TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Perhaps University of Alabama coach Nick Saban was right. Maybe the game against University of Western Kentucky was important.
In a week that saw Alabama rise to No. 1 in the national rankings after an opening-day victory against then-No. 8 University of Michigan and Saban berate the press about setting high expectations for his team, Alabama (2-0) was sluggish Saturday in a 35-0 victory against Western Kentucky University.
“This game ended up being a little bit like I expected it to be, and probably different from what a lot of people here expected it to be,” Saban said. “Western Kentucky, coach Taggert, and his staff do a really good job and use a lot of pressure with their defense and a lot of stunts. They try to give you bad plays, which we had far too many negative plays on offense that really hurt us. They’re stubborn about running the ball, doing a lot of different formations, being a little different in terms of having two tight ends and one wide receiver on third downs. They create some issues that are a little different for us, and they do a really good job with a control passing game, which they did today.”
Alabama scored in less than two minutes on its first drive, which ended in four plays with quarterback A.J. McCarron hitting Christion Jones for a 14-yard touchdown. McCarron found Kevin Norwood for a 33-yard touchdown pass midway through the first quarter to make it 14-0 entering the second quarter.
McCarron, who was sacked six times, completed a 22-yard pass to Jones early in the second quarter to give Alabama a 21-0 halftime lead.
Western Kentucky had three turnovers in the first half and 122 yards offense, which is more than Alabama allowed last week in the first half.
McCarron found Norwood again in the third quarter for a 12-yard touchdown to make it 28-0. Kenyan Drake scored on a 32-yard run late in the fourth quarter to account for the final margin. McCarron was 19 of 41 for 219 yards and four touchdowns.
After the game, Saban praised McCarron and Norwood, who had 92 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
“I thought Kevin Norwood and Christion Jones (42 yards receiving and two touchdowns) and the receivers made some big plays today,” Saban said. “I thought A.J. (McCarron) made some big plays today. We didn’t do a very good job in pass protection. Three or four of those were just that guys got beat. A couple of them were pressures we didn’t pick up properly, so that’s something we need to get better on. We need to be a better third-down team. We ran the ball OK, but probably not as good as we’re going to need to, so there is a lot of things for us to work on. I thought special teams was probably a plus, and that’s going to be an important area for us to continue to improve.”
On the inured list Saturday were defensive back Dee Milliner and defensive lineman Jesse Williams. Saban said the team had to carry on with out them.
“I really think we fully expected Jesse and Dee Milliner to be able to play today,” Saban said. “We weren’t trying to hide anything. Dee actually strained a hip flexor Wednesday in practice or something and actually practiced some Thursday. We went out and pre-gamed today and didn’t feel like he was 100 percent. Could he have played? He said he could play if we needed him to play, and I just didn’t want to take a chance setting him back. I thought it was good that John Fulton got a chance to play and get some experience, and I thought John did a good job for us. Jesse practiced Thursday and practiced Wednesday. I thought he was going to be able to play. His concussion scores are normal. We never had an issue with them. He woke up today and had a bad headache. He said could play if he needed to. The doctor said if you don’t need him, don’t play him so we didn’t play him. Hopefully that will give him time to get over that.”
For the second week in a row, linebacker C.J. Mosley led the defense with four solo tackles, seven assists, and a sack.
Alabama will begin Southeastern Conference play Saturday when it travels to Little Rock, Ark., to face Western Division foe Arkansas, which lost to the University of Louisiana at Monroe in overtime Saturday night.
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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