re: Bama Football Tidings

8/31/19 MFB vs Duke Alabama running back Brian Robinson Jr. (24) Photo by Kent Gidley

Stingy Defense and Tagovailoa’s Career Day Propels No. 2 Alabama Football to 42-3 Victory Over Duke in Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game By Staff Writer - September 1, 2019

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Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa went 26-of-31 with 336 yards and four scores through the air

ATLANTA – A stout defense and stellar quarterback play propelled the No. 2 Alabama football team to a 42-3 win over Duke in the 2019 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium Saturday. The Crimson Tide improved to 1-0 to start the season and 6-0 all-time in Chick-fil-A Kickoff Games.

HOW IT HAPPENED
After a scoreless opening quarter, the Tide put together a 12-play, 80-yard scoring drive for its first points of the 2019 season. Junior quarterback Tua Tagovailoa found redshirt junior Miller Forristall for the tight end’s first career touchdown reception from 27 yards out to put the Tide on top 7-0 with 10:02 to go before halftime.
On its next offensive possession, the Crimson Tide found the end zone once again after junior running back Brian Robinson Jr. scored from one yard out to cap a seven-play, 76-yard drive and make it 14-0 with just over five minutes remaining in the half.
The Blue Devils hit a 30-yard field goal with seconds left before the break to make it 14-3 heading into halftime.
Following a fourth-down stop, the Alabama offense regained possession of the ball at its own 35-yard line and put together another touchdown drive. Tagovailoa threw his second touchdown of the day, connecting with redshirt sophomore tight end Major Tennison from one yard out for Tennison’s first career TD grab to finish a nine-play 65-yard effort. Alabama led 21-3 with 8:34 in the third.
On the next play from scrimmage, the Tide’s swarming defense forced its first turnover of the game when sophomore defensive back Patrick Surtain II ripped the ball out of the Duke receiver’s hands and senior cornerback Trevon Diggs recovering the fumble at the Duke 28-yard line. Three plays later, Tagovailoa recorded his third TD pass of the game, hooking up with junior wideout DeVonta Smith for an eight-yard strike to pad the UA lead to 28-3.
The Tide scored once again on its next offensive possession, rumbling 90 yards in nine plays finished off by a Tagovailoa pass to junior wide receiver Jerry Jeudy who scampered 21 yards for the score. The Tide went up 35-3 with 1:36 left in the third quarter.
Alabama continued to pour on the points in the fourth quarter when redshirt freshman running back Jerome Ford galloped 37 yards for the first score of his young career. The Crimson Tide led 42-3 with 4:51 on the clock and sealed the victory with an interception by freshman defensive back Jordan Battle in the final minute of the game.

PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Tagovailoa ended the game with a career high in completions after going 26-of-31 for 336 yards and four touchdowns. The All-American QB finished with a near-perfect 217.5 quarterback rating.
Jeudy also had a career day with the most receptions in his time at UA after tallying 10 catches for 137 yards and a score.
On defense, Diggs came up with two big plays after recovering a fumble and recording the second interception in his four-year career.
Junior safety Xavier McKinney led the Tide with a career-high eight tackles in the win.

KEY STATS
For the game, Alabama outgained Duke 512-204 including 367-97 through the air.
UA finished with 30 first downs compared to Duke’s 11.
The Tide dominated the time of possession, controlling the ball for 36:37 of the game.
Alabama won the turnover battle, 3-1.

UP NEXT
Alabama returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 7, with its home opener against New Mexico State at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Kickoff between the Crimson Tide and Aggies is set for 3 p.m. CT with the game airing live on SEC Network.

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They also realize that 3.5 yards per carry won’t cut it against tougher competition, and for this offense to reach its full potential, the running game needs to complement the stellar passing attack.

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This team of "Spectacular Talents, Deepest Oline in Saban's history at Bama" has a couple more games (until USEe crapped the table last Saturday, I would have thought 1 more game), to get their act together and start getting ready for the push again aTm...
... can't wait to see what aTm does against the fightin' Dabo's ...

