POST GAME THOUGHTS-ALABAMA OUTLASTS A&M 27-19

What a dadgum game. Alabama was favored to win by 26, and seemingly had an advantage at every single position on the field, but somehow this A&M squad managed to go toe to toe with the best team in the country. I’m not happy about a loss, but it’s hard not to be encouraged about the future of this team after this game. Quick thoughts:

KELLEN MOND

This is his team. The announcers were saying that when Starkel comes back he might see the field and that’s simply not true. As a true freshman, Kellen Mond was 19/29 for 237 with 1 TD/1 INT. That’s a pretty damn good stat line...and that dime at the end to set up the last touchdown? Thing of beauty.

It was obvious that the game slowed down a bit for Mond this game, which is impressive given that it’s Bama. He’s still a bit slow in his reads, and needs to learn when to throw the ball away and when to tuck it and run but make no mistake...this is his team moving forward.

2. DEFENSE

Alabama finished with 355 yards, 123 through the air and 232 (75 of it on one big chunk play in the first quarter) on the ground, and they worked for almost all of them. The defense, namely the front 7 was flying to the ball, getting a good push and making solid open field tackles.

Three guys deserve to be singled out.. Zaycoven Henderson put together yet another solid day and just quietly goes about doing his job dominating the guy across from him. Tyrel Dodson is going to be a star and has NFL written all over him. He finished the day withs something like 16 tackles and was around every single big play. Lastly Shane Tripucka put together a solid night when we needed him with 5 punts averaging 48 yards a punt. Good night for them overall.

3. OFFENSIVE PLAY CALLING

If you’re going to beat Bama, not only does everything have to go right, but you have to out scheme Bama. Yeah we turned the ball over three times, but I thought that our offensive play calling lacked any sort of creativity. We wanted to do what we’ve been doing all season long and beat them with it...and we came close, but we didnt get the job done.

OVERALL

Fun game. Much more fun than anyone really expected. There’s still a tough stretch in front of us, though.

But for now I’m going to appreciate the effort we put on the field tonight and hope that someday we’ll get to the point where we can close out a game like this.

BTHO florida.