Despite Early Struggles, Alabama Should Feel Good About Win over Arkansas

Alabama struggled to pull away from Arkansas in a 27-14 win Saturday, but despite a sloppy showing against the Razorbacks, the Crimson Tide should feel good about the result.

The Crimson Tide trailed 7-3 until late in the third quarter, but from there they scored 24 straight points against a team that, despite its losing record, took Texas A&M to the brink, beat Tennessee in Knoxville and entered the week ranked No. 17 in Football Outsiders' S&P+ ratings.

Few teams can flip the light switch as easily as Nick Saban's, which turned a small deficit into a small lead and then a small lead into a comfortable lead in the span of seven minutes of game time.

"Very, very proud the way our players responded to the challenge," Saban said after the game, per Josh Gauntt of the local Fox affiliate. "They played a really good game in the second half."

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The biggest thing Alabama should feel good about is its defense.

(Stop me if you've heard that one before…)

This unit is a throwback to some of the best of the Saban era: an angry Crimson swarm that makes good offenses look average, average offenses look bad and bad offenses look like they're playing hopscotch.

On Saturday, it held Arkansas, which entered with the No. 4 offense in the country, per the S&P+ ratings, to 146 yards and seven points until a garbage-time touchdown. The Crimson Tide defensive line is the best in the country (and not by a small margin), and linebacker Reggie Ragland, an All-American front-runner, finds new ways to outdo himself each week.

Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News gave this fitting recap:

The Crimson Tide should feel less enthused about their offense, which mustered just a field goal in the first 43 minutes, but it made the plays it needed to late.

True freshman Calvin Ridley, a 5-star recruit and the No. 1 wide receiver on 247Sports' composite rankings, toasted Arkansas with a nasty double move to take the lead on an 81-yard touchdown in the third quarter, and Alabama never looked back from there:

Senior quarterback Jake Coker, who struggled early with a pair of interceptions, reverted to the form he showed against Ole Miss and Georgia, completing 24 of 33 passes for 262 yards and two touchdowns.

He also continued to make plays with his legs, which adds a Blake Sims-esque element to what this offense can do.

It shouldn't have taken 43 minutes to score more than three points, either. Adam Griffith missed two first-half field goals, one from 25 yards out, and red-zone struggles crippled an otherwise fast start.

But all of those things can be fixed, and the red-zone struggles likely will be. Kicking has long hamstrung the Crimson Tide—if anything from Saturday should trouble them, it's that—but Griffith responded with a second-half field goal and is still just a modest red flag.

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Ole Miss holds the SEC West tiebreaker after beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa, but the Crimson Tide likely control their own fate. Even if both teams win out, which would block Alabama from the SEC Championship Game, the Tide would be 11-1 with a loss against, presumably, one of the highest-ranked teams in college football.

This team is far from perfect, but in a year when the supposed top four includes Ohio State, TCU and Michigan State—each of which has won by the skin of its nose against unranked teams either this week or last week—multiple imperfect teams will make the playoff.

Alabama has a strong chance to be one of them.