Alabama knocks off Florida State, 24-7: 3 takeaways

The Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the Florida State Seminoles in the 2017 Chick-Fil-A Kickoff, 24-7. Here are three takeaways from the Week 1 game in Atlanta.

Well, this was a great game until everything started to fall apart for the Florida State Seminoles. It was a low-scoring affair heading into halftime in Atlanta with the Alabama Crimson Tide leading Florida State, 10-7. Either team could have won this one.

However, Florida State’s miscues on special teams, a few picks by quarterback Deondre Francois and a knee injury to the redshirt sophomore signal caller would all lead to the Crimson Tide winning comfortably at 24-7.

Here are the three big takeaways from Alabama’s win over Florida State in the 2017 Chick-Fil-A Kickoff at brand-new Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Takeaways

You probably don’t want to face the Crimson Tide or Seminoles’ defenses this season, Power 5. Though Alabama came out on top, these are two defenses no teams in the Power 5 will want to face this season. Alabama looks to have successfully reloaded in the front-seven. Florida State will take away almost everything in the back-end with their tremendous secondary.

It’s not just those two position groups either. Alabama is gifted and well-coached in the defensive backfield. Florida State can bring the pressure up front as well with its own formidable front-seven. It will take a highly tuned and skillful offense to exploit either of these defenses.

The opposition will have to either catch a lucky break in terms of field position or execute a well-designed play at a very high level to find pay dirt on either the Crimson Tide or Seminoles. In short, these two college football behemoths have the personnel to win a ton of games with their defenses.

Special teams were not kind to the Seminoles at all. Florida State was most certainly in this game, but horrible special teams execution on three different occasions is what ruined the Seminoles’ night. It all unraveled on the last play of the first half.

Kicker Ricky Aguayo would have his 37-yard field goal attempt blocked by Alabama defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick. That kick would have made it all tied up at 10 at the half had Aguayo’s attempt not been blocked. Aguayo wasn’t alone in getting kicks blocked, as Damien Harris would block Logan Tyler’s punt attempt, which would result in an Alabama field goal.

To keep making it worse, Keith Gavin would fumble the ensuing J.K. Scott kickoff. Dylan Moses would force the turnover and Harris would go on to punch it in for the Crimson Tide. If this is what Florida State special teams are going to be like this year, well, that’s not going to be good for the Seminoles at all.

So what if Jalen Hurts is not much of a vertical passer? While he could continue to progress as a passer, we still haven’t seen if Hurts is really interested in moving the chains vertically. While he did have a sweet touchdown bomb to wide receiver Calvin Ridley in the first half, that was essentially it for the Alabama passing game.

Hurts completed 10 of 18 passes for 96 yards and a touchdown. His yards per attempt was a less than satisfactory 5.6. Without his completion to Ridley, Hurts would have completed just nine of 17 passes for 43 yards. Florida State might have been excellent defensively, but the reigning SEC Offensive Player of the Year has to do better than that.

Next: 50 best college football programs of all time

Or does he? He does play for the No. 1 team in the country that has a front-seven that will continue to demolish people at the line of scrimmage. If Hurts doesn’t turn the ball over, he will give his team a chance to win, even if he’s not elite as a runner in a particular game.