The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: Alabama 20, Texas 19

The final word of the Crimson Tide's first non-conference road game in more than a decade, but against a future SEC program.

Author:
Christopher Walsh
Publish date:
Sep 11, 2022 1:06 PM EDT

In this story:

Alabama Crimson Tide

Earlier this week we noted that Nick Saban was facing one of his former offensive coordinators, Steve Sarkisian, and that after going 24-0 the Alabama head coach was suddenly 1-2 over his last three games against his former assistant coaches.

But not all former assistant coaches are created equal.

Sarkisian, of course, was the Crimson Tide's coordinator during the perfect 2020 season, when Alabama re-wrote most of the school offensive and passing records. It would have had more if it hadn't played fewer games due to the coronavirus pandemic.

He was also a key recruiter, and knew the team and its personnel inside and out.

Also on the Texas staff this season are defensive line coach Bo Davis, offensive line coach Kyle Flood, special teams coach Jeff Banks, and quarterbacks coach AJ Milwee, who of whom have strong Alabama connections.

In this case it was a huge advantage for the Longhorns, who also had former TCU coach Gary Patterson as a special assistant to Sarkisian.

“This game plan was probably done about three months ago," Sarkisian said earlier in the week. "I’m sure their game plan was done probably three months ago. I don’t think either of us thought going into Week 1 we were going to see something new that was drastically going to change what we wanted to do.”

That's all true, with the Longhorns coming oh-so-close of treating the No. 1 Crimson Tide like it was at the college football equivalent of the Alamo.

But as the game progressed, the more the momentum started to go in Alabama's favor .

"Our guys played better as the game went on," Saban said. "We played better in the second half on defense, I thought. We pressured and affected the quarterback a little more. They do a lot of shifting and motioning and adjusting, and we messed a couple those things up early in the game.

"I think sometimes that messes with a guys' confidence. Once we settled down, I thought we played a little bit better.”

Saban's going to use this to try and motivate the team for the rest of the season, and even with the loss Sarkisian's critics figure ease up a bit (for at least a couple of weeks, it is still Texas after all).

Sarkisian is an impressive play-caller, and planner. But remember this, when Lane Kiffin first faced Saban with Ole Miss in 2020 after his short stint as the Florida Atlantic head coach, the Rebels kept pace until the score was 42-42. Alabama scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter en route to a 63-48 victory.

Last year, Kiffin's insight wasn't as bright. Alabama shut down the nation's top offense in a 42-21 rout, and two of the touchdowns allowed were in the fourth quarter after the outcome was no longer in doubt.

Like with Kiffin, this might have been Sarkisian's best shot for a while as he'll have less insight into the Crimson Tide each time they play.

Player of the Game: Junior quarterback Bryce Young was 27-for-39 for 213 yards and a touchdown while adding 38 rushing yards on seven carries. Statistically, it wasn't one of his better games, but the only time the Crimson Tide failed to score in the fourth quarter was when it failed to convert a fourth-and-1.

"He kind of took the game over,” Saban said.

Play of the Game: Senior kicker Will Reichard’s 33-yarder was the first game-winning field goal in the last 30-seconds of a game for Alabama during the Nick Saban era. You have to go back to Jamie Christensen's knuckleball kick against Texas Tech in the 2006 Cotton Bowl.

Statistic of the Game: Texas had the ball within the Alabama 30 six times, including five in the red zone, and reached the end zone just once.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

• Showing tremendous poise, Young was 15-for-19, 136 yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter. He also had the duck of the year on the near-sack on the final drive, and turned it into a 20-yard gain to the Texas 17 to set up the game-winning field goal.

• For the the second straight week, linebacker Jaylen Moody has at least shared the team lead in tackles. He was credited with 10 at Texas. For the season, he tops the Crimson Tide with 16.

• Junior linebacker Will Anderson Jr. got a lot of attention for his first sack of the season, but he also got his hand on the 20-yard field-goal attempt just before halftime. Things might have been very different if the Longhorns went into the second half with the lead.

The Bad

• Aside from an 81-yard touchdown run in the second quarter (more on that later), Texas allowed 13 rushing yards on 11 carries in the first half. Alabama punted on its next six possessions.

• We picked on the running backs a little last week when Young led the Crimson Tide in rushing. This week, running back Jahmyr Gibbs led the Tide in receiving with 74 yards on nine catches, including a seven-yard touchdown catch in the middle of the fourth quarter. Freshman Kobe Prentice had the most targets with six because the wideouts weren't getting separation.

• The Alabama defense has yet to have a turnover this season.

The Ugly

The 15 penalties were one shy of a Crimson Tide single-game record, 16, against both Middle Tennessee State on Aug. 31, 2002, and Georgia on Sept. 30, 1995). Oddly enough, Alabama won all three of those games,

5 Things That Also Got Our Attention

1] Xavier Worthy finished with five catches for 97 yards for Texas, but there were two obvious factors as to why the wide receiver's production dropped sharply after the first quarter. First, starting quarterback Quinn Ewers got hurt, but the Crimson Tide also made a defensive adjustment and inserted redshirt freshman Terrion Arnold at corner. The rest of the game Worthy was limited to just three catches, on six targets, for 29 yards. He didn't have a reception in the fourth quarter when the game was on the line.

2] The Alabama offense converted just one third down over the final three quarters, and it wasn't by a pass. It came when Young took off for a 17-yard gain on the Crimson Tide's first possession of the fourth quarter. The 11-play, 75-yard drive resulted in the Gibbs touchdown reception to give Alabama the 17-16 lead.

3] Texas converted only one third down after the first quarter as well. It too came on a run, but was by running back Bijan Robinson for two yards on third-and-2 during the third quarter.

4] Speaking of Gibbs, he had the most all-purpose yards in the game with 132, with 22 rushing, 74 receiving and 36 on kick returns. He edged Robinson with 130 (57 rushing, 73 receiving).

4] Running back Jase McClellan got the credit when he busted the 81-yard touchdown run, but it was senior guard Emil Ekiyor Jr. who really silenced the Texas crowd for a while with the key block. He came off his initial assignment to help create the hole and took out safety Anthony Cook trying to fill it. McClellan led all rushers with 97 yards on six carries.

5] In 2014, right before Blake Sims led the wild last-minute drive to send the game into overtime, when Alabama beat LSU in overtime, an announcement was made at Tiger Stadium asking fans to please not rush the field.

This wasn't quite as bad, but ...