Storm Warnings for the Tide

In a completely lackluster 24-13 win over Arkansas yesterday, Alabama demonstrated a couple of very disturbing tendencies. First, the defense gave up 253 yards rushing...to Arkansas! This is not a good sign. If we can't take the rush away from Florida and force them to be one-dimensional, next Saturday's game is going to be ugly. Second, they gave up 10 points in the fourth quarter. For a team that had only allowed one "garbage time" second half score all year, this represents a profound dropoff.

On the whole, the intensity and focus that marked the second half of the Southern Miss game and all of last week's sterling effort at South Carolina was nowhere to be found. I hope that's just becuase it was Arkansas coming off giving up 70 to Southern Cal and the fact that Florida's coming to town next week. It was a classic trap game, and we did win it. But the storm warnings are up. Yesterday's effort won't be close to what we'll need against the number five team in the country.