Alabama Football: Don’t give the Crimson Tide bulletin board material

The Alabama Crimson Tide absolutely beat the brakes off of the Vanderbilt Commodores with a 59-0 win in Nashville on Saturday.

“Alabama, you’re next.”

Those were the words of Vanderbilt’s Nifae Lealao after the Commodores’ 14-7 win over no. 18 Kansas State last weekend. Clearly Lealao was excited about the team’s win and their first 3-0 start since 2011, but he took it a little too far. Three words too far to be exact.

In his defense, Lealao was right. Alabama was next. They were the next team on Vanderbilt’s schedule, but I don’t think that a 59-0 loss is what he and the Commodores had in mind.

The Alabama football team showed on Saturday that they were tired of all the Vanderbilt talk. The Commodores were 3-0 coming into their matchup with the Crimson Tide, some had them at no. 4 in the SEC Power Rankings, while others were even picking them to upset Alabama.

Well, the Crimson Tide squashed that quickly. They gave Vanderbilt the most lopsided beatdown in the history of the SEC. They forced two Vanderbilt turnovers on the first four possessions of the game, and were up 21-0 in the first quarter.

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The game ended 59-0 in favor of the Tide, but statistically, it was even worse than that. Alabama outgained Vanderbilt 677-78 in total offense, they won the first down battle 38-3, and they won the time of possession battle 42:05-17:55.

Vanderbilt entered the game with the no. 1 total dense and scoring defense in the nation, allowing 198.3 yards and 4.3 points per game. After running into the Crimson Tide, Vanderbilt now ranks 31st in the nation in total defense and 25th in the nation in scoring defense.

The Crimson Tide also gashed the Vanderbilt defense for 496 yards and six touchdowns on the ground, an average of 7.5 yards per carry. The Commodores entered the game with the 28th ranked run defense in the country, and after Saturday’s game, they now have the 107th ranked run defense in the country.

Six different Alabama players ran for 48 or more yards in this game, including Damien Harris leading the way with 151 yards and three touchdowns on 12 carries.

The lesson here: Don’t give the Alabama football team bulletin board material. Most of us already knew that lesson, and now Vanderbilt does too.