Rapid Reaction: Tua who? No. 1 Alabama overwhelms Arkansas
Tua who?
The top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide clearly didn’t require the services of star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa against Arkansas on Saturday night, as Alabama rolled up 456 yards of total offense and forced 4 turnovers to whip the Razorbacks 48-7.
Tagovailoa’s Heisman Trophy march was temporarily derailed after a high-ankle sprain against Tennessee led to arthroscopic surgery. But any talk of Alabama tumbling from the top spot in college football along with him was silenced in a hurry.
Mac Jones, the Tide’s backup quarterback, surgically executed a game-plan tailored to his talents and away from his deficiencies — he completed 18-of-22 passes for 235 yards and 3 touchdowns. Running back Najee Harris had 13 carries for 86 yards and 2 scores.
The Alabama victory improves the Crimson Tide to 8-0 overall and 5-0 in the SEC West, and sets up a monumental 1-vs.-2 matchup against LSU at Bryant-Denny Stadium in 2 weeks. LSU escaped the No. 9 Auburn Tigers 23-20 earlier in Saturday, and also has next week off to prepare for the Tide.
With the victory, Alabama has defeated 89 consecutive unranked teams under head coach Nick Saban, the longest streak in FBS history. 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 (Fla.) (1984-95) and Florida (1989-2000). Under Saban, Alabama is 92-3 (.968) against unranked opponents.
The Crimson Tide has also won 30 straight and 48 of the last 49 games at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Prior to the Sept. 19, 2015 loss to Ole Miss, the Crimson Tide had not lost a game at home since falling to Texas A&M in 2012. Alabama boasts the best all-time home winning percentage in the FBS at .836 (271-53-3) at Bryant-Denny Stadium since the stadium opened in 1929.
Despite the dominating performance, Alabama’s defense at times appeared early on like it wanted to have a sideline seat with Tagovailoa and his walking boot — as Arkansas QB Nick Starkel dinked and dunked the Hogs down the field to start the game.
But any momentum Arkansas might have gotten from Starkel quickly evaporated in the form of 2 turnovers — as a Starkel handoff attempt went awry and led to a 34-yard Christian Harris fumble recovery, and Anfernee Jennings made a diving interception of a tipped Starkel pass.
Jones capitalized on the short field afforded by by Harris’ recovery to record his first TD pass as a starter — deflecting a pass off of DeVonta Smith’s fingertips and into the hands of Henry Ruggs III in the back of the end zone for a 10-0 lead.
Jones struck again after the Jennings interception, hitting defending Biletnikoff Award winner Jerry Jeudy on the left flat and turned it into a 14-yard TD to make it 17-0 late in the 1st quarter.
Alabama’s next drive was equally as impressive, as Jones hit Smith on a 47-yard RPO slant and then found Ruggs for a 13-yarder to the Hogs’ 1 — where Harris punched it in for a 24-0 advantage.
Jones continued to carve up the Razorbacks after another 3-and-out, finding Jeudy for 24 yards and Ruggs for 18 before Harris scored on another 1-yard plunge for a 31-0 lead.
Alabama’s 1st-half dominance even included the kicking game, as Joseph Bulovas was perfect on a 31-yard field goal to open the game and a 30-yarder late in the second quarter.
Alabama’s 4th defensive takeaway of the 1st half was the most exciting — Trevon Diggs stepped in front of Trey Knox on a wheel route to pick off Starkel and motored 84 yards for a touchdown to make it 41-0. The long score was Diggs’ 2nd in as many weeks; he returned a Tennessee fumble 100 yards for a TD.
Jones-to-Jeudy was a touchdown tandem again to start the second half, as Jones lofted a perfect 40-yard pass to Jeudy on the 5th play of the 3rd quarter to make it 48-0. That reception pushed Jeudy over the 100-yard mark for the 3rd time this season and the first since the New Mexico State game.
And while Saban went on a semi-nuclear meltdown at the suggestion that getting 3rd-string QB Taulia Tagovailoa — younger brother of Alabama’s sweet Hawaiian prince — some playing time this week, the Tide did just that with 10:56 to play in the 3rd quarter. The true freshman ultimately completed 6-of-8 for 45 yards.
And what Alabama game is complete these days without a lot of penalty yardage (60 on 6 flags) and a Saban sideline meltdown. The latter came after Tide backups lined up offside during an Arkansas punt attempt — the ESPN cameras caught Saban wearing out junior reserve linebacker Ben Davis as former Alabama QB Greg McElroy sat in the TV booth explaining how motivating the rants can be.
While the Saban explosions make for cute B-roll, they also keep a team that has re-written records for the past decade and redefined “dynasty” for all time from becoming complacent. Even during the off week coming up, count on Saban to drop hints here and there that the Crimson Tide is far from perfect as they prepare for perhaps one of the most dangerous LSU teams in years.