Alabama Football: Grading the Vanderbilt Game and Observations

 There was never a doubt that Alabama wouldn't win this game, but there were questions about how they would win it that needed to be answered.

Despite the level of competition they've played, there is no argument that Vanderbilt has one of the best defensive backfields in the country and leads all college teams with 14 interceptions.

Before the game, Saban had made up mind to loosen the reigns on the passing game and let A.J. McCarron have a chance to see what he could do against a stout pass defense.

This was not only to see if it could be done, but if it could, to get McCarron a little more confidence as well as bolster the confidence in the receivers.

It was also a night that he wanted to send a message, stack nine men in the box to stop the running game and here's what can happen to you.

Continue the article and see how all phases of the game played out and were graded.

Offensive Line: A Game That Could Have Gone Better for This Group

While overall they looked good, Richardson and Fowler were both held below averages they've done before against, quite frankly, better opponents.

They allowed two sacks, one a power rush sack on McCarron, and one against Sims, who the television commentators said was due to "happy feet".

Steen was a good example of the night as a whole, some great plays and some bad ones.

Vlachos seemed to have an exceptionally good night, and Jones proved he can play left tackle, even though I'd love to see him back at guard and a lot more of Kouandjio at left tackle.

Overall, their run blocking was good, and their pass blocking seemed better than usual, but the later may be due to the opponent being Vanderbilt than a true blossoming of better protection.

They'll rate out about a B+ overall, however.

Receivers: A Good Overall Night with Some Room for Improvement

DeAndrew White made a highlight reel catch of a touchdown in the back on the end zone, jumping high into the air and then artfully getting the one foot in bounds. But then he whiffed two blocks, completely missing his man, which made tackles that kept players from making first downs.

Ah, you can't have everything, I guess.

Still, it was a good night where receivers were pulling in passes and running crisp routes against the nation's deadliest team for pick offs.

Three men caught touchdown passes; only White had more than one, with two, but in all, eight players pulled in 26 passes and raised the average completion from around seven yards a catch to over 10.

In all, it a good night for the receiving corps, and the team soundly earned an A-

Running Backs: Below Their Averages, but Still Impressive

Trent Richardson came into this game averaging 6.48 yards a carry 124.40 yards a game, and many thought he'd up that average against the Vandy defensive line.

He finished the night averaging 5.6 yards a carry and only 107 yards total. Saban wanted to make sure he cracked the 100-yard mark, then turned to backups to finish the night.

Fowler came into the game averaging 7.44 yards a game and finished his night with just a 4.5 yard per carry average.

However, both running backs improved on their opponent's all bruised up statistics, and they spent the night dishing out fiercer hits than they got.

Given that both backs weren't up to even close their season averages, you can't give them a grade higher than a B.

Quarterback: A Coming out Game for McCarron

Saban had marked this game as one where he would let McCarron test his skills against what is more than arguably one of the tougher defensive backfields in the SEC.

The night didn't start well, as McCarron missed some wide open targets and seemed high on far too many throws. It sort of reminded me of something Bart Starr once told me: It's harder sometimes to hit a guy wide open than one who is covered tight. That seemed to be case for McCarron early on.

Fortunately for the Tide, he doesn't get down on himself for such silly errors and calmed himself back down and started making throws that made the ESPN announcers proclaim that people should stop calling him a game manager and now call him a play maker.

It ended well for McCarron as he broke McElroy's three TD pass in one game record with four of his own, finished the night on a hot streak, raised his game completion average to 76 percent and increased his per catch average from seven to over 10 yards per catch.

Given the slow start, he grades out a B, but if he can throw for close to 80 percent and four TD's on a B night, it makes you wonder what he could do on a A+ night.

Defensive Line: Another Game and Wow Performance

Alabama and this defensive line just stopped another team from getting more than 50 yards total rushing in a game. Vanderbilt finished the night with 41.

Williams hurried the QB and applied pressure all night, Chapman and even his backups were monsters that couldn't be stopped, and no one ran around Billingsley's corner all night.