On the latest installment of the Built By BamaOnLine Podcast, BOL staff members Charlie Potter and Travis Reier hand out some positional grades following Alabama's season-opening win over the Blue Devils of Duke.
LINK ]Grading the Tide: Duke By Travis Reier
0:00 yada yada Jalen yada
2:20 Inside Linebackers
6:20 Outside Linebackers
9:10 Ale Kaho - FB (reminds one of Mac Wilson in the goal line offense)
Linebackers - A from Charlie Potter (could lean to B- because of some of the mental errors) and A from Travis also.
11:20 Defensive Front (DJ Dale Davis and Ray) limited rotation because of Justin Eboigbe injury and others limited such as Stephon Wynn) P. Mathis 5 stops, played a good bit.
15:30 Grades - Travis - B+ for DLine as well as Charlie B+
16:50 Secondary - Jobe's PI DB's both 1's and 2's played well.
21:20 Charlie grades A-
22:40 Offense - Oline 3 new starters... Neal Dickerson Owens .. Dickerson played well, but overall up and down Run Blocking???? gave up one sack with a 6 against 4 (things do not seem to be settled in the middle) Travis - C Charlie - C+ (3 holding penalties)
Dalcourt manhandled Duke LB on Ford's TD run
29:50 - WR / TE's 2 TD's TE's
32:15 -WR's JJ hits career high (10 rec's targeted 13 times) Slade Bolton was 4th (5th) WR, altho no Stats. Metchie had 1 catch
Charlie Grades WR's as A Travis also A
36:20 RB's with starters suspended, Ford starts and seemed to be a bit nervous. (early fumble) Avg 3.5 / carry. B Rob goto short yardage guy Charlie - Grades as B- Travis - B
45:00 QB - Tua 26 - 31 4TD's early he was checking down to RB's (had to carry O 1st qtr when Running game didnt appear) Mac Jones 4-5 31 yds Travis Grades Tua as A...as did Charlie
50:20 Special Teams - Juedy blocking on Punt Ret team.. Will R punted, kicked off, hit all 7 Extra Points...BUT missed both FG's 49 and 48 yds. plenty of leg, just hit the upright on both. Travis gives him a B Charlie - B-.

LINK ]Alabama practice report: 2 linemen not practicing By Matt Zenitz | mzenitz@al.com

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Alabama began its on-field preparation for New Mexico State Monday afternoon.

Here are some notes from the media viewing period of Monday’s practice:

— Backup offensive guard Emil Ekiyor (knee) and backup defensive end Justin Eboigbe (foot) weren’t practicing. Ekiyor, who got hurt against Duke on Saturday, may be out a week or two according to Saban. Eboigbe, who was classified as day-to-day last week, was walking off with an athletic trainer as the media entered practice. The freshman had a walking boot on his left foot.

— The viewing period was a short one, but I think those were the only two players missing from practice other than reserve cornerback Nigel Knott, who hasn’t practiced with the team since the spring due to an undisclosed medical situation.

— Freshman safety Jordan Battle has changed his number from 6 to 9. Freshman wide receiver John Metchie is now No. 8. He was previously No. 3.

— Athletic director Greg Byrne was in attendance for practice.

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Matt Zenitz is an Alabama and Auburn reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mzenitz.

Hope this isn't similar to Grant Hill situation where everyone was hush hush about it.

LINK ]Injury/practice report: Emil Ekiyor Jr. to be out a while by Christopher Walsh Crimson Tide worked outside in shoulder pads on Monday

Alabama offensive lineman Emil Ekiyor Jr. was not at Monday’s practice and is expected to be out a while.

Alex Leatherwood is dealing with a hand issue of some sort, but was at practice in his usual spot.

“Alex didn’t really get hurt in the game,” Nick Saban said. “The only guy that, Emil, was the only guy that got hurt late in the game and he may be a week or two with his injury.”

Reporters didn’t see the first-team offensive line during the brief viewing period. Conditions were sunny and 91 degrees.

Still missing among the defensive linemen was true freshman Justin Eboigbe (foot), who was in a black non-contact jersey for stretching and then left the field.

Injury rundown

• Junior interior linebacker Dylan Moses: Out indefinitely with a knee injury.

• Redshirt junior cornerback Nigel Knott: Out indefinitely with what Nick Saban has only described as a medical issue.

• Senior interior linebacker Josh McMillon: Out indefinitely with a knee injury.

• Freshman running back Trey Sanders: Out indefinitely with a left foot injury.

LINK ]Everything Saban said in first press conference of NMSU week By Charlie Potter

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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Alabama head coach Nick Saban kicked off Week 2 with a noon press conference Monday. Below is everything Saban said on the first day of New Mexico State week.

