Alabama Football Finally Starts Fast, Explodes for 35 First-Half Points Against South Carolina

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For the last two weeks, one of my biggest concerns with this Alabama football team has been simple: you cannot keep waiting until the second half to start playing your best football.

Apparently, Alabama got the message.

After frustrating first-half performances against Kentucky and Florida State, the Crimson Tide came into Saturday night’s matchup against South Carolina and finally showed us what this offense can look like when it comes out of the locker room ready to attack from the beginning.

Alabama took a 35-10 lead into halftime at Bryant-Denny Stadium, and considering everything we have talked about over the last couple of weeks, that first half felt significant.

This was not Alabama digging itself into a hole and asking Keelon Russell and the offense to climb out of it. This was not Alabama spending 20 or 25 minutes searching for a rhythm. This was Alabama dictating the game. And that is exactly what I wanted to see.

The Crimson Tide had fallen behind Kentucky 17-3 before dominating the second half in Lexington. Against Florida State, Alabama once again found itself trailing 21-6 before finally waking up and scoring 20 unanswered points late in the first half on its way to a 50-36 victory.

Alabama won both games, and winning obviously matters.

But when Georgia, Tennessee, Texas A&M and LSU are sitting on the schedule, continually falling behind and depending on massive comebacks is not a sustainable formula.

Saturday night has started better.

Alabama has looked explosive. The Tide looks confident. They look aggressive. And maybe most importantly, they have looked prepared to play football before halftime.

Keelon Russell has been absolutely outstanding.

The freshman quarterback completed 11 of his first 13 passes for 226 yards and four touchdowns as Alabama built its first-half advantage. And somehow, those numbers almost fail to describe how comfortable he looked.

Russell was seeing the field. He was trusting his protection. He was getting the football to his playmakers and allowing them to make plays. There was a calmness about the freshman quarterback that continues to stand out to me, especially considering how early we still are in his career.

Alabama's first offensive possession resulted in a three-and-out, so it wasn't literally a perfect beginning. But what happened next mattered.

After the defense came up with a fourth-down stop, Russell wasted absolutely no time. On Alabama's next offensive play, he found Lotzeir Brooks for a 75-yard touchdown.

One play.

Seventy-five yards.

Touchdown.

That is how you create energy inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. That is how you make a defense immediately start questioning everything it prepared for during the week. And Alabama never really took its foot off the gas from there.

Russell found Ryan Coleman-Williams for a 32-yard touchdown on the final play of the first quarter, giving Alabama a 14-0 advantage. Later in the second quarter, Russell connected with Coleman-Williams again, this time for a 42-yard touchdown that pushed the lead to 21-3.

Coleman-Williams finished the half with four receptions for 86 yards and two touchdowns. Then came one of my favorite moments of the half.

Josh Ford made an incredible one-handed catch in the end zone for his first reception in an Alabama uniform, giving Russell his fourth touchdown pass of the half and extending Alabama's lead to 28-3.

At that point, the offense was rolling. But Alabama wasn't finished.

Just seconds later, Red Morgan intercepted South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers and returned it 23 yards for a touchdown.

Suddenly, it was 35-3.

And Bryant-Denny Stadium was rocking.

South Carolina managed to score a touchdown before halftime to make it 35-10, but that did very little to change what Alabama accomplished over the first 30 minutes. This was the start Alabama desperately needed to show.

I have been critical of Ryan Grubb over the last couple of weeks, specifically because of Alabama's inability to consistently get going offensively early in games. I still believe that criticism was fair based on what we were watching at the time. But I also believe something else very strongly: if I am willing to criticize someone when things aren't working, I should be just as willing to give them credit when they are. And Ryan Grubb deserves credit for this first half.

Whatever conversations happened this week, whatever adjustments were made and whatever Alabama emphasized in practice, it translated onto the field.

The offense looked prepared. The playmakers were involved. Russell looked comfortable. The offensive line gave its young quarterback time to operate, and South Carolina failed to record a sack in the first half.

That matters because South Carolina's pass rush was one of the biggest concerns entering this matchup. Instead of allowing the Gamecocks' front to wreck the game, Alabama largely neutralized it and let Russell go to work.

This is much closer to the offense Alabama is going to need once the schedule becomes even more difficult.

And yes, it is South Carolina. I understand that.

One great half doesn't suddenly erase every concern Alabama had entering Saturday night, and it certainly doesn't guarantee anything when Georgia comes to Tuscaloosa or when Alabama travels to places like Knoxville and Baton Rouge.

But progress deserves to be acknowledged.

For weeks, we have been saying Alabama cannot keep starting slowly. Saturday night, it didn't.

We have been saying Alabama cannot keep waiting until halftime to make adjustments and find its offensive identity. Saturday night, it didn't.

We have been saying Alabama needs to play with urgency from the opening kick instead of waiting until adversity forces that urgency out of it. Saturday night, it did.

And maybe most importantly, we are watching Keelon Russell grow right in front of us. The young quarterback has already experienced adversity on the road against Kentucky. He has already experienced falling behind against Florida State. He has made mistakes, responded to them and continued developing.

Against South Carolina, we got to see the other side of that growth. We got to see what happens when Russell isn't trying to rescue Alabama from an early deficit. We got to see what happens when Alabama gives its quarterback protection, gets its weapons involved and allows the offense to play from ahead.

The result? Thirty-five first-half points. Four first-half touchdown passes from Russell. Explosive plays all over the field. A defensive touchdown.

And, finally, a first-half performance that looked like the Alabama team many of us believe is capable of competing for something special this season.

There is still plenty of football left to play, and Alabama will face much bigger tests. But this was a step. A big one.

Because eventually, you cannot simply keep talking about fixing slow starts. You have to actually fix them. Against South Carolina, Alabama didn't wait until the second half. It didn't wait until it was punched in the mouth. It didn't wait until everyone watching was wondering what was wrong.

For once, Alabama threw the first punch.

And if the Crimson Tide can make this version of Alabama the standard rather than the exception, this team just became a whole lot more dangerous.

Roll Tide. 

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