Alabama vs. West Virginia final score: Crimson Tide survive scare 33-23
By Josh Hill
The Alabama Crimson Tide kicked off another season on Saturday and it is a season full of hope that the Tide can get back to the national championship game after missing out on an opportunity to do so last year. But the last thing the Tide needed was a close game to start the season and then cast doubt in the minds of cynics just looking for any chance to bust them down.
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That’s almost what happened against West Virginia on Saturday though as the Tide nearly fell into an upset trap game against the Mountaineers but managed to pull things out in the end.
Alabama was never really losing by a whole lot at any point during the game but they weren’t winning by much until later on in the contest when they started to pull away from West Virginia. Blake Sims had an alright debut as A.J. McCarron’s successor as he went 24-for-33 but failed to throw a touchdown despite tossing an interception late in the game.
The ground work for the win by Alabama was literally done in the ground game as T.J. Yeldon and Derrick Henry combined for 239 yards and three touchdowns in the win. But no matter how Alabama won, they still nearly lost and that’s what is going to be the focus moving forward into next week. Alabama may be bound for the national championship but there is a lot of work that needs to be done first and that was made abundantly clear in their 33-23 win over West Virginia on Saturday.