Bama takes on the Colorado State Rams

Sept 16, 2017
Bryant -Denny Stadium
6 p.m. kickoff
Airs on ESPN2

When the Rams come down from the thin Colorado air to enjoy our  sunny fall weather on Saturday, it will be only the second time for the schools to meet. The first was due to our former offensive coordinator Jim McElwain taking on the head coaching job in Fort Collins, Colorado. Bama won that meeting 31-6, one of the 11 times Coach Saban has bested his former staff. (The most recent, of course, being Jimbo Fisher of the Noles.)

Last year, the Rams finished a decent 7-6 and played in the Idaho Potato Bowl. The Rams are solid in several aspects of the game and bring a 2-1 record to Alabama, with wins over Abilene Christian and Oregon State and a loss to cross-state rival Colorado by 14.

By the way, next week the Vandy road game has been scheduled for 2:30 central on CBS. This will be the 84th meeting, in which Bama has a record of 59-19-4.

I feel like this Saturday night will be a decent game.  Colorado State is led by Coach Mike Bobo who replaced McElwain when he jumped to Florida in 2014. If the name rings a bell, it should. Bobo played QB at Georgia in the mid 90s and threw for nearly 3,000 yards as a senior. But most impressive to me is the work he did when he stayed on to coach at Georgia and had a role in the QB success of Matthew Stafford, Aaron Murray and David Greene. He worked his way up to Offensive Coordinator. It earned him a finalist pick as the top assistant coach in the nation one year. That's a hell of a resume to me, so I expect to see more good QB play this Saturday from a nationally leading player.

From what I can tell, the Mountain West Conference Rams have a deep stable of backs for a steady running game, a leading passing attack and a decent defense. (Yes, our second game in a row from the conference. Maybe we can get Boise State or Air Force one day, which would be very cool I think.) It's not quite your run of the mill off-game for the Tide which needs to come out sharp. Every team these days has at least a few really good players and they can all play inspired against a number one team. Every player dreams of this personal test on the field.

Their senior QB Nick Stevens is sometimes a big play guy and a big guy, at 6'3" and 215. He leads the NATION in passing with 980 yards, so hold on tight. He typically throws about 40 times and completes 25. I expect those numbers to go up a bit as I foresee them to be playing from behind, but perhaps with an INT or two in the mix against the improving Tide secondary.

Stevens's top receiver Michael Gallup was singled out by Coach Saban as someone to keep an eye on. Last year he finished with 76 catches for 1272 yards. This year he already has 26 catches and is 300+ in three games. Should be fun to watch this pairing and how the Tide chooses to attack this combo to slow it down. They also return three RBs and have gained some yards.

In a quick comparison, The Rams score about 33 to the Tide 32.5, but they give up about 18 to the Tide 8. The Rams gain about 500 yards (I'm guessing more like 275 - 300 in this one) but give up about 400. The Tide only give up an average of 262 and only 49 on the ground, so we will see balls in the air early and often in this one. I'm thinking we may see a defensive TD this week. Just a hunch.

So far the improving Rams D has only given up 27, 17 and 10 in three games so they have a great record so far. They have a lot of returning production and have emphasized their front three bulking up over the summer to bring more beef. They also brought in a couple of transfers for depth and from all appearances are going to be much better than last year.

As for the Tide....kudos to Matt Womack for his recognition at Offensive Lineman of the Week against Fresno. He earned his first award for his 90 grade, three knockdown blocks and no sacks allowed. The Tide really needed someone to step up and own that position, so perhaps he is on his way.

Also, a round of applause for Jalen Hurts for his fourth 100-yard game with a career high 154 last week. I didn't think there should be so many called QB runs myself with all those great RBs behind him, but the plays certainly worked. It was also fun to see Najee Harris, our RB of the future, with 73 yards and 13 carries.

The picture of where this Tide team stands relative to the rest of the conference is only beginning to form a picture and it's too early to draw a lot of conclusions, but here are a few stats that give us a start. The Tide yards per game is well below the leaders. Missouri is tops at 619, but I don't want to trade for their 1-1 record. 2-0 Ole Miss follows at 537, behind Shea Patterson at QB who is demonstrating his value.

Pappanastos is leading the league in kicking at 5/7 but h is longest is 35 yards, so dont read too much into that so far. And the Bama punting average is very low--worst in the conference by 5 yards. I expect to see that steadily improve and consider the Bama punter as an elite player. He will help win some games this year with field position despite the shanked punt or two.

Jalen Hurts has a mediocre 137 QBR at 9th in the league, but his 24/36 on passes is decent and he's 4th in the SEC as a rusher with 209 yards and an 8.4 yard per carry average. I'd prefer that with this backfield we have Damien or Bo step up and start having 125+ yards a game. Damien is 18th in the SEC, but does have a 7-yard average carry and two TDs. Bo is #24 with 76 on 21.

(As an aside: A fun comparison with Jalen is the so-called second coming of Pat Sullivan, Jarrett Stidham, who has 14 sacks, only 56% completion ratio, and a 112 QBR. Oops on that prediction to be a world beater. Of course, part of that is that half the games played were against a stout Clemson defense, so he will likely improve those numbers.)

It's good for Tide fans to see that 11 receivers have caught a pass. I saw several freshmen on the field last weekend, and often two at once as receivers. The speedster Ruggs had his first collegiate TD, which was nice to see. The tight end pass last weekend to Hale Hentes for a TD down the middle should help open both the running game and the long bomb options a bit if we continue to use that option.

It's sort of concerning that the Tide has only one receiver in the top 37 that are rated in the SEC. It's #8 Ridley of course,  with 12 catches for 127 and a TD. In total catches he's third in the conference. For comparison, AJ Brown of Ole Miss has 389 on 16 catches. Why can't the Tide throw it that far downfield?

The Tide defense has four sacks and three interceptions, tied for the league lead. Ronnie Harris is the tackle leader with 13 and Anthony Averett has added ten tackles and an INT.

I see the Rams scoring a time or two, but the Tide D will stand up the running game and allow the pass rushers to play a lot. The offense is now opening up and we will see more of the play book this week as we did last week. It was good to finally see a bubble screen and a fake jet sweep, along with a few other twists. The defense was in nickel and dime packages all game--with three safeties as Fitzpatrick came up to cover the slot a lot. I expect to see that defense again.

I think Bama will have a few new wrinkles to try for a faster start so don't blink early in the game.

Final score: Bama 42/Rams 10