No. 3 Alabama is a definitive 4-0 after plastering the Florida Gators in Tuscaloosa, but not without 30 minutes or so of scares. The Tide did just about everything they could to keep Florida in the game, coughing up four turnovers and making other varieties of mistakes rarely seen in the Nick Saban era.
Quarterback Blake Sims is likely the SEC's star of the weekend, throwing for 445 yards (39 yards shy of the school record) and four touchdowns, with 201 and three (respectively) of those going to Amari Cooper. Or maybe Cooper's the star of the weekend. Or maybe it's their boss, Lane Kiffin. It's one of those three.
Whichever it is, the Bama attack was so deadly, CBS' Gary Danielson was gasping at Florida from the first snap. The total damage on the day: 646 yards by Alabama, the most Florida has ever given up, topping even the legendary 1996 Fiesta Bowl against Nebraska. A seat warms.
Three things we learned
1. Wow, Alabama's passing game (or awwwww, Florida's secondary)! At the half, Sims had 335 yards and three touchdowns through the air, already about 150 yards shy of the biggest aerial day in Tide history. That is below par, to say the least, for a Florida defensive backfield that includes all-world cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III and is head-coached by former Nick Saban assistant Will Muschamp.
He was relieved at two points by former FSU backup Jacob Coker, who threw for one touchdown in two attempts.
While Alabama's receiving corps includes unstoppable threats like Cooper and DeAndrew White, it's clear something's wrong here. I mean ...
Our sites on these teams
2. Wow, Florida's front seven (or awwwww, Alabama's running game)! At the half, Alabama had 30 yards rushing and three lost fumbles. That is below par, to say the least, for the five-star-packed rushing game that'd ranked in the top 10 in yards per attempt three years in a row.
While the Gator front is somewhat similarly talented, it's clear something was briefly wrong here.
(However, Florida wore down as events continued, giving up 20-yard runs to Sims and Derrick Henry, with T.J. Yeldon and Kenyan Drake also breaking tackles in the second half. We're ... trying to say something nice about Florida here.)
3. Alabama doesn't have to look like Alabama anymore. Four turnovers, three of them setting up Gator touchdowns. Two penalties in the first five minutes. A hideous first half.
And the amazing thing: it kind of didn't matter. The Tide remain so many levels beyond Florida right now that even those handouts weren't enough to compensate for the differential. Alabama covered the 14-point spread against one of the country's few similarly advantaged programs despite handing over three easy touchdowns.
Despite all that, Alabama allowed only 200 yards, had Emmitt Smith calling for a Florida quarterback change, and even saw Nick Saban picking off Jeff Driskel.
If someone told you an SEC West team blew the doors off Florida while coughing up the ball, bombing it deep, and playing a little hurry-up, you'd guess Texas A&M, right? Alabama has become Texas A&M. What a world.