Paul Finebaum: Alabama's offensive line got 'beaten to a pulp' vs. Texas

Considering all things regarding Alabama’s offensive line, the Crimson Tide went into Saturday’s matchup at Texas feeling like that was a phase of the game where they’d succeed. That was not the case, though, as Paul Finebaum has now pointed out the poor play from that unit.

Finebaum took aim at ‘Bama’s offensive line during ‘The Matt Barrie Show’ on Sunday. He said that their line didn’t help the Tide from shooting themselves in the foot, both with penalties and poor protections, and did not live up to their billing.

“Alabama, in spite of all these things we’ve said and that will be said, still came back, took the lead. And then they did it to themselves,” said Finebaum. “That’s probably the most frustrating thing if you’re an Alabama fan today. I think it was only 10 penalties versus 17 last year but two took seven points off the board.”

“How many times have we heard, ‘Hey, you gotta take a look at this offensive line from Alabama! They’re the biggest, they’re the heaviest, they’re the greatest’? They got beaten to a pulp,” said Finebaum. “What does that portend for the rest of the season?”

Alabama QB Jalen Milroe spent much of the night scrambling or under duress by the Longhorns. In the end, the Texas defense finished the contest with five sacks and nine tackles for loss. Anthony Hill Jr. paired two of those with his six tackles overall while Ethan Burke also made his presence felt with a pair of TFLs.

Again, the offensive trench was a place that Alabama expected to have an advantage in and win against Texas. Since that didn’t happen, though, Finebaum has his questions about their offensive line heading into the rest of their campaign.

Analyzing Alabama’s offensive line struggles vs. Texas

For the first time in a long time, the Alabama Crimson Tide lost at home. Texas pulled off the feat as they defeated the Tide 34-24 on Saturday night.

One area that the Longhorns particularly had a strong showing was on the defensive line, which On3’s Andy Staples discussed after the game with BamaOnline’s Tim Watts.

“I thought (Texas) had a good defensive front. Bo Davis is a good coach. I think they’ve got good talent over there,” Watts said. “I wasn’t super surprised. Alabama didn’t get a great push the week before either. I thought maybe they went a little vanilla and we were gonna see a little bit more help.”

Texas’ defensive front stayed in Alabama’s backfield all night, tallying up five sacks and nine tackles for loss on the night as they exploited some of the weaknesses of the Crimson Tide offensive line.

“You have (Kadyn) Proctor over there struggling as a true freshman against a pretty smart defensive attack. You didn’t see a lot of help over there, guys chipping and trying to help him out. He was kind of on an island,” Watts said. “So I wasn’t completely caught off guard. I didn’t expect them to dominate the Texas defensive line but I expected them to be more competitive though.”

Staples suggested that some of Alabama’s sacks given up were the responsibility of quarterback Jalen Milroe, who was definitely quick and eager to run versus the Longhorns even in clear passing situations.

“Sometimes those holes are simply you’re pushing a guy left and then, all of a sudden, he’s cutting back and you’re having to reach out and grab him. A lot of that’s dictated, you see that at any level, on the reaction of the quarterback. So I totally agree with that, I think it was a little bit of everything there. I think they made it almost one-dimensional at some point,” Watts said.