BAMA CRUISES: Jones slices A&M defense in easy Tide win

By TIM GAYLE

Mac Jones for Heisman?

The redshirt junior, locked in an offseason battle for his job among fans who wanted the highly touted freshman Bryce Young, and relegated for the last three years behind Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa, may have finally silenced the doubters with an impressive four-touchdown display against 13th-ranked Texas A&M in a 52-24 rout of the Aggies at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday.

Jones always seemed to have head coach Nick Saban in his corner, but his performance on Saturday may have won over any lingering fans as well. From his 78-yard scoring strike to John Metchie on the opening drive to his leadership in directing the second-ranked Tide to points on five on their first seven drives, Jones seemed comfortable and confident in leading the Alabama offense.

Jones completed 20 of 27 passes for 435 yards, the fourth highest total in school history behind Scott Hunter’s 484 yards vs. Auburn in 1969, Blake Sims’ 445 yards vs. Florida in 2014 and Tua Tagovailoa’s 444 yards vs. South Carolina in 2019.

“I think we have to get more out of the running game than what we are doing right now,” Saban said. “When teams play us to stop the run then we have to try and make big plays and Mac is certainly doing a good job of that. Mac is playing very well, but that’s really what we expect him to do, and I think his poise has been really good so far this year as well.”

Alabama jumped out to a 14-0 lead, but the Aggies tied the game with a pair of touchdown passes by Kellen Mond, the second covering 17 yards to Ryan Renick with 14:44 remaining in the second quarter. The Tide answered with another touchdown, got a 47-yard interception return by Daniel Wright for another, then added a 2-yard touchdown pass from Jones to Deonta Smith to give Alabama a comfortable 35-14 lead at the half.

Jones continued to make big plays in the second half, hitting Jaylen Waddle with an 87-yard touchdown pass and John Metchie with a 63-yard strike to finish off the Aggies. Since losing to Texas A&M in 2012, Alabama has scored 40 or more points in six of the last eight meetings.

“They played a very good football game,” Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said. “They did the things they had to do, got the stops they needed on defense. We needed to match some scores with them offensively, we had some opportunities to do that. We had a missed field goal and two dropped balls in the red zone. The story of the game was them getting big plays on offense, hitting the big passes in backed-up situations.”

Saban improved to 20-0 versus former pupils and Saturday’s game marked his 201st Southeastern Conference victory, tying him with former Georgia coach Vince Dooley behind Paul “Bear” Bryant (292) and Steve Spurrier (206). It was also his 85th win against a Top 25 opponent, one behind former Penn State coach Joe Paterno, who holds the record with 86.

But if blasting the Aggies was pleasing to Saban, he didn’t show it after the game. 

“I am very pleased with the effort that our players played with today, the toughness,” he said. “We knew it would be a difficult game, but our guys persevered and overcame some adversity. Our guys stayed the course and kept competing in the game, and that’s really what we wanted to do is try to keep playing in the game and try to play for 60 minutes. I thought we did that. 

“Now there are a lot of things that we need to clean up. We made some mental errors on defense that led to big plays, whether they were alignments or not adjusting to motion correctly. I know time of possession was a little lopsided because we didn’t get off the field on third down well enough and allowed them to keep the ball.”

Alabama piled up 544 total yards, but allowed the Aggies to hold the ball for 37:42 while converting 10 of 17 third-down opportunities. 

Alabama (2-0) goes on the road next week, traveling to Ole Miss for a 5 p.m. matchup on ESPN. Texas A&M (1-1) returns home to face Florida.