"One of the things we were most pleased with coming out of this game was the resiliency our team showed to overcome a little bit of a slow start. We hung in there, we kept battling. The defense made a couple of key stops, even though we turned the ball over in bad field position, had a couple of three-and-outs on offense. I think everybody kept their poise, everybody kept competing. And like we always talk about, you get punched and stunned in the first round of a fight, you don’t go down and you just keep boxing and the next thing you know you win the fight, and kind of win the momentum of the game as you go.

"I think the thing we want to do with our team right now is be sure to point out all the things that we did well in the game so we build confidence in our players and show them doing things right’s going to help them be able to perform well. And to point out the errors that we made, whether they’re fundamental or mental so that we can correct the mistakes that we made and hopefully have the best chance to improve.

"We certainly look forward to a home opener this week. Playing in Bryant-Denny Stadium is always great. The enthusiasm and spirit os something that the players certainly have a lot of appreciation for, and so do we.

"New Mexico State is a wide-open team that they’ll do everything they can to expose your weaknesses. They’re really kind of a pass the ball, lots of spread formations. Really do a good job in that part of the game. They’ve got kind of a veteran team. An experienced quarterback, a good runner, a really good receiver. Defensively, they’ve got some guys coming back and they’re a pretty good team there, too.

"The thing that we need to focus on most is what do we need to do to improve, what do we need to do to get better and understand that we’ve got to have the kind of instinct that’s going to help us go after every team. We talk about trying to create an identity for ourselves. You don’t do that in one game, you do that over the season. And you have to play to a standard every opportunity that you get. We certainly respect the team that we’re playing and look forward to the challenge and look forward to playing at home."

On Alabama's running game
"They did a lot of stunting up front. I think that it’s a combination of the whole team. When you throw RPOs, you don’t always block the secondary folks. I think when runners press the holes the right way and run where they’re supposed to run and people show up in the right places from the offensive line to be able to block them. And I think that there was a number of occasions where we had a hat on hat and we did not finish the blocks like we need to to be able to run the ball effectively. All those little things are things that we need to do to improve and get better. A lot of times you make great improvement between the first and second game, and that’ll certainly be our goal this time around."

On Landon Dickerson
"I thought he played with a lot of toughness. Had a lot of effort out there. Did a good job for the most part. One of the guys that we feel competed in the game like we like and I’m sure that he would tell you and his coach would tell you that, are there things he could have done better fundamentally? Absolutely. But we certainly liked the competitive character that he played with. Like all players, I think there are things that ... at least we know where we’re at now and things we can work to improve on."

On Ale Kaho playing fullback
"He’s a good athlete. Most of the time, we’ve had some big guys that had enough experience that they could go in there and do something like that and it was a good fit for them. You’d rather not do it, in all honesty, if you have enough tight end types and fullback types on your team. We didn’t have that, so we thought Kaho was a good role for him and he actually did a good job in the few plays that he played doing it."

On yards after the catch by WRs
"We used it in the game. If they got how many yards did you say? Well, that’s how we do it, try to get them the ball in space so they can catch it and run with it and try to block for them on the perimeter. I think it’s important that those guys are all guys that have the ability to make plays that we have ways to get them the ball so that we give them the opportunity to do that. And we’ll continue to try to make that a big part of our offense and be able to run the ball effectively as well. I think all those things are important, but to be able to do that everybody’s got to execute on offense. At times we did well and sometimes we could do better."

On Oklahoma QB Jalen Hurts
"I think that Jalen set a great example when he was here, when he was a player. He was a good leader. He was a good performer. And I also think when things didn’t go his way he showed a lot of character as a person to continue to try to improve himself and do everything he could to help his team. And in this day and age you don’t often see that. But I think it was a really, really great example on his part and because he did it that way when he got an opportunity he was able to do extremely well, and actually won the SEC Championship Game for us. Now because he’s got that kind of character and attitude — I didn’t see the game last night, we worked on Sunday nights. But I hear he played extremely well and an outstanding job, and that doesn’t surprise me in the least bit. And we’re really happy for him, not only in the way he handled himself throughout this entire process, but now that he’s having success, as well."

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Continued below...
Contact Charlie Potter by 247Sports' personal messaging or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).

LINK ]Tide Cranks Up New Mexico State Week Travis Reier BOL Published on Sep 2, 2019 Monday, September 2, 2019.
2:42

Need to keep the back 7 fresh and healthy.