Alabama football blew out Mercer on Saturday, taking down the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) squad 52-7. The victory moved UA to 8-2 on the season.
The Crimson Tide now moves into its final two regular season games with a real chance at a College Football Playoff spot. Before those games, here are three takeaways from Saturday’s win.
Handling business
Mercer is a good team at the FCS level. The Bears were never going to have enough talent to take down the Crimson Tide.
After a few first downs on UA penalties, Alabama got the ball quickly and took advantage, scoring its first points on a designed run play for Ryan Williams. The freshman would score the Tide’s second touchdown as well, taking a short pass to the end zone on a play where Germie Bernard took out two Bears on a block.
Mercer started moving the ball again late in the first quarter, but Qua Russaw made an impressive catch to intercept a pass, and the Tide got the ball back. Jalen Milroe found Robbie Ouzts for a 44-yard score, and the rout was on from there.
On the ensuing Bear drive, the defense got in on the action. Zabien Brown picked up a fumble and took it 68 yards to the house.
Mercer got a score later in the second quarter, but it didn’t matter much. Alabama headed into halftime up 31-7, without much work left to do.
Youth movement
Jalen Milroe did it himself on UA’s first drive of the second half. After two plays that were called touchdowns initially were wiped way with review, the Crimson Tide quarterback ran right and powered his way into the end zone to make it 38-7 with 10:33 left in the third quarter.
That was the end of Milroe’s day. The rest of the way would be for some of the Alabama youngsters and depth pieces to get on the field for some game reps.
Up next at quarterback was Ty Simpson. The Crimson Tide’s main backup quarterback was able to move the chains a few times on his first drive, but UA stalled out and eventually punted, largely due to a combination of drops and shoddy offensive line play.
Among other backups who got their moment in the spotlight, running back Richard Young saw significant action. UA was also able to work through different offensive line combinations, with Geno VanDeMark taking over at center when Simpson entered the game.
In the end, Alabama played five quarterbacks, and 13 receivers caught a pass, including Rico Scott, who reeled in a fourth-quarter touchdown throw from Austin Mack. The Tide also had 11 players carry the ball.
All in all, the second half gave Kalen DeBoer and company a chance to see what they have further down the depth chart, an important opportunity as players get banged up late in the season.
Still alive
Barring some chaos scenarios, Alabama remains alive in the College Football Playoff hunt. The Crimson Tide was ranked No. 9 when the top 25 was updated on Tuesday, well within the potential 12-team field.
Saturday was as easy as it will get for the Tide the rest of the way. After this, just two regular-season games remain, both of them against SEC opponents and both of them winnable.
First up, a trip to Oklahoma. The Sooners had Saturday off after losing a heartbreaker at Missouri, to drop to 5-5 on the season, 1-5 in SEC play.
After that, it’s the Iron Bowl against Auburn. The Tigers have struggled with quarterback play this season, but Hugh Freeze is renowned for getting his teams up for the big games.
The playoff rankings will be updated Tuesday on ESPN.
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