Alabama faced Vanderbilt, their first SEC opponent of the season, and did what they should do to a lesser SEC foe, completely overpowering them on both sides of the ball. The Crimson Tide dominated the Commodores 55-3 in its SEC home opener.
Alabama quarterback Bryce Young got the scoring going for the Crimson Tide midway through the first quarter, connecting on a 21-yard touchdown pass to Ja’Corey Brooks. Right before the end of the first quarter, Young tossed his second passing touchdown of the quarter on an eight-yard pass to Traeshon Holden.
Young threw for two more touchdowns in the second quarter, connecting once again with Ja’Corey Brooks on a 34-yard pass, while Jahmyr Gibbs caught a seven-yard pass from Young for his fourth passing touchdown of the half.
Bryce Young had the best half of his career, completing 20 passes for 316 yards and four touchdowns.
Ja’Corey Brooks became the first Alabama receiver to eclipse the 100-yard mark, tallying 117 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
"I think we’ve shown a pretty good pattern here of making improvements - a little bit of an upward trend. I think we are getting closer to playing the way we'd like to play. The challenges are greater as we go, so we have to continue to focus on moving forward and improving,” said Tide head coach Nick Saban after the game. “But we had some guys play really well tonight. Bryce (Young) played well, the defense played really well, (and) I thought Ja’Corey Brooks played really well. I think the team played really well. I think the team sort of bought into everybody trying to play to a standard, and I think this is probably the closest we've come to that so far this year. And the key to the drill is can we continue to build on it."
The Alabama defense dominated the Vanderbilt offensive line, racking up four sacks, led by Will Anderson, Jr., who recorded 2.5 sacks.
Alabama’s offense outgained Vanderbilt, 628-115, with the Crimson Tide defense holding the Commodores to only 14 yards rushing in their most dominating performance of the season.
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