Boom or Bust: The Alabama Offensive Experience

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The past four weeks of SEC play, the Alabama Crimson Tide offense has consistently played one good half of offensive football per game.

In some cases, like the wins over Texas A&M and Ole Miss, the offense exploded for big second halves that left Crimson Tide fans happy and optimistic about the next game.

In others, like the road Mississippi State game and Saturday's 24-21 win over Arkansas, Alabama's offense built a substantial first-half lead and then stalled for lackluster results in the second half.

Against Arkansas, Alabama held a 21-6 lead at halftime and posted scoring drives of 75, 83, and 64. In the second half, Alabama drove 77 yards for a field goal once, and punted four other times, including three 3-and-outs.

"We got three-and-out on offense, have a couple dropped balls, miss a couple throws, and not executing, not hitting on al cylinders let the other team back in the game," Alabama head coach Nick Saban said after the win. "We've just got to teach and learn from all these things, and hopefully, realize what it takes not only in the game, but in the week of preparation leading up to the game."

Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe looked excellent in the first half, completing 7-of-10 passes for 215 yards and scoring three total touchdowns. The script flipped on its head in the second half, with the redshirt sophomore only completing three of his 11 attempts for a measly 28 yards during the final two quarters of football.

"Poor execution, that was all on me," Milroe said. "I take full ownership of all the incompletions. I've got to do a better job on my end of throwing the football."

There's no denying that Milroe has the ability to throw the ball down the field and do it effectively, the issue has been consistently having enough time in the pocket to do so over the course of an entire game.

Milroe averages an impressive 23.8 yards per completion, and ranks in the top-10 in all of college football in yards per completion on the year. He's also near the top of all college football quarterbacks in the number of times he's been sacked, and Arkansas added five more to that total.

"We made some mental errors," Saban said. "A couple times today we got beat physically, you know, a rusher just beat our guy. We have to handle pressure better. We have to be able to handle pressure and stunts better. [...] With experience, I think our guys will learn from every one of these things, and hopefully be able to get it corrected."

For guard Tyler Booker, the leader on the Alabama offensive line, he feels that the path to not only beating teams, but dominating them, is a simple one.

"We just have to be consistent, regardless of what the calls are," Booker said. "We trust Coach [Tommy] Rees, and we just have to protect, trust the wide receivers, trust the running back, trust the quarterback. We've just got to execute, that's what it comes down to.

"We just need to execute a lot better earlier on in the week, and that's going to come with experience and time. We didn't have a bad week of practice at all, but, we've just got to be better, or we'll have results like we did today."

Running back Roydell Williams, who carried the ball for 68 yards on just seven carries on the day, believes that Alabama's issues are not only entirely internal, but entirely fixable as well.

"Mental errors, you know, it's all on us, it's not what the other team did," Williams said. "We've got to fix that, going on throughout this week, going on next week, this next game, that's what we've got to work on."

After the game, Saban talked about there being a difference in "winning a game" and "beating a team," and said that Alabama simply won the game on Saturday, rather than beating the opposition. In order for Alabama to start beating teams, it's going to need more consistency from its offense, which at times can erupt for an 80-yard touchdown and at others produce multiple 3-and-outs in a row.

Can Alabama become a team that, in Saban's words, beats other teams? Booker believes so, and said so without hesitation.

"We've shown it in drives, in quarters, but what we have to do is do it for 60 minutes," Booker said. "We are definitely capable of dominating teams, we just have to do it for 60 minutes."