Alabama Football: What You Should and Shouldn't Be Concerned About After 4 Games

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama's football team enters its bye week very much on a high note, fresh off a 42-21 win over Florida that wasn’t as close as the scoreboard would indicate.

There is very much a sense that the AP Top 25 Poll's third-ranked team could do something special this year, even with so much uncertainty heading into the season.

After four games—two against respectable, power-five teams and two against lower-level FBS schools—we’re starting to get a sense of what the identity of this team could be.

Here is what you should and shouldn’t be concerned about going into the bye week and the meat of Alabama’s SEC schedule.

Should: Interior Offensive Line Play

The biggest difference between this offense and Alabama offenses of old isn’t the big-play capability on the perimeter but a lack of a power run game.

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That was one of Alabama’s biggest assets in its 2012 championship year. It boasted a historic offensive line that could bully teams in the run game into submission.

It regressed in 2013 and doesn’t look like it’s gotten much better this season.

Pro Football Focus graded the Alabama-Florida game as part of its college game of the week, and both center Ryan Kelly and right guard Leon Brown received negative grades in run-blocking and overall.

Left guard Arie Kouandjio has been better than expected and still received a run-blocking grade just above average (0.1).

As the game went on, Alabama had more and more success running the ball, but most of those runs were outside the tackles.

There will come a time when the Crimson Tide will need to run north-south consistently to take control of a close game, and so far it’s unclear whether they’ll be able to do that against a good opponent.

Shouldn’t: Quarterback Play

Put simply: Blake Sims has exceeded expectations, and then some.

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He threw for the second-most yards in Alabama history on Saturday in his first SEC game, and even more impressively he’s commanded the offense with confidence and not gone “rat-trap”—essentially, giving up on plays too early—like Saban has criticized him for before.

Sims was expected to take a backseat to Florida State transfer Jake Coker but has emerged as one of Alabama’s best players on offense.

He dispelled all criticism that he couldn’t throw the ball downfield on Saturday, consistently hitting medium-range throws over the middle and nailing the long ball several times.

Should: Secondary

On paper, Alabama’s secondary played well against Florida. In reality, the Gators offense is not very good, and the Crimson Tide benefited from that.

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Cornerback play has actually improved since the season opener. Freshman cornerback Tony Brown had a positive grade in his first start and looks like he’s here to stay in that role. Eddie Jackson is struggling to stay healthy, but Cyrus Jones has started every game and also had a positive grade in the game.

Alabama’s biggest problem is at safety, especially in Nickel and Dime situations.

Landon Collins is probably the best safety in the game, but there isn’t much help around him. Nick Perry and Jabriel Washington have been nothing to write home about. Geno Smith and Maurice Smith are talented but still learning. Smith had one of the worst grades for Alabama on defense.

The good news is that Jarrick Williams should be healthy by the time the Crimson Tide play Ole Miss next week. That should help Alabama’s safety issues to some extent, especially at "Star," the fifth defensive back in nickel sets.

PFF graded Florida’s passing offense at a putrid minus-8.7. The Rebels can stretch the field in the passing game and will be the secondary’s next big test this season.

Shouldn’t: Play-Calling

From the first play, new offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin called a brilliant game against Florida that had been building up since Week 1.

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He exploited mismatches all over the field and got the ball into the hands of Alabama’s playmakers. When the aforementioned inside run game was struggling, he stayed in the air and came back to it in the fourth quarter when the defense was gassed.

It was a much more wide-open attack than we’re accustomed to seeing, but it’s actually a lot closer to what coach Nick Saban wants out of his offense.

“I love this, the way we play. I always want to play this way,” Saban said on Monday before a meeting with the Birmingham Monday Morning Quarterback Club. “I want to take what the defense gives. One of the things that we really like, and I like to do philosophically, we do now, and we talk about this a lot, is try to eliminate the other team having the opportunity to give you a negative play because you don’t have enough flexibility to either spit the ball out to a receiver or change the play and go in the other direction.

“And I think that’s the one thing that we’ve done a really good job of so far offensively. I think Lane does a great job in planning that way, and the players have executed pretty well,” he said.

Kiffin is showing why he is regarded as one of the best offensive minds in the game.

Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Follow on Twitter @marctorrence.