Low Tide

Alabama's Opening Woes could be a Cause for Concern

By Caroline Davenport

Roll Tide? I’m not so sure this time around.

Patrick Green / AP

The Alabama Crimson Tide has been mediocre in my opinion so far this season. In the Tide’s opening game against the Virginia Tech Hokies, ‘Bama scored a non-SEC-like 35 points in total; 21 of those points were carried out by special teams or defensive interceptions for touchdowns. The mighty Alabama special teams unit beat AJ McCarron and the offense to the first touchdown of the season. McCarron only ended up having one touchdown the entire game and, to balance it out, an interception in the second quarter.

“Cut them some slack; it was the first game of the season!”

Alright, Alright, maybe I have high standards because I’m still bitter about the BCS National Championship last year (die hard ND fan right here). But, in all honestly, I expect ‘Bama to be dominating opponents, not scraping by with punt returns and interception returns for touchdowns. Where’s the offense? Where is the AJ McCarron we love? That answer is best answered in the Tide’s next game of the season.

To me, not surprisingly, Alabama beat Texas A&M last week in College Station, 49-42. It was close, but many doubted Alabama, citing that Johnny Football was going to be “too much too handle.” And, frankly, he is a lot to handle, on and off the field.

Alabama had much more to lose if it did not win this game, and Nick Saban was not going to allow a repeat of last year’s debacle. I believe Johnny Manziel played a very good game; five touchdowns, and two interceptions, including a late in the fourth-quarter touchdown against a well-crafted Saban defense.

That is impressive, and this performance keeps him on Heisman watch, but my complaint with the Tide this time is where was your defense? These are two extremely capable offenses, but who predicted the game to be high scoring and this close? The Crimson Tide had a total of 568 yards during the game, coming up short to A&M’s 628 yards. Most of the experts did keep this game close, but not many people expected both teams to score nearly 50 points on each other.

No one expects much from A&M’s defense because they have an offensive star, but at Alabama, they’re all stars—and maybe Johnny Football outshined the defense this week.

With the first week being a defensive field day, and the second week being an offensive free-for-all, I think Alabama needs to think about one word: consistency. Luckily, ‘Bama is playing a struggling Mountain West team in Colorado State this week, and even though a lot of people feel Alabama proved itself last week by beating a tough Texas A&M team, I don’t think ‘Bama proved itself quite yet.

If Alabama can have a high scoring game against the Rams and hold them to under ten points, I will be convinced. But, as of right now, I’m not rolling with the Tide.