Fans, media rip Alabama for poor first-half performance against Florida State
Published:
Fans and media never miss the chance to go after Alabama, especially when it’s warranted.
And after a shaky first half in Saturday’s season opener at Florida State that saw Alabama take an early lead before allowing 17 unanswered points, social media was abuzz about the No. 8 team in the country falling flat in the first half of the Week 1 road battle.
When new starting quarterback Ty Simpson hit Josh Cuevas for a 2-yard touchdown pass with 6:10 left in the first quarter, all seemed right in Alabama’s world, with the Crimson Tide up 7-0. But things quickly turned for the worse after that for Kalen DeBoer’s team, which allowed touchdown drives by the Seminoles late in that first quarter and early in the second quarter to fall behind 14-7.
The Alabama defense that was supposed to be so strong under Kane Wommack was falling flat on national TV against the Tommy Castellanos-led Florida State offense. The Noles added a long field goal late in the second quarter to put the Tide in a stunning 17-7 hole. Alabama had allowed a whopping 126 yards rushing in that disastrous first half, and it went into the locker room at halftime with a lot of questions to answer and, naturally, a lot of messages on social media that talked about their horrid performance.
While Simpson was fine in the first half, going 10 of 14 with that TD pass, the rushing attack wasn’t helping him. The Tide ran for just 61 yards compared to the mammoth yards that FSU gained on the ground.
It was 17-7 at halftime, and social media was going crazy over it all.
Here is a sampling of the reaction:
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.
