On Monday, former Alabama QB Greg McElroy weighed in on what he saw from the Crimson Tide in their 31-17 season-opening loss to Florida State.
The former Tide signal caller pointed to a lack of effort, which he called "problematic."
"They weren't the better team by any stretch," McElroy said on his WJOX radio show, "McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning." "I think the biggest and most challenging thing for me to watch from our vantage point was the lack of effort by certain players. That was really disappointing. There were a couple routes run by wide receivers where they didn't run full speed. They were just going through the motions.”
"There was a couple players in the back end defensively going through the motions, not straining all the way through the final whistle. There were a lot of loafs in the game. That was what was problematic," he added.
McElroy wasn’t the only one noticing the lack of effort. Former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho posted a video on X questioning the effort of Alabama safeties Bray Hubbard and Keon Sabb. Acho went as far as to say that if Nick Saban were the coach, he would have pulled their scholarships.
Many critics are putting the blame on Simpson for the Florida State loss, but McElroy defended the quarterback, saying that he was not the problem with the Crimson Tide on Saturday.
"If you try to pin that performance on Ty, you don't know ball," McElroy said. "I thought he battled. He was one of just a handful of guys that really played his heart out and battled and did everything he possibly could. I'm amazed at how many people are trying to make it about him.”
"There's a lot of guys on this team, man, that just didn't give max effort," he continued. "They only have themselves to blame. I don't know why they were fatigued or why they were a step slow, or what the circumstances were, but the players need to look themselves in the mirror after that performance, because there were a lot of moments where it wasn't what it needs to be from an effort standpoint.”
Missed tackles and lack of effort were just a couple of problems that the Crimson Tide had on Saturday. It’s hard to put the blame on any specific player for the Florida State loss, but one thing is for sure: if Saban were coaching this team on Saturday, someone would have gotten chewed out on the sidelines.
We’ll learn a lot about this team, its coaching staff and the direction the season is headed on Saturday.
The Crimson Tide will face a much inferior opponent than Florida State when they host Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday at 6:45 p.m. on SEC Network.
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