Alabama Football: Grading the Tide's Performance After Thumping Florida

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer) Though Florida entered the game as one of the country's top teams, they found they weren't yet in Alabama's league.

Las Vegas had the line at about four points at kickoff, but Alabama all but yanked down their pants and spanked them in front of their own home-field fans by beating them by 28 points.

So does this mean that Alabama has nothing to worry about?

Not if you listen to the postgame press conference from Nick Saban, who said after praising his players for a great team win that, "Obviously, there's lots of things we can do better..."

My grading will reflect those things that need to get better.

Offensive Line—A

They gave up no sacks, they did what they were supposed to do and they usually had their way with the Florida defensive front for most of the evening.

Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron was never rushed and rarely touched throughout the evening. That is one good thing they did.

They opened holes and finished blocks for the Alabama rushers and seemed to be in control of the line of scrimmage from the opening drive to the last one.

If this was not an A performance, you may need a greater comprehension of what a line is supposed to do.

Receivers—A-

The minus was earned for the unit by Kenny Bell who dropped a very makeable catch in the end zone that would have tied the score early on for Alabama.

Other than that gaff, the receivers earned the grade with good catches including a clutch 18-yard third down catch by Marquis Maze that helped the Tide keep the Tide's scoring drive alive as they did go on to score and tie the game at 10 apiece.

Like last week and many weeks before, they also blocked down field very well and also at the line of scrimmage when needed.

Running Backs—A+

They really left nothing on the table or anything critical left undone.

Richardson ran for 181 total yards and chipped in another 27 in receiving yards for a total of 208 yards of total offense alone. Florida's whole team combined only got 222 total rushing and passing yards as a team.

That statistic alone should speak volumes.

Eddie Lacy, little used because of a nagging injury, accounted for 32 yards on just five carries including a to the house 20-yard run.

Each of the two premier backs averaged well over six yards a carry over a very good Florida defense.

The fact that they could prove to Florida that they could run it down their throat and there was nothing they could do about it, simply drained the Gators' ability to believe they could mount a comeback.

Quarterback—A

McCarron's numbers may belie the grade he was given. Twelve for 25 and just 5.6 yards a completion for only 140 yards total may not appear to be a body of work that deserves an A.

But to deny him that grade is to show your ignorance of what he was asked to do.

When a quarterback does exactly what his coach asks him to do, he deserves an A.

When your quarterback displays a lack of concern over a quick score and an early lead by the opponent and exudes a sense of confidence so strong that it simply overtakes his teammates and settles them down as well, he deserves an A.

When you make the clutch throws when you need to and keep the chains moving, you deserve an A.

But as I've said before, if you accomplish what your head coach has assigned you to do, you get an A.

Defensive Line—A+

When you take two of the hottest running backs in the SEC and hold them to a miserable four yards apiece you have earned an A+.

When you continuously hurry and affect a quarterback and keep him from doing his best work and help pile up three sacks for your team, you've earned an A+.

If anyone wants the definition of an A+ game from a defensive line, he only needs to watch this replay.

Linebackers—A+

When you dominate a game, harass and then knock out a quarterback with a perfectly legal hit, you've earned an A+.

When you dominate the short passing game and don't allow passes to the backs out of the backfield or allow screen passes to work, then you've earned an A+.

Dont'a Hightower and Courtney Upshaw have proven that they may very well be two of the best linebackers in the entire realm of college football.

Defensive Backs—B

Dre Kirkpatrick has proven that he can be beaten and he was on Saturday. He's shown that he still has much ground to cover to being that total "lock down" cornerback that he wants to be.

Barron and Lester were both caught looking and were out of position a few times against Florida as well.

The defensive backs allowed too many third and longs to be completed and were what Saban was talking about when he alluded to so much work having to be done.

Special Teams—C

I get tired of writing every week how Cade Foster is not living up to his hype and hope.

This was a guy who was going to boom kicks out the end zone and force teams to have to go 80 yards on every drive.

That just hasn't worked.

Combine that with the fact that their kickoff team does a poor job and no matter how good the other parts are, you deserve no higher than a C.

Florida's first drive started on the 40 following a kickoff out of bounds, the second, from the 41. Is there any doubt as to why these were the two drives that they scored on?

The kickoff team gave up 160 yards on six returns for an average of 26.7 yards a return. This is just downright awful.

The punter did an average but unspectacular job of punting and Jeremy Shelley made his only attempt, a simple 32-yard kick.

What worked worked OK, but what sucked, really sucked.

Coaching—A

Nick Saban and his staff had a great read before the game of what would work and what may not and scripted a game that built on those tendencies. They had a perfect gameplan.

They made great adjustments after Florida's quick two scores and then shut them down for the rest of the night.

Overall Team Score—A-

I asked the following question last week: If you can accept the fact that the team deserved their grade of B after beating the No. 14 team in the country by 24 points, could you imagine what they are capable of?

This week they beat the country's No. 12 team by 28 points with an A- game.

If they can play a true A game, is there any team that can stop them?

That remains to be seen.