Alabama has been striking first and striking often this football season.
Especially the striking first part.
Through the top-ranked Crimson Tide's 5-0 start, they have outscored opponents 73-3 in the first quarter and 76-16 in the second quarter. The average halftime score of an Alabama game so far this season is 30-4.
"I would just say that we focus on getting out and getting on top of our opponent real quick," junior receiver Jameson Williams said this week on a Zoom call. "That would be pretty much it, just getting up early."
Alabama's fast starts in Nick Saban's 15th season have built on last year's dominating run to the national championship, thus placing comeback victories on the verge of extinction. The Crimson Tide have scored first in 14 straight games and have not trailed in 57 consecutive quarters, which is the longest streak in the Bowl Subdivision since at least 1950.
The last deficit Alabama faced transpired early in the third quarter of last October's game against Georgia, when the Crimson Tide erased a 24-20 halftime deficit by outscoring the Bulldogs 21-0 in the final two quarters.
"I guess it says something about good preparation and that the players have good intensity to start the game," Saban said. "What we keep talking about is how can we sustain that and keep that energy level up for 60 minutes in a game. Hopefully we learned a lesson that it's not how you start but how you finish, especially when you're playing on the road, which is what I hope we learned at Florida."
Alabama will play its second true road game this season on Saturday night, when they visit a shell-shocked Texas A&M team that began the year in the top 10 but is no longer in the top 25 following consecutive losses to Arkansas and Mississippi State.
The Crimson Tide put points on the board two minutes and 53 seconds into the season, when Bryce Young connected with John Metchie III from 37 yards out in an eventual 44-13 thumping of Miami in the Cick-fil-A Kickoff Game inside Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium. They needed three minutes and 39 seconds for Young to find Jase McClellan for a 7-yard score against Florida on Sept. 18, when Alabama would build a 21-3 lead before hanging on 31-29.
Alabama's quickest score was the 100-yard kickoff return by Williams against Southern Mississippi when only 14 seconds had elapsed.
"I think the key is finishing and playing 60 minutes," Alabama junior defensive lineman Justin Eboigbe said. "The key around here is four quarters, and that's something that we haven't done. We haven't played a complete 60 minutes, and around here, that's how you're judged about playing each and every week."
Crowd control
Alabama's first road game at Florida yielded 11 Crimson Tide penalties for 75 yards, with pre-snap miscues often serving as the culprit.
Right guard Emil Ekiyor committed three false-start penalties, while left tackle Evan Neal had one, and there was a delay-of-game flag as well.
"We've got to be able to use different cadences, and we've got to be able to lock into what our assignment is," right tackle Chris Owens said Tuesday. "When you're dealing with crowd noise like that, there is mental communication that's not verbal, so you've got to be able to use hand signals, and you've got to know what you're doing.
"You've got to be able to anticipate the snap count. We know we probably won't be able to hear anything, and there won't be much communication between us and Bryce unless it's him coming right up to the line of scrimmage."
Tide tidbits
Alabama holds an 11-2 series lead over Texas A&M with eight straight wins. ... Saban announced this week that McClellan is out for the season with a knee injury. ... With the Aggies having fallen out of the national polls after consecutive losses to Arkansas and Mississippi State, the Crimson Tide can notch their 101st straight win over an unranked foe. ... Saban is 50-2 during his time at Alabama in October, losing to South Carolina in 2010 and Ole Miss in 2014.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.