All offseason, we’ve heard about how much Alabama QB Jalen Hurts has improved as a passer, but after Saturday night’s season-opening win over Florida State, that didn’t seem to be the case.
Though the No. 1 Crimson Tide rolled to a 24-7 win over the No. 3 Seminoles, Hurts struggled. At the end of the night, he’d completed only 10 of 18 passes for 96 yards and a touchdown.
Diving deeper into Hurts’s stats, only one receiver — Calvin Ridley — managed to catch a pass from the sophomore quarterback, making seven catches for 82 yards, one of which was a 53-yard touchdown strike.
Two of the other three catches were made by RBs Damien Harris and Bo Scarbrough and the final reception was made by Hurts himself on a batted pass.
Needless to say, ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum was not very impressed with Hurts on Saturday, and said as much on Sunday morning’s episode of SportsCenter (via 247Sports):
“I was underwhelmed,” Finebaum said about Hurts’ performance on SportsCenter Sunday morning. “I didn’t see a lot of progression from last year to this year. For those of us who kept saying ‘he’s going to get better cause Brian Daboll showed up from the New England Patriots,’ I didn’t see any of that last night.”
To be fair to Hurts, Florida State has one of the best defenses in the country, so it’s hard to expect too much from him against a defense loaded with future NFL stars.
Still, coming off of his struggles in last year’s national championship game, this wasn’t exactly what Alabama fans wanted to see from the reigning SEC Offensive Player of the Year.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
