3 remaining Alabama games where the Crimson Tide could lose again
By John Buhler
Alabama may have improved to 5-1 on the season with its 26-20 SEC