Nick Saban gives blunt assessment of Alabama offense following win vs. Texas A&M

Alabama pulled out a tight 24-20 victory over Texas A&M on Saturday, but the game was far too close for comfort. The Crimson Tide were without star quarterback Bryce Young due to an injury, leaving Jalen Milroe as the starter for the big-time matchup. After the victory, Nick Saban had a very blunt assessment of the performance from Alabama’s offense on Saturday.

First, Saban was asked about the play of the team’s wide receivers against Texas A&M. Saban thought that they had some room to improve, but the same can be said for the entire team.

“Well, we didn’t shake man-to-man very well,” Saban said when asked about the play of Alabama’s receivers. “But I don’t think they had a whole lot of opportunities, either. I don’t think there’s anybody on the team that doesn’t have something that they can improve on. That’s what we have to do as coaches, is try to get them to do the things they need to do to improve.”

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Saban was critical of the Alabama offense’s ability to pass

Jalen Milroe ultimately attempted just 19 passes against the Aggies, completing 12 of them for 111 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. As the passing game saw struggles, Alabama turned to more of a run-heavy approach as the game progressed.

The Crimson Tide rushed 51 times compared to 19 pass attempts, and rushed for 288 yards, averaging 5.6 yards per carry. Alabama scored 17 points in the second quarter alone, but just seven the rest of the way.

“So they didn’t have a lot of opportunities,” said Saban. “We tried to throw the ball early in the game and turned it over three times in the first half and decided that we were gonna go in the bag a little bit and try to run the ball. Which, we ran it effectively and had some good drives and came up empty-handed twice down in the redzone.

“Take a sack when we get the ball on the 20-yard line. It’s hot there in blitz zero coverage, you can’t block them all. Quarterback’s got to get rid of the ball. Not take off running the ball and take a 15-yard loss and then we miss the field goal. So there’s a lot of things that we can learn from, but I don’t think the receivers had a lot of opportunities and that’s not all their fault. But I think everyone on the team can play better.”

Saban was not shy in criticizing Alabama’s offense after the win, and his comments were largely geared towards the struggles through the air from Milroe. Bryce Young’s status is unknown entering this weekend’s game against Tennessee, but his return could prove to be a major boost against a high-powered Vols team.