away. He used his elite athleticism to elude pressure in the pocket, but if nothing was available downfield, he made sure to live to fight another down.
It wasn’t that Hurts never showed that ability in 2016, but he seemed to do it more often against the Seminoles, which means he’s continuing to learn to be more conservative with the football.
Overall, Hurts didn’t blow anyone away with his performance Saturday night, but against one of — if not the — top defenses in college football, no one should’ve really expected him to. He’s still young, and he’s still developing. To think that he would be able to overcome, in just one offseason, every deficiency that caused him to struggle as a true freshman is naive thinking.
Hurts isn’t a finished product, but he does seem to be improved — even if last night’s game didn’t allow him to fully show it.