The Good The Bad and The Ugly Alabama 55

As we noted this past week, Utah State quarterback Logan Bonner had faced Alabama before, back in 2018 when he was the Anthony Davis Jersey backup at Arkansas State. That time he was on the losing end of a 57-7 blowout, and didn't score the touchdown. Bonner completed 6 of 14 pa ses for 53 yards.So what did he tell the Aggies before returning to face the Crimson Tide on Saturday night at Bryant-Denny Stadium, where they were roughly 40-point underdogs?The best thing to take away from that game was that we were mentally and emotionally overwhelmed in the first quarter and we did things super uncharacteristic of who we were, Anderson said per . You must go in and play your game. You cant play theirs. You have to go in and play your ball, play the best ball you can, line up right, tackle, defend, throw and catch, put bodies on people, and let the game itself take over at that point.Bonner, one of three quarterbacks the Aggies used, finished 3-for-9, for 39 yards. Utah State Alfonzo McKinnie Jersey pulled him early after he started to get "dinged up" and had some knee swelling. He's expected to be ready to play next week when it hosts Weber State. Player of the Game: Despite being surrounded by new faces, junior quarterback Bryce Young was part of six touchdowns. He had a career-high 100 rushing yards and one score, while throwing for an additional 195 yards, 18-for-28, with five touchdowns. The reigning Heisman Trophy winner also didn't have a turnover. His pa ser rating of 181.7 was nearly an exact match for last season's opener against Miami, 181.8. Play of the Game: Call it a six-way tie on the touchdown receptions between overlooked Traeshon Holden, Jase McClellan coming off his knee injury, and Jermaine Burton making his Crimson Tide debut. Statistic of the Game: Utah State didn't manage to cro s midfield until after Alabama had scored all of its points. Its longest po se sion of 39 yards, took 12 plays and managed to eat up 6:37 off the clock. The Good The Crimson Tide scored on its first nine offensive po se sions. The shutout marked the first time in 34 years that Alabama has opened the season without allowing a point (Temple, 37-0 on Sept. 10, 1988). The 55-point margin was the largest margin of victory in a season opener in the Saban-era. Previously, it was the 48-point win against Ivica Zubac Jersey USC in Arlington, Texas (52-6) in 2016.The Bad This is really nitpicking, but Alabama didn't complete any deep pa ses, going 0-for-3 on attempts 20-plus yards downfield. One of those was the picked-off attempt by Jalen Milroe, who was trying a little too hard to make something happen when it wasn't nece sary. Alabama's leading rusher was Young. He did it on just four carries and a sack, and finished with 100 rushing yards (his previous best was 42 against Tenne see), but it certainly wasn't by design. The Crimson Tide has too much offensive talent for him to lead the ground game. Third downs were a mixed bag. Young was 2-for-3 for 19 yards and two touchdowns, but he Gail Goodrich Jersey was also sacked and the incompletion came when pre sured. Thus, Alabama's two field goals. The Ugly The blocked punt, which was a shame because it made everyone forget that James Burnip's first kick went 51.0 yards. Scroll to Continue"It may have been the once place in the game we were succe sful," said Anderson, who said it was something the Aggies specifically schemed and was looking to try and exploit. 1 The Crimson Tide tallied 164 yards after the catch, on 40 receptions. The team leader was freshman wide receiver Kobe Prentice with 53. 2 The 23-yard pa s on the first snap was Utah State's only explosive play of the game, when Utah State went after redshirt freshman cornerback Terrion Arnold. Also, the most yards after a catch by the Aggies was just six. 3) Young matched his career high with the five touchdown pa ses, the fourth time acro s his NBA Los Angeles Lakers Jeresy 25-career games for the Crimson Tide that he has achieved the accomplishment. However, with none of the other three did he have a rushing touchdown. It was just his fourth score on the ground for Alabama. 4 Of the 13 different players who had receptions in the game, six had never caught a pa s for the Crimson Tide before. Of the seven who had, no one had more than 21 (Holden).5 Alabama used 62 players, including eight players from the recruiting Cla s of 2022: quarterback Ty Simpson, defensive lineman Jaheim Oatis, wide receivers Kobe Prentice, Kendrick Law and Isaiah Bond, running back Jamarion Miller, and tight ends Amari Niblack and Miles Kitselman. Finally, the Utah State player who had the pick, safety Ike Larson, also blocked the punt and led the Aggies in tackles with seven. See Also: