Nick Saban considers what allowed Texas to establish downfield passing game
Alabama‘s secondary found no answers for Quinn Ewers and the Texas‘ passing attack during Saturday’s 34-24 loss to the Longhorns.
Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban had no excuses for his defensive back’s performance against Texas, and attempted to pinpoint what exactly went wrong for his squad down the stretch.
“We didn’t do a very good job adjusting to some motions. We made some mental errors, got people in the wrong spots and we didn’t match the patterns,” Saban said postgame. “A couple times, we were fine. We had a middle of the field safety. We got pass interference a couple times. They made a good catch one time. Kool-Aid [McKinstry] had the guy covered really well, and [AD Mitchell] made a really good catch.
“We were playing quarters, and they had a quarters beater and we didn’t poach the safety. It’s a lot of technical stuff, but you can’t let people throw the ball over your head if you’re playing the secondary. So we need to get that fixed.”
It doesn’t take X’s and O’s to figure out what was happening. Texas’ wide receivers were the better players against Alabama’s secondary on Saturday night. None of the Longhorns’ top three wide receivers ended up leading the group in yards — instead, it was junior Ja’Tavion Sanders‘ five receptions for 114 yards (including a 50-yard reception) that led the team.
Ewers’ top targets, AD Mitchell, Xavier Worthy and Jordan Whittington, combined for 11 receptions, 197 yards and three touchdowns on during the victory as well. This led to Ewers finishing the game with a 63% (24/38) completion percentage and 349 passing yards for the three touchdowns previously noted.
Overall, the Longhorns compiled 454 total yards of offense against the Crimson Tide. On top of that, the 10 penalties Saban mentioned gave Texas an additional 90 yards. Two interceptions from Jalen Milroe didn’t help their case, either.
Next up for the Crimson Tide is a matchup on Saturday against USF, a game where Alabama can take a breather, focus on themselves and correct the mistakes from Week 2. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET live on ABC. Alabama has opened as a 31.5-point betting favorite, per Vegas Insider.
One week is all they get, though, as SEC play begins the following week with a homestead against No. 17 Ole Miss before taking a two-game road trip to Mississippi State and Texas A&M.