Nick Saban examines Alabama's sluggish second half against Arkansas: 'We learn from all these things'

Nick Saban wasn’t elated with Alabama’s performance in the second half against Arkansas on Saturday afternoon.

While the Crimson Tide are leaving Week 7 with a 24-21 win over the Razorbacks, it was far from pretty. Alabama looked like it was going to cruise to victory after taking a 24-6 lead originally, but they let Arkansas hang around after halftime.

Eventually, Saban’s squad closed them down for a three-point win when it was all said and done, advancing to 6-1 on the season.

Afterwards, the Crimson Tide leader took the podium to speak to the media, where he explained what led to Alabama’s slow start in the second half, and their lingering sluggish play throughout the third and fourth quarter.

“It’s two games now. We came out a little flat on defense against Mississippi State when we were ahead at halftime. But the first drive was really the best drive we had in the second half, when we had the ball and we got the kickoff. We went down the field. Didn’t finish the drive. Again, didn’t execute the way we needed to execute. The third down penalty, Jaylen Key. We had like, one or two penalties up until that point. We had multiple penalties after. We got pass interference on third down, which would’ve got us off the field again and had to kick the field goal. We had multiple penalties on offense, which put us behind the eight ball. So you know, we’ve just got to teach and learn from all these things, and hopefully realize what it takes, not only in the game, but in the week of preparation leading up to the game, so that you can go out there and play the way that you need to play against really good competition.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for Arkansas’ team. LSU beat them by three points. Ole Miss beat them by a touchdown. All on the road. This is not the kind of team that you all think they are. They’re a good team, and that quarterback (KJ Jefferson) is a handful. I mean, when a quarterback can take a major college football player and sling them off like a gnat on a fly’s ass, I mean a gnat on a cow’s ass, I mean, that was one of the most impressive plays I’ve ever seen a player make.

“But we said, one guy gets a guy. You’ve got to hold on, you’ve got to hang on and clean them up. We didn’t clean them up. We made a couple mental errors on defense in some of those drives that let them get back in the game too. You know, we ran a stunt the wrong way, quarterback you know, runs for 25 yards on a big play, second and long. So we learn from all these things.”

Alas, you won’t win many games playing that way in the second half, but Alabama and Nick Saban found a way to do so on Saturday. Nevertheless, the Crimson Tide will spend the week cleaning up their mistakes, as they’re certainly not feeling great after their win in Week 7.