TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It never existed for University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban.
The imaginary “it” is the media-generated buzz the Crimson Tide were on a three-game shutout streak. Imaginary or not, it ended Saturday in Bryant Denny Stadium when the Florida Atlantic University Owls scored seven points in the fourth quarter.
“We never talked about it about,” Saban said after the game. “We were just trying to get the players to play the best we can.”
Although Alabama allowed seven points, Saban probably won’t hold it against his team because the score came near the end of a 40-7 victory. The score also came when Alabama was deep in the depth chart with its third-string defense.
Coming off a 52-0 victory against Southeastern Conference Western Division foe University of Arkansas, Alabama did what it was expected to do: make plays and put up points. The first points came quickly, as quarterback AJ McCarron hit wide receiver Kenny Bell, who turned it into an 85-yard touchdown. The score capped a three-play “drive” that ate up 1 minute, 42 seconds in first quarter. McCarron added a 4-yard touchdown pass to Deandrew White later in the quarter to make it 14-0.
McCarron (15 of 25, no interceptions) had his third and final touchdown late in the second quarter. Florida Atlantic prevented McCarron from getting more by shutting him down three times in the second quarter. The stops led to a 55-yard field goal by Cade Foster and two in the red zone by Jeremy Shelley and gave Alabama a 30-0 halftime lead.
“We didn’t finish some drives, we turned the ball over a couple of times, we didn’t get any turnovers on defense, but, all in all, I thought we blocked pretty well up front and made some plays in the passing game,” Saban said. “There are some things we need to get cleaned up. When they blitz, we have got to throw the ball hot. We don’t throw it hot, we get sacked twice. Things like that we need to get better, and when we play against better teams, I think the consequences will be greater. I thought their guys really played hard and competed well in the game and played with a lot of toughness. I was much more pleased with the way we competed in the game today. Just the way we approached the game, the way we competed in the game, and we got to play a lot of players today. I think those things are going to benefit us down the road.”
Foster tacked on a 46-yard field goal in the third quarter. Kenyan Drake had an 8-yard run in the fourth quarter to account for Alabama’s scoring.
With two minutes left in the game, FAU quarterback Graham Wilbert hit Alex Deleon with a 6-yard touchdown pass that ended Alabama’s two-game shutout streak.
“We certainly stalled out today,” Saban said. “How many times did we kick field goals today? Was it four? In those kind of situations, we are happy to get the points, and we are pleased the field goal kickers are delivering for us, but, at the same time, we would like to finish some of those drives with a little better execution. I think up until today we had good red-zone execution, but today, when we got the ball inside the 35, we didn’t always take advantage of that, and that is something that we need to continue to work on.”
Alabama capitalized on the big lead and played two backup quarterbacks and used a wide variety of receivers such as Bell, White, Cyrus Jones, Christon Jones and tight end Michael Williams. Eddie Lacy was the team’s leading rusher with 15 carries for 107 yards.
With Jalston Fowler out for possibly the rest of the season, Saban said he is trying use more backs in preparation for Alabama’s game next week against the University of Mississippi at Bryant Denny Stadium.
“I don’t think there is any question, especially since we lost (Jalston Fowler),” Saban said. “None of those guys have a significant amount of experience or any experience at all, other than what they have gotten this year. For all those guys to have an opportunity to play, and play when the game is still on the line and have to go out there and execute and do things right and compete. I thought they all ran with authority today and ran hard, and I think that’s going to be important. I think the offensive line did a really good job today, getting a hat on a hat and getting some movement up front. I think we had pretty good balance overall, offensively.”
CJ Mosley lead Alabama (4-0) with six tackles and a sack.
“I was really pleased with our approach,” Saban said. “This game is about getting ready for the conference, and we have got a lot of good conference games coming up, so we need to still focus on improving and doing things that we need to do to make our team better, get more players in a position to play winning football to contribute to that, but all in all I thought the approach was good today.”
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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