The 'Discouraging' Part of Alabama's Offense That Needs to be Executed Better against Missouri

The Crimson Tide racked up nearly 500 yards of offense against Vanderbilt, but had to settle for four field goal attempts.

Oct 4, 2025; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide kicker Conor Talty (31) kicks the ball during the second quarter against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. | David Leong-Imagn Images

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— The kicking game has not been Alabama's strong suit this season. Redshirt sophomore kicker Conor Talty is 7 for 10 on field goal attempts this season but is just 2-of-5 on kicks from 40 yards or more, including a 47-yard miss in the 30-14 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday.

Talty bounced back to make his next three attempts in the game (38, 30 and 30), but having to attempt four field goals in a game isn't the type of offense Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb wants to be playing with anyway. How can Alabama combat a limited field goal range?

"Score more touchdowns, yeah, for sure," Grubb said during his Monday press conference. 'It was disappointing to be honest. I thought our red zone execution was poor, something we got to work at a lot. We can’t put ourselves in those positions to count on another part of the football team to take care of our business. So for us, we still got to follow the script and understand we can’t press in those moments, but certainly our opportunity's there. We had done a really nice job the previous two weeks down in the red zone, and so to see ourselves take a step back like that was discouraging. So we’re gonna put a lot of effort into that and execute a lot better down there this week."

In Alabama's opening drive of the game, the Crimson Tide marched down the field before quarterback Ty Simpson threw his first interception of the year, getting picked off at the Vanderbilt 7. On the Tide's next possession, the offense moved the ball relatively easily down the field again, but stalled out at the 28-yard line, setting up Talty's 47-yard attempt.

If you look at the official stats from the game, Alabama technically finished 5 for 5 in the red zone, but three of those five official trips resulted in field goals, plus the opening drive of the game that ended in an interception. Starting with a little over 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Alabama went on a 16-play drive that milked over eight minutes off the clock to put the game away. The drive finished with Talty's third and final, which did put Alabama up by two scores at 23-14, but against a playmaker like Diego Pavia on the other sideline, a 13-point lead would have been more comfortable.

"To me, it's just execution as a whole," Alabama head coack Kalen DeBoer said on his team's red zone struggles. "It's understanding the situation that you're in. What's gonna hurt us is gonna be negative plays. Being behind the chains is emphasized even more as you move closer to the red zone. It's gonna hurt you out in the middle of the field when you're behind the chains, but as that space continues to shrink, the defense is gonna throw some more things at you because they're a little more desperate too and have their way of going about things. You've got to execute, you've got to adjust as you move the ball into that area. We got caught behind the chains. We ended up with some plays that weren't executed and didn't get the yards we needed to put ourselves in good, favorable downs and distances."

The good news for Alabama is it will be facing a Missouri defense this weekend that has allowed opponents to convert 90 percent of red zone trips into points, but only 50 percent of the red zone trips resulted in touchdowns. Missed field goals at any time, but especially on the road, can be a big momentum swing for the opposing crowd, so better red zone execution will be important for the Crimson Tide this week as No. 8 Alabama travels to No. 14 Missouri.