Alabama Shows Help Comes From Everywhere in Kentucky Win

For those of you waiting for Greg McElroy to finally show his first year jitters, yesterday may be as close as you come. His 15 of 28 performance, and 53 percent competition ratio proved even superman can have an off day in this 38-20 win.

For the first game ever, even the deep ball, which has been McElroy's main weapon, seemed to sputter. Of course there were no picks in his final column, and the day could have been worse, but what this game proved is that Alabama is a complete team.

With the passing game sputtering, the rest of the team simply stood up and made this another typical "No contest" game by simply stepping up their game.

On offense, why worry about the passing game when your main running back runs for 140 yards and a 6.4 yard a carry average?

Why worry when the defense keeps Kentucky confused on offense, and even chips in seven points of their own with a fumble return, and handed the ball back to Bama with three picks of the Wildcat's quarterback?

Even the punter stepped up in a fake field goal by running 17 yards for a first down. It seemed everybody was chipping when when Greg finally put up normal stats.

To most analysts, this game did more to solidify their belief that Alabama is a complete team, wrather than another McElroy 300 yard plus throwing game would have done. It showed that help can come for everywhere when needed.

After watching McElroy burn other teams all year with the deep pass, Rich Brooks made it a point that this would not happen to his team. Both deep route receivers were constantly double teamed. 

"Kentucky did a great job of taking away the deep pass today," said Saban after the game. "So Greg just did a great job of taking what they'd give us."

And doubling up the deep men meant better running lanes for Ingram, and he exploited them with his best day so far in his young career.

Alabama entered the game as a 17 point favorite and won it by 18. They could have had more, but Nick Saban chose to keep the ball and run clock rather than continue to go for the throat.

For Kentucky, a second straight game against one of the nation's leading defenses leave them beaten, but now bowed. They came to play.

"We just played the top two defenses in the country," Brooks said in his post game conference. "Alabama's defense is just as good as Florida's. They're a great football team. I expect to see them in the SEC championship game."

Saban said in his post game comments, "This was by far the most physical, toughest game we have had to this point." Rolando McClain chipped in, "We just played a real good team. They gave us their best punch. We took it and we countered it."

Indeed, Kentucky moved the ball well at times, and the 301 yards of offense is the most Alabama has given up all season. Had it not been for the four turnovers, it might have been a more interesting game.

In the end, it was a game where the Tide continued to win as expected, in ways that may not have been expected. It left Kentucky head coach Rich Brooks saying that after playing both Florida and Alabama in consecutive weeks, that Alabama may have the better defense.

But for the Alabama players and coaches, it left more room for improvement. The "we could have done better" mantra was mentioned by most players after the game, and that may be just what the fans like to hear.

"This is a team that isn't satisfied in just winning," Rolando McClain told me recently. "This is a team that wants to dominate the whole game, from kick off to the end whistle. That's what we're shooting for."

With that as their goal, it's hard to imagine this team letting up as the tough part of their schedule approaches, and that could mean bad news for future opponents.