♦♦ BAMA NATION ♦♦

• 2023 Alabama Football 2023 •  Tuscaloosa, AL Alabama football took care of business Saturday against Chattanooga, winning 66-10 and moving to 10-1 on the season, while remaining 7-0 in SEC play. The Crimson Tide has now reached its regular season finale, the Iron Bowl trip to Auburn. Before that game, here’s our grades from Saturday’s win over the Mocs. Offense: A There’s a caveat to every single one of these grades and that’s the opponent. Chattanooga simply wasn’t ever going to be able to put up a huge fight against a team like Alabama. With that said, the offense showed everything it needed to against the Mocs. Jalen Milroe was excellent, getting Jermaine Burton back into the swing of things, and the run game chipped in as well. In the second half, Alabama was able to go to the backups and get snaps for Ty Simpson and Dylan Lonergan at quarterback. As the season goes on, those reps could prove valuable for all parties. Defense: A- Gino Appleberry was able to put up 104 rushing yards and a touchdown for Chattanooga, and Nick Saban noted the group looked a bit unfocused on that scoring drive. Still, a solid performance overall. Even playing backups for much of the second half, Alabama still allowed only 233 total yards. The Mocs converted just four of their 14 third downs. Another possible ding would be Chris Braswell getting ejected for targeting. However, that just allowed more depth and it was early enough in the game that he won’t miss any of Saturday’s matchup against Auburn. Special teams: A- The glaring problem here was Kool-Aid McKinstry’s fumble on his second punt return. However, Saban made a change to Caleb Downs and things rapidly improved. Downs had no issue catching kicks. And not to bury the lede, but he ran one back 85 yards for a touchdown to increase the Crimson Tide’s lead. Couple that with a long field goal from Will Reichard, playing in his final home game, and it was an overall successful day for the special teams. Coaching A Saban and company wanted to get plenty of players on the field against Chattanooga. His hope was that his players would maintain the momentum they picked up throughout SEC play, including recent wins over Tennessee and LSU. Mission accomplished on both fronts. Alabama was able to go deep into the bench and get players game reps. The staff also deserves credit for making the call to pull McKinstry off punt returns, given his recent struggles. Overall A It was Chattanooga. The harder games are yet to come. But Alabama did exactly what it needed to Saturday. The matchup was an unqualified success. • CLICK HERE TO ROLL WITH THE TIDE •