What We Learned from Alabama's 50-36 Win over Florida State: Tide Takeaways

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alabama got punched in the mouth by Florida State for the second year in a row, but this time, the Crimson Tide had an answer.

After waiting out two different weather delays (one pregame and one in the second quarter), the Tide bounced back with a 50-36 win over the Seminoles.

It was the worst game of the year for the Alabama defense, but the best game for Keelon Russell in his young career. Here are five of my biggest takeaways from the Crimson Tide's win for the latest postgame edition of Tide Takeaways.

Slow starts will come back to bite Alabama

Falling behind early on the road at Kentucky (even though that win is a looking a little better after the Wildcats win at No. 9 Texas A&M) or at home against a flailing Florida State team, are not insurmountable for this Alabama team. It proved that over the last two weeks.

But what happens when it's a night game in Death Valley against LSU? Or a top-10 home matchup with Georgia? Or even a Week 5 matchup with cowbells clanging against Mississippi State that keeps looking bigger and bigger? It likely won't be as easy in those matchups to overcome early blunders.

As head coach Kalen DeBoer pointed out in his press conference, the slow starts happened in two different fashions. At Kentucky, Alabama turned the ball over and put the defense in poor positions. On Saturday against the Seminoles, the offense couldn't get going, and Florida State was shredding the Alabama defense.

"We obviously gotta start faster," DeBoer said. "Two games in a row now where we find ourselves behind. Probably different scenarios on how that happened, but nonetheless we've got to do a better job of coming out the gates."

It starts with the literal first play of the game. In each of Alabama's first two games against East Carolina and Kentucky, the offense opened with a negative play. On Saturday, Alabama's first play from scrimmage was a four-yard run from Daniel Hill, but a false start from Jayvin James immediately put the Tide back behind the chains for second down.

Playing from behind is not sustainable in a nine-game SEC schedule. Alabama's schedule only gets more difficult as the season goes along. The Tide has probably already played three of the four worst teams it will face depending on how things shake out with South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

Next week's home game with South Carolina will be an opportunity to shake off it's early-game struggles and show what it can do moving forward as the compeition ramps up.

Third-down defense dissipates

Alabama Defensive Back Bray Hubbard prepares for a play in the first half of the game against FSU on Sept 19, 2026. | Sarah Munzenmaier/Alabama Crimson Tide on SI

Last week, I praised the Alabama defense for their efforts on third down against Kentucky, but their performance against the Seminoles is a big reason why Florida State was still in the game late in the fourth quarter.

Opposing offense were 1-for-14 on third downs coming into Saturday's game, but the Seminoles converted eight of their 15 third-down attempts for a 53 percent success rate.

"We've just got to clean up some little things," Alabama edge Yhonzae Pierre said after the game. "Everybody's got to continue to do their job. That's stuff we've got to go back and work on for this week."

After Alabama had scored three touchdowns in a less than three-minute span of game time to take the lead at the end of the third quarter, it looked like the Tide was about to run away with the game. The Seminoles were facing a third-and-14 from their own 33, but they converted after a broken tackle led to a 65-yard gain on a screen. Florida State scored a few plays later to re-take the lead.

Three of Florida State's five touchdowns came on third downs. Letting the opponent continually extend drives will not be a recipe for success moving forward.

Tide run game showed ability to wear down defenses in fourth quarter

Alabama Running Back Daniel Hill runs the ball in the first half against FSU on Sept 19, 2026. | Sarah Munzenmaier/Alabama Crimson Tide on SI

It sort of felt like we stepped into a time machine watching the way the Alabama ground game wore down Florida State in the fourth quarter. The Tide got the ball back with 7:17 to go in the fourth quarter after the Noles just scored to cut the lead back down to seven points.

Alabama went on a nine-play, 90-yard drive that milked five minutes off the clock capped by a 20-yard touchdown run from Trae'shawn Brown. On the drive, the Tide ran the ball eight of the nine plays with gains of 18, 10, 13 and 20 yards. DeBoer called the drive "huge" as Alabama went back up by two scores.

"And when you get that momentum going, and then when you can trust Keelon to make a decision, and you got the defense flowing hard, knowing that you wanna run the football, and you can just throw one play action in there, and it’s a run-pass option, and he makes a decision like that, those are great moments for him to learn from," DeBoer said. "And we’ll have to apply those again down the road. But it just keeps the defense on their heels. And credit our guys: I thought they were very clean, flying off the football. The running backs, seeing the holes, making guys miss, running over secondary players, third-level players like they had to, especially against the structure of the defense we were seeing. We’ve improved a lot in that way.”

Alabama's run game got off to a rough start, but the consistency of the backs in Hill, Brown and EJ Crowell throughout the game led to a successful fourth quarter. Alabama finished with 247 yards on the ground.

Timely turnovers help right the ship

Ivan Taylor Red Morgan Zabien Brown — Alabama Defensive Backs Ivan Taylor and Red Morgan and Corner Back Zabien Brown celebrate the interception in the first half of the game against FSU on Sept 19, 2026. | Sarah Munzenmaier/Alabama Crimson Tide on SI

Alabama won the turnover battle 3-0 in this game, and when a lot went wrong, that was something that got things going right. After consecutive three-and-outs from the offensive to start the game, Red Morgan hauled in his first career interception on Florida State's second drive to get the ball back to the Alabama offense in great field position.

Ivan Taylor also snagged his first interception in college with 1:37 to go in the first half, which set up Ryan Coleman-Williams 46-yard touchdown two plays later. Bray Hubbard intercepted Ashton Daniels with 1:10 to go to seal the victory.

"That's a big thing in our defense, takeaways," Morgan said.

After a couple bad mistakes and three turnovers at Kentucky, the offense did a good job of holding on to the ball against the Seminoles.

Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack consistently preaches turnovers for his Swarm D, and for the second game in a row, it came up with three turnovers.

Alabama needs to get the ball in Ryan Coleman-Williams' hands more

Keelon Russell to Ryan Coleman-Williams — Alabama Quarterback Keelon Russell passes the ball to Wide Receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams in the first half of the game against FSU on Sept 19, 2026. | Sarah Munzenmaier/Alabama Crimson Tide on SI

Prior to the lightning delay in the second quarter, Coleman-Williams only had one target in the game. On that one target, he helped convert a key fourth down on Alabama's first touchdown drive.

The junior receiver and team captain found the end zone for the first time this season on a perfectly executed play from 46 yards out that displayed Coleman-Williams' speed and playmaking ability.

Not stoppin' 1️⃣😮‍💨@Ryanwms1

📺: ABC pic.twitter.com/v8zhTG6fV5
— Alabama Football (@AlabamaFTBL) September 19, 2026

Coleman-Williams finished with three catches for 62 yards and is up to 235 yards on the season. The good news for the Tide is that the offense is starting to open up with different targets. It doesn't all have to be on Coleman-Williams' shoulders, but good things happen when the ball is in his hands.

"Ryan gets a lot of attention," DeBoer said. "And now when Lotzeir’s doing his thing — I like that we were hitting our tight ends a little bit. We hit Kaleb, in particular, down the middle of the field. So I love that we’re spreading the wealth to different guys. And it just makes it tougher to defend."

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok for the latest Alabama news.

Add us as a preferred source on Google