Greg McElroy's Quarterback Play Adds Versatility to Alabama's Offense

Alabama fans shuddered at the thought of coming into the season without starters Julio Jones and Mark Ingram. The threat of losing them was due to a eligibility issue that as it turned out, was much ado about nothing.

Still, Tide fans believed that without Jones and with no proven receiving threats on the remainder of the roster, that the Alabama passing game would indeed struggle.

Of course, without a successful passing game teams would be able to stack the line against Alabama's running game in an attempt to stuff a one-dimensional offense.

That of course would be much easier to do without Ingram, the Crimson Tide's starter headed into the season.

Of course those fears never came to fruition as the NCAA cleared both players, reinstating their eligibility in the process.

In the Tide's opener the importance of Ingram and Jones was crystal clear. Ingram rushed for 150 yards and Jones attracted double coverage the entire game.

The attention directed towards Jones freed the remainder of Tide receivers to operate in man coverage.

Once rookie starter Greg McElroy settled down enough to view the entire field a funny thing happened. Crimson Tide receivers who struggled to produce the entire 2008 season suddenly became productive assets in the Tide's passing game.

Alabama headed into game two with no such worries regarding missing players. With the Tide facing Sun Belt Conference foe Florida International, most expected Bama to be able to rest their starters early. That would of course allow the Tide to develop always needed depth for later on in the season.

The Tide got what it wanted, just not the way it wanted to see it happen.

With Ingram not starting due to his bout with the flu, he was replaced by first time starter senior Roy Upchurch. Upchurch, however, sprained his ankle in the first quarter while all-SEC wideout Julio Jones suffered a sprained knee around the same time.

That left the Tide trailing by a point in the second quarter while the players most pre-season pundits considered the spark plugs of their offense were recovering on the bench.

With Upchurch out for the remainder of the game and Ingram coming off the flu, the Alabama coaching staff opted to go with true freshman phenom Trent Richardson.

The freakishly strong Richardson responded by rushing for 118 yards on just 15 carries with two touchdowns.

The Alabama passing game likewise never missed a beat with junior Mike McCoy stepping into Jones' shoes and hauling in five receptions for 100 yards and a touchdown.

In total, McElroy found nine different receivers in throwing for a very efficient 18-of-24 for 241 yards.

Suggest to most prognosticators in the pre-season that Julio Jones would only have five receptions for 55 yards after the Tide's first two games, and most would tell you that the Tide's passing game would be in disarray.

Instead McElroy has crafted a very efficient passing attack while making use of nearly every receiver to see significant playing time. Last year, Jones and former tightend Nick Walker accounted for close to 60 percent of the Tide's passing game.

So far in 2009, four receivers having accounted for more receiving yardage than Jones with none of them being tight ends.

Through two games, Alabama has averaged 271 yards a game on the ground with 236 yards a game through the air.

You can be guaranteed that future opponents have taken note. No longer can they double-team Jones and expect to shut down Alabama's passing game, and as a result, force the Tide to become a one-dimensional offense.

Opponents are likely to resort to stacking the line of scrimmage in an attempt to stop the Tide's running game, while challenging the Alabama passing game to beat them.

The Tide would have to really like its chances of making that happen these days.