TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It looks so pretty and on point and everything you want to see if you’re dreaming about another season of "we’re Alabama and you’re not."
Only there’s one little problem: they’re not Alabama. Not this Tide team — not now, anyway.
“In some ways,” said Alabama offensive tackle Austin Shepherd, “we’re a work in progress.”
Don’t let that simple statement fool you. Don’t let this blowout, this part symphony, part slapstick rout of Florida hide what clearly will become significant issues when the SEC West Division comes calling.
Alabama can’t run the ball with power like it used to, and can’t protect the quarterback. Alabama can’t cover in the secondary like it once did, and can’t get pressure on the quarterback.
In other words, the very things that built this SEC heavyweight; that made nearly every single Alabama game since 2009 the inevitable, now make Alabama look very beatable.
“There will come a time,” said Tide coach Nick Saban, “when we won’t be able to overcome a lot of these things.”
That time may come in two weeks when Alabama returns from a bye week to play at Top 10 Ole Miss. Or it may come against any — that’s right, any — of the six games in the gauntlet that has become the West Division.
Don’t let that second half of wearing down a tired Florida defense, and four quarters of playing a Gators team that is limited offensively, make you think it’s all gingham and grins here. Don’t let Blake Sims’ record day or Derrick Henry’s highlight reel runs cloud reality.
The Tide has issues. Real, game-changing issues.
Real, easy to see, Saban-might-lose-his-mind issues. Sort of like he did when Sims, who has quickly become more than just a game-manager at quarterback, carelessly handled the ball on a scramble and fumbled — one of three Tide turnovers that led to Florida touchdowns.
Without those turnovers, Florida may not have crossed midfield. With those turnovers, the Gators tied the game at 21 midway through the third quarter, and somehow — despite being severely limited at the most important position on the field — weren’t out of a game they had no business being in.
“He got that look on his face,” Sims said of the Saban stare, the one that looks like he just swallowed a bag of knives. “I know he’s just trying to coach me.”
They’ll be plenty of that going on in the next two weeks, when Alabama gets ready for a five-game stretch — at Ole Miss, at Arkansas, Texas A&M, at Tennessee, at LSU — where just about anything can happen if this out of character work in progress continues to supersede Saban’s vaunted process.
The Tide had 11 penalties — some major, some fundamental procedure calls — that killed momentum. Not to mention a beautifully thrown deep ball by Sims to wideout Amari Cooper (10 catches, 3 TDs), who could have had 300 yards receiving the way Florida’s secondary was blowing assignments.
“That’s stuff we have to fix,” Saban said.
There was a busted coverage on Florida’s first touchdown pass from Jeff Driskel — which, if you saw Driskel play for four quarters, you’d wonder how he completed a pass — and a busted assignment on Driskel’s quarterback draw the accounted for the Gators’ other offensive touchdown.
There were receivers going out of bounds and coming back in and trying to make catches, and there were blown coverages in the secondary.
“That’s stuff we have to fix, too,” Saban said.
Starting to see a trend here?
Look, these aren’t desperate times here; the Tide still have enough elite skill players to win every game. But the offensive line couldn’t get a push for almost three quarters, and the defensive line didn’t get a sack and didn’t really pressure Driskel (which makes Driskel’s 9-of-28 night even more confounding).
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from Saban over the years here, it’s the line of scrimmage is this team’s lifeblood. The Tide win games, dominate games, because they’re stronger and more athletic at the point of attack.
And right now, they’re not.
When Florida tied the game at 21, Saban gathered his offensive line and told them, “this is where the game turns.” Until that drive, Alabama had barely dented Florida’s run defense.
The Tide ran 16 plays over the next six-plus minutes, and 10 were runs — including Henry’s 3-yard touchdown run for a one score lead that may as well have been five.
“We looked at each other at halftime and said, that’s not Alabama; that’s not who we are,” said Tide center Ryan Kelly. “That has to change moving forward.”
If it doesn’t, they’re not getting away with blown coverages against Kenny Hill and Texas A&M. They’re not getting away with not controlling the line of scrimmage against physical, grinding Auburn, LSU and Mississippi State.
And they’re not going to play a secondary every week that — and I’m not making this up — looked like it had no idea where it was for a majority of the game. Blake Sims isn’t going to set a career record for passing yards after two quarters every week.
“When your receivers are that wide open,” Sims said. “Any quarterback can make those throws.”
That’s not what pretty looks like all these years under Saban, where the other team’s mistakes are more damning than your own. Then again, this isn’t the same Alabama.
At least not yet.