Alabama Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer has a serious problem. More than one thing needs fixing with the Alabama football team. But one thing looms over the other deficiencies; the Crimson Tide has a quarterback problem. Jalen Milroe’s performance against Tennessee was awful. He made inaccurate throws, failed to deliver the ball to open receivers, threw into tight coverages, and expected too much magic from Ryan Williams.
Alabama football fans are critical of Nick Sheridan’s play-calling. Maybe Sheridan could have called a better game. Maybe he and DeBoer, and others on the Crimson Tide offensive staff could have had a better game plan. However much the coaches did or did not underperform, the worst weakness in the Alabama offense was Jalen Milroe.
By all accounts, Jalen is an outstanding young man. He has a combination of skills surpassing many quarterbacks. Unfortunately, instead of his skills flourishing into outstanding performances, Milroe has regressed into a sub-par quarterback. Since the second quarter against Georgia, Milroe’s passing stats have plummeted.
In the second quarter of the Tennessee game, one play was a microcosm of too frequent Jalen Milroe failures. On a second down at the Tennessee 32-yard line, Milroe is given a clean pocket. As the play developed he had three choices. A hole in the UT defense would have given him at least a 10-yard run. Justice Haynes was open for a pass around the Tennessee 15 and at the 10-yard line, behind the last Vol defender, a wide-open Alabama receiver waved for the ball. Milroe chose the Haynes option and the pass sailed well over the running back’s reach. Because of Alabama penalties and a sack, the possession ended in a James Burnip punt.
Alabama Crimson Tide Dilemma
Judging any player for one mistake is unfair. But there are many examples of Milroe failing to make the right decisions on plays. A statistical exclamation point is that Milroe, against SEC competition, has the worst touchdown pass-to-interception ratio among SEC QB starters. In SEC games, he has five touchdown passes and six interceptions. Based on SEC games only, what Alabama is getting from Jalen Milroe is about what Auburn is getting from Payton Thorne. Alabama football fans don’t have to be told that such a comparison is unacceptable.
Kalen DeBoer has a dilemma. Ty Simpson may not offer a marked improvement over Jalen Milroe. To the extent DeBoer’s and now Alabama’s current offensive scheme is failing with Milroe, it could be worse with Simpson. Unless Simpson was to come in and quickly improve the Tide’s offensive fortunes, benching the popular Milroe could lead to a player backlash. What DeBoer must do is unclear. But he must do something that works and he must do it quickly.
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