There was no rain this time, but Alabama repeated the same sloppy performance it put on last season against South Florida.
A couple of late scores in the fourth quarter made Alabama’s 42-16 win over South Florida look better than how it really went.
Here are a few takeaways from the game.
Penalties
Penalties weren’t cleaned up from last week; in fact they got worse. Alabama finished off the night getting flagged 13 times for 120 yards. Nine of the 13 penalties were called on the offensive line with two of the penalties erasing touchdowns.
Jam Breaks 100
Alabama struggled running the football in the first half but continued to stick with it, and it paid off. Jam Miller continuously ripped off five-yard runs to wear down the South Florida defense. Finally, deep into the fourth quarter, his hard work paid off with a 56-yard touchdown run to push him over the century mark. Miller finished with 140 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries.
Offensive Line Struggles
Starting left tackle Kadyn Proctor was out for the second game in a row, and he was greatly missed. As a result, Alabama was forced to move around some parts on the offensive line. The offensive line struggled with pass protection and was unable to get much push in the run game until the fourth quarter. The biggest outlier of the night for the line was the nine penalties. Five holding calls, three false starts and one block in the back resulted in stalled drives and two touchdowns getting called back. Right tackle Wilkin Formby was the culprit of four holding calls and was eventually replaced by Elijah Pritchett.
Turnovers
Alabama did its best to keep South Florida in the game by losing the turnover battle 3-0. The Crimson Tide had three costly turnovers that prevented Alabama from gaining any momentum throughout the game. To start the second half, Kendrick Law had a big kickoff return but coughed up the football at the end of the run. The biggest turnover of the game happened in the fourth quarter with Alabama up by one and trying to punch it in the endzone, but a fumbled snap resulted in the third turnover of the game for the Crimson Tide.
Alabama will play its first road game of the season next Saturday when the Tide travel to Wisconsin. Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. CT and will be televised on FOX.
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