E85 BH Alabama win over E Illinois 56 to Zero Instant Reaction

E85 BH Alabama win over E. Illinois 56 to Zero Instant Reaction Alabama rolled over E Illinois 56-0 at home today. Alabama took care of business, did what they needed to do, and now it is on to Auburn in the must win Iron Bowl at Auburn if Alabama wants to go the playoffs. Bama defense was spectacular as they shut out E. IL. Bama rolled as they should scoring 56 points, 539 yds of total offense, and 269 rushing yards and 8 rushing TD’s. Bama passing game was OK, but not great. Ty threw two interceptions and could have had a third and had no TD passes. Ty’s numbers were 11/16 for 147 yds with 2 INT’s. Austin Mack and Keelon Russell took all the snaps in the 2nd half and looked good with Austin going 5/5 with 45 yds and Keelon going 7/9 with 78 yds. Austin also ran for 26 yds and one TD. AK Dear looked good rushing for 45 yds and 2 TD’s. Kevin Riley reappeared and ran for 36 yds and 2 TD’s. Jam ran for 62 yds and 1 score as the running game was strong today. Good to see AK Dear and Kevin Riley having an impact and scoring TD’s. I am hopeful one of them can add some juice to the running game against Auburn. Take all of this with a grain of salt given it was against E. IL. On Defense, Bama shut out E. IL and held them to 34 yds. Bama had one Interception and totally dominated E. IL. All is good for Bama after this blow out. Or is it. Here are the concerns I have from this game. Ty didn’t play well as he threw two INT’s and was lucky that a third one was dropped by E. IL. He was not sharp. On his first INT, he threw it into triple coverage when he had other options on the play, but choose to try to drop it in over the linebackers in the middle of the field and had it picked off. Ty was off today. He needs to get back on track if Bama is going to beat Auburn. Ty has led this team to a 9-2 record and to a 6-1 record in the SEC. He has played great this season overall, but his level of play had dropped over the past three weeks. Ty, we believe in you and need you to raise your level of play back to the high level he had during that 8 game winning streak prior to the loss to OK. Ty has shown how good he can be and how clutch he can be. We need you Ty to be that level of good against Auburn. Tighten it up. Be more accurate. Be more precise. Also, don’t force the ball into double coverage or triple coverage. Also, throw the ball away when pressured and go to the next down. Don’t hold the ball too long and risk a sack or risk a strip sack fumble. I am concerned because Ty was not at his best today. And didn’t play great against Oklahoma or against LSU. I still believe in Ty, in his ability to lead this team, and his ability to win big games. Now, it is time to put this performance behind us and for Ty to lead us to victory at Auburn and for Bama to clinch its spot in the SEC title game and clinch a playoff spot. Here are my other concerns from today. The FG kicking – Talty missed another chip shot from 38 yds. Our kicking game is unreliable. We lost to OK because of a missed 29 yd FG. Talty is unreliable as a kicker from beyond 45 yds, and based on the last two games, he is unreliable period. The special teams is a concern, but probably the kicking is not fixable until the off-season. But we must get it fixed. If Talty is not the answer, we need to get a better kicker in the off-season through the portal. Also, given other special teams issues we have had this season, I think we need another STCoordinator. We seem to continue to have problems on special teams as a whole. It must get fixed. We lost the OK because of special teams. I hope that we don’t lose any more games this season because of special teams, but that is a fear. Bama still has its back against the wall. Bama also is in control of its own destiny. Just win at Auburn. And then just keep winning after that. How will they respond at Auburn after that tough close loss to Oklahoma? It is do or die if Bama wants to go the playoffs.