Can Alabama Stop Shooting Itself in the Foot?

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Think of some of the traditional hallmarks of a sloppy football team: missed tackles, pre-snap penalties, dropped passes, and third-down blunders, to name a few.

How many of them have reared their ugly heads throughout the first eight games of Alabama's season? The answer is painstakingly simple: more than a team on the verge of elimination from the College Football Playoff can afford.

"It's more about consistency. You can see guys that are out there and what it can look like," head coach Kalen DeBoer said. "The areas where we fall short with our execution, that's what we've got to improve. We've got to play four quarters, not just two or three, you know, and especially early in the game."

Alabama has finally reached its bye week after last Saturday's 31-20 win over Texas A&M. In addition to serving as a much-needed chance for a banged-up roster to recover, it also marks the final true opportunity to clean up these issues. There's only so much that can change week-to-week, especially in the home stretch of a season.

If the Crimson Tide is going to develop an identity as a disciplined football team, it absolutely must be refined over the next 11 days.

"It's a couple of small execution errors and some of it has to just do with identification and things like that," DeBoer said. "So it's things that I would expect that we could be much better at. You know, you can tell when the identification and execution happens. It's not a physical thing. We've just got to execute at a higher level."

There's been so much variation in Alabama's execution throughout the season. The Crimson Tide can be great in one area one week, and awful the next, seemingly with no rhyme or reason. The team missed a season-high 23 tackles against Tennessee and cut that number all the way down to six against the Aggies. But whenever one area improves, another craters, and this team has consistently found ways to shoot itself in the foot. Can Alabama plug all the holes, mitigate all of the issues, and put forth a clean product against LSU next Saturday?

"I'm proud of the way the guys worked through the last couple weeks," DeBoer said. "They responded with the work and practice that matters. They understand what matters. They kept it simple and didn't overthink things and just went back to the grind... The guys just continue to play team football, just doing what they can to help us find a way to win."

Alabama is a good football team. But the first eight weeks have proven that the Crimson Tide is not a great team. And if you aren't a great team, you can't afford to be as sloppy as DeBoer's unit has been.

Will Alabama run the table and make the playoff, or find itself punching the wall on the outside looking in? The answer to that question — the answer that will ultimately define the entire season — will come down to this execution.

Listen to Kalen DeBoer's full press conference from the Monday Morning Quarterback Club: