Paul Finebaum after Alabama's win vs. Florida: 'They look beatable'

No. 1 Alabama barely snuck away with a 31-29 victory over No. 11 Florida on Saturday. Alabama got out to an early lead and led 21-3 at the end of the first quarter. Florida fought back and Alabama’s offense slowed down from there, and the Crimson Tide narrowly escaped with the win. ESPN’s Paul Finebaum has concerns about Alabama. He thinks that, for the first time, they actually look beatable.

“They do look beatable. You have to be a little bit concerned,” Finebaum said of Alabama on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. “Quite frankly, after starting the game so well, Alabama did everything that it could to put itself in a position to lose which it almost did.”

After the first quarter, Alabama did not score again until late in the third. By the end of the third quarter, Florida fought back to make it a 28-23 game. Alabama kicked a field goal in the fourth quarter to go up 31-23, but the Gators again fought back. Florida drove down the field on a 12 play, 75-yard drive for a touchdown before the two-point conversion attempt was unsuccessful.

Nick Saban has concerns following Florida’s comeback effort against Alabama

Alabama is known as a national powerhouse in college football. Usually, if Alabama gets out to an 18-point lead early in the game, it is likely going to be over, and the fact that Saturday was different could be concerning. That wasn’t the case on Saturday. While Florida is a good team with a dynamic offense, Alabama did not look great in the final three quarters of the game. Alabama head coach Nick Saban had some concerns coming out of the game.

“What concerned me most is that we could not sustain our intensity, especially on defense,” Saban said of Alabama’s concerns in the postgame press conference. “We had a lot of mental errors. They did a good job. They did a really good job, had a really good plan. When you’re playing the option, everybody’s got to be disciplined. Somebody’s got the quarterback, somebody’s got the pitch, and because we weren’t doing that correctly, I think we were afraid of doing a lot of other things that we had planned in the game.

“We didn’t get off the field down on third down, either. We had several opportunities, especially in the fourth quarter, to get off the field on third down when we created a long yardage situation, and they’d go 99 yards for a touchdown. We’ve got to get off the field. There was another situation where it was third-and-18 and they completed a pass for 16 yards, they’d go for it on fourth down and convert. So, you’ve got to get off the field on third down. So, all in all it was just our execution on defense and the fact that we didn’t get off the field on third down.”

The Crimson Tide will host Southern Miss on Saturday night. Alabama will then look to put the concerns to rest as they face No. 13 Ole Miss and No. 7 Texas A&M in the first two weeks of October.