Big win yesterday and avenging last year's ugly loss in Tallahassee was great but this was one of those wins that's kind of baffling. I probably now have more questions than answers.

We trailed 21-6 with about two and a half minutes left in the second quarter before suddenly scoring 20 points and taking a 26-21 lead. Throw in two weather delays so that the officials decided to skip halftime altogether and an FSU offense that couldn't miss downfield and it was honestly one of the strangest Alabama games I've seen in a long time. Bama deserves a lot of credit for handling all of this weirdness and still winning by 2 scores.

So for me, the biggest concern is obviously the defense and particularly the secondary. FSU finished with 471 yards and Ashton Daniels and Duce Robinson repeatedly exposed the db's. Lee had a particularly rough afternoon but he wasn't the only one. All of our corners struggled in man coverage and gave up way too many explosive plays. That was concerning.

The defensive front actually played much better than the final score suggests. In my opinion no one should complain about the front 7. They finished with three sacks, six TFLs and seven qb hurries and mostly held up against the run. Even with the secondary issues, they still intercepted Daniels three times. Go figure. I think there were good things happening defensively but the gaffes in the secondary were so significant at times that they made everyone nervous the whole game.

Offensively, I feel like we were outstanding. Total offense was 567 yards including 247 on the ground and we eventually just mauled FSU up front. We've now seen three straight strong rushing performances so I think we can stop qualifying it based on the competition. I think we can say this looks like a legitimately improved Alabama running game and offensive line. Not perfect but we can all say confidently it's been improved.

The biggest story though, was KR. This is just his 3rd start and don't forget that he's a redshirt freshman. He went 23-of-30 for 320 yards, three TDs and no picks AND gained 56 rushing yards and another touchdown. He looked composed and made good decisions. This was the first game where we really got to see what Kalen DeBoer means when he talks about building an offense around the quarterback and how KR makes this offense click.

It's hard to admit but Ryan Grubb finally deserves some credit. I think he called a decent enough game and stuck with the running game until Alabama started controlling things up front.

Special teams, as usual were strong as well particularly Talty hitting all three of his field goals. 2 of these were from beyond 40 yards. It's always good to not have to worry about leaving 3 points here and there on the field.

So Bama survived a very strange afternoon and got the win. Russell, the running game and the offensive line gave us plenty to be excited about. But the secondary has to get fixed right away. Alabama can survive a game like this against Florida State. Against the better teams coming up on the schedule, these same miscues imo will be the difference between escaping with a win and taking a loss.