Chris Owens assesses the growth of Alabama OL, offense this season

Alabama right tackle Chris Owens offered his assessment of the growth of the Crimson Tide’s offensive line and the growth of the offense as a whole as Alabama heads into another hostile environment in Texas A&M on Saturday.

“I think we’ve been growing as a unit, getting some chemistry,” he said. “I know the last game was kind of our coming-out party, but as we watched the film this week we feel like there a lot of places where we didn’t finish too well; we still left a lot of points, a lot of yards on the field.”

Owens stated that as an offense, communication wasn’t always there early on, but it has gotten better as the season’s gone on.

“Especially early on in the year we kind of all knew what to do but communicating it to everyone else, like making sure the guy next to you knew what he had, or the guy behind you knew what he had,” he said, assessing where the offense has grown the most. “We weren’t really there. But I think especially going on the road in the Swamp and getting ready for this game, and all the games in between. We’ve really focused on being able to communicate from one person to the next so that we’re all on the same page.”

Alabama has been extremely effective passing the ball this season, behind first-year starting quarterback Bryce Young, wide receiver John Metchie III and the emergence of Ohio State transfer wide receiver Jameson Williams. On Saturday against Ole Miss, it was the ground game that delivered, behind the legs of Brian Robinson Jr.

“I think it helps us set the tone for where we want to be as a team,” he said. “We know Bryce (Young) is really talented and we have some talented receivers,  but we don’t want to be a one trick pony, so being able to have a balanced attack in the air and on the ground makes it harder to game plan for us.

“We never know what type of game we’ll be in, whether it’s a shoot out or a grind it out type of game. We need to have both types of games in our repertoire.”

Heading into a matchup with one of the more physical defenses in the SEC in Texas A&M, Chris Owens and the Alabama offense will have their work cut out for them. Keeping defensive lineman DeMarvin Leal at bay will prove to be a tough task.

Chris Owens is in his sixth season at Alabama and his first as a starter. Entering the season, Owens had played in 38 games, starting seven and had played almost everywhere on the offensive line including center, guard, tackle, and even tight end.