Alabama Finally Wakes Up to Put Away Austin Peay

After sloppy first half, Crimson Tide gets it together to shut the door on Austin Peay; now turns attention to Auburn.

Edwin Stanton | Nov 19, 2022

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Earlier this week former Alabama running back Bo Scarbrough paid a visit to Nick Saban.

He was mad.

Scarbrough tapped his finger on the table in front of his old coach and said, “When we played here, we were making sure that the other team—when the game was over—would say, 'We never want to play them again.’”

After what happened Saturday against Austin Peay, it’s hard to argue with Scarbrough.

On Saturday, there was no killer instinct. There was no Bama mystique. There was no fear instilled into the Governors.

At least for the first half.

Instead, it was one Alabama mistake after another, something you rarely saw from Saban’s past Crimson Tide teams—even when they made mistakes, they weren’t repeated.

The game was never in doubt, as Alabama won 34-0, but it took some time for Alabama to finally wake up for the 11 a.m. game. The starters were still in the game in the fourth quarter.

“We had to come together and dominate, and until we showed that we didn’t get taken out,” said defensive back Brian Branch. “It wasn’t explained like that to us, but that’s how I felt it was.”

The undisciplined play must have been hard for Scarbrough and his former Bama alums to watch: Ja’Corey Brooks misses a pass down the middle, Kendrick Law drops pass in the end zone and later touches a punt to give Austin Peay the ball back, Isaiah Bond fumbles, Kool-Aid McKinstry gets burned by a receiver (he was saved by an overthrown pass), Austin Peay converts second-and-25 with a 32-yard reception. All those issues were in the first half.

The good news was that the mistakes were outweighed by positives. Alabama’s defense stiffened on a goal-line stand following Law’s punt kerfuffle and the 32-yard reception was answered by a McKinstry interception. The defense pitched a shutout and got two interceptions and the running back was dominant.

“The defense got a couple of stops after we turned the ball over in the first quarter,” Saban said. “It’s nice to get the shutout, I would have liked to have scored more points, but I’m glad we got to play a lot of players.

“It wasn’t perfect. We had some guys out, but other guys got an opportunity to get experience and I think that’s a good thing for our team.”

Jase McClellan certainly didn't start slow. He ran through Austin Peay for 136 first-half yards. But there was an attitude adjustment for the team at halftime.

"We weren’t playing to our standard so we had to come together in the locker room and fix it up, come back out and show dominance," he said.

The sloppy first-half performance against Austin Peay won't draw much scrutiny thanks to a 34-0 outcome. It will be an issue if this scene is repeated next week against Auburn.

“It shows our image and what we are capable of and how we compete,” McClellan said of finishing the regular season on the right note against Auburn. “We still have something to compete for.”

Auburn’s season went south long ago, and there isn’t too much to play for. However, interim coach Carnell Williams has invigorated the Tigers, who are playing with energy and confidence. That’s a dangerous combination.

“We’ll go back and watch film from this game. We have a 24-hour rule and then we will start talking about Auburn on Monday,” Branch said.

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