Alabama has plenty of work to do

TUSCALOOSA — Alabama’s encore after the near-perfect win over Clemson of a week ago was almost a disaster.

The Tide stumbled its way to a 20-6 win over Tulane on Saturday, thanks mostly to some magic by the special teams and some missed opportunities by the team wearing green and white.

Alabama’s offense, so promising against Clemson, was non-existent for three quarters. Quite frankly, it was pathetic.

Zero net yards rushing in the first half. Just 38 yards passing in the first two quarters.

And it really didn’t get a whole lot better after intermission — though Alabama did put together a nice drive to put points on the scoreboard when true freshman
Mark Ingram went 15 yards around left end for a touchdown on the final play of the third quarter.

When it was all said and done, Alabama had compiled 172 yards of offense — 99 by the ground and 73 passing.

This coming against a Tulane team playing its first game of the season, and coming off a 4-8 campaign a year ago.

It wasn’t what the crowd at Bryant-Denny Stadium expected to see from a team that looked like a heavyweight contender under the bright lights of the Georgia Dome in its opener.

It wasn’t what the AP voters had in mind when Alabama was moved 11 spots from the preseason rankings into the No. 13 slot this week.

So what went wrong?

To start with, the highly touted Tide offensive line took a beating, and because of it, quarterback John Parker Wilson took a beating, too. Wilson was sacked four times in the first half alone for 29 yards in losses.

The Tide defense, so dominating in the win over Clemson, had its shares of ups and downs as well. The Green Wave, hardly a team with offensive firepower, managed 318 yards of total offense — 232 by air. Two missed field goals certainly hurt Tulane’s chance of making it even more interesting.

And we found out Alabama is an injury away from some desperate times in the kicking game. When Leigh Tiffin was knocked flat on a kickoff in the first quarter and didn’t return until late in the third, substitute Corey Smith, a freshman, missed an extra point and a field goal try.

But thankfully, there was a silver — perhaps we should call it a gold — lining to the night of football.

The play of the Alabama special teams was indeed special.

Javier Arenas returned a punt for an 87-yard touchdown en route to a school record 147 yards in punt returns. And third-string running back Roy Upchurch made his presence known on the other side of the football by blocking a punt attempt, which was promptly taken in for a score by an alert Chris Rogers.

Because of the above mentioned, Alabama can chalk up a ‘W’ and look ahead to next week with a 2-0 record.

But no doubt this Alabama team, so high coming into this one, was brought down to earth.

Perhaps that will be a good thing for a team that has so many young players, and a program that is still very much in the building process.

It was easy to get excited — to believe the Tide was back among the nation’s elite — after the trouncing of Clemson.

Tide boss Nick Saban warned against such high expectations. He said it loud and clear.

Some of us just took it as coach talk. We know better now.

There’s still lots of work to be done.