Nick Saban dissects Alabama loss to FSU, what went wrong in Week 1

Nick Saban dissected what went wrong for Alabama during the Week 1 loss to Florida State and it started on defense. Saban referenced Gus Malzahn’s offense for FSU giving the Crimson Tide fits.

Malzahn, especially with an athletic quarterback that can pass and run, is difficult to deal with. That was on display with Thomas Castellanos carving up the Alabama defense.

Saban knew it all too well when Malzahn was the head coach at Auburn. It seemed like the same old story when the Seminoles beat Alabama.

“I think the question everybody has, fans, coaches, even players, why,” Saban said on College GameDay. “Why did we play the way we played? And it seemed like to start the game, to go right down the field and look like an Alabama team and score a touchdown, but then as soon as Florida State went down the field and scored a touchdown, the whole like disposition on the team changed. The passion on the sidelines, the enthusiasm, and then they played that way the rest of the game. 

“And you got to give Florida State a ton of credit, man, they played a really, really good game. And I’m telling you, when Gus has a quarterback that is athletic and can run, his offense is really difficult to defend when it comes to running the ball. And they controlled the game by running it.”

Castellanos was just nine-of-14 passing for 152 yards but ran for 78 yards and a touchdown. The run game was key for Florida State all game long.

Kalen DeBoer knows tensions are high when it comes to the Alabama fans. They don’t want anything else to go wrong two weeks in a row as Alabama takes on Louisiana-Monroe.

“Yeah, we were certainly disappointed in some effort situations that happened,” DeBoer said when addressing effort on defense. “I think they came in different ways. Some of it’s just flat out gotta pursue, gotta get there. It surprises you sometimes when it happens, especially with certain guys, because of the effort that they put in day in and day out.

“But I think there were some other things that come across as hesitancy. That’s the way I kind of put it. I think after the game, probably would follow that up and say that there was a couple times where we just gotta be quicker to get to a spot and do our job.”