Alabama has as solid a defensive line as there is in the country, perhaps may be the best. A telling stat may be that Alabama held Florida's best two runners to four yards each, while LSU, who knew that Florida's first and second string QB's were injured from the Alabama game and couldn't throw, and sold out to stop the run, still allowed Florida to rush for over 100 yards against them, in fact 113.

If that doesn't show that Alabama has a serious defensive front, I don't know what other comparison could.

This group finished up with a very solid A+

Linebackers: It Must Have Seemed to Vanderbilt That We Had 14 of Them Playing

Last night, the linebackers were everywhere. They were in the offensive backfield, picking off passes in the secondary, stopping the running game up front with the defensive line and all over the field.

It must have seemed to the Vandy quarterback and running backs that Alabama had 14 linebackers on the field on every play.

Even the substitutes that came in made great contributions. This is as solid a group as there is in all of football also.

This group gets a A+ as well for a game well done top to bottom, starters to subs.

Defensive Backs: Showed More Chinks in Their Armor Last Night

There is no doubt that Dre Kirkpatrick is a great corner back. There is also no doubt that teams know he can be beaten, either. Last night, only an errant pass, thrown inches too far, kept him from being torched on a play that he was simply beaten on, as he was juked by a double move.

Through five games, Alabama has averaged only 151.6 yards per game in passing yards, but last night, they gave up 149 yards to the team that came into the game rated as the 116th team out of 120 in total passing offense.

They just didn't get it.

They did not look like a defensive backfield unit with the ability to win a national championship, and Saban will not be pleased with this performance.

The defensive backs did get one of the two picks last night and saved what could have been a lower overall grade, which came in at a C+.

Playing almost the worst passing offense in college football and only holding them to roughly the same average as every other teams you've played may have deserved a C-. Especially when it could have very easily been much worse if the QB could have hit open receivers that had burned the defensive backs.

Punting and Kicking: A Bad Night All the Way Around

One punt goes for 50 yards. Well, that would be fine if he didn't kick it into the end zone where it came back out to the 20. So really, that was a net 30-yard punt. Still, the records will reflect it as a 50 yard punt and helped raise his average to 39 and change, when in reality, it was low 30's in net yardage.

And all Shelley was asked to do was kick extra points, and he missed one of them. I don't remember my high school kicker ever missing one, and he wasn't good enough to play college ball.

Cade Foster had no touch-backs, and the kickoff team allowed starting positions at the 23, 29, 26, 36 and 22. The sad thing is, Vanderbilt doesn't return kicks well at all, and this was Foster's best night of the year so far.

They finally let Shelley do a kickoff, and they started at the 24 on that one. Since that was better than Foster's 27 and change average, maybe they should let Shelley do more.

Only improved coverage and tackling by the kickoff teams helped this problem and kept them from getting graded lower than C.

Kick and Punt Returns: Nothing to See Here, Just Move Along....

What can you say about one kickoff return for three yards and three punt returns for two yards net?

That's not great work at all.

Give them a C and forget about all the reasons it was so bad a night there. They really aren't worth the time to explain them.

Coaching: A Nice Plan That Worked out Well

On defense, Saban came into the game with the clear intention of stopping Vanderbilt from running and force them to pass. As I've said earlier, they have the 116th worst pass offense in college football.

That part worked.

On offense, Saban wanted to come into this game and see the passing game click, bolster the team's confidence in that area and show the opponents what they'd face if they play to stop the run. And after a slow start, it certainly worked.

McCarron was player of the game and finished with four touchdown passes, including some very sharp throws into coverage and one nice on a dead run.

Alabama has now shown that can be a two headed monster on offense now, and that was what the whole offensive game plan was all about.

Players were liberally exchanged in seemingly perfect rotations, and the team didn't a miss a beat when those occurred on either side of the ball.

Only continuing poor special teams play dragged the overall scores down from an A+ to an A.

And that's it for this week, and thank you for reading.

(Larry Burton is a syndicated writer whose work appears online and in print. If you'd like to keep up with all his articles, follow him on Twitter and sign up as a fan on his Bio Page.)