Alabama Crimson Tide Must Fix Offensive Issues

By Tim Letcher on October 4, 2014

Christopher Hanewinckel, USA TODAY SPORTS

Until Saturday, the offense for the Alabama Crimson Tide had looked good. However, some questions remained because the Alabama schedule had not been extremely tough thus far in 2014.

In Saturday’s game against the Ole Miss Rebels in Oxford, Alabama’s offense got its first real test of the season. And it didn’t go well. A look at the box score will show that the Tide had 396 yards of total offense, including 168 on the ground. However, the Tide wasted several scoring opportunities which came back to haunt them as Ole Miss pulled the 23-17 upset.

After moving the ball up and down the field in the first quarter, Alabama was still not able to score. However, they broke through in the second quarter as quarterback Blake Sims took it in from one yard out to give the Tide a 7-3 lead. That was followed by Alabama’s only other touchdown of the game, which was scored by the ‘Bama defense, as Cyrus Jones scored on a 13-yard fumble return.

Alabama’s only points in the second half came on an Adam Griffith 44-yard field goal. However, Griffith missed two other field goals in the game, wasting good drives by Sims and the offense.

Sims finished the game with 228 yards passing with no touchdowns and an interception. That’s simply not going to get it done against today’s high-powered SEC offenses. Head coach Nick Saban and offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin are either going to have to tweak the offense to make it easier for Sims, or they will have to switch to backup quarterback Jake Coker.

Something must change for the Tide on offense, or more losses could be coming as the season rolls on.

Tim Letcher is a contributing writer for www.RantSports.com and a member of the Football Writers Association of America. Follow him on Twitter @TimLetcher , on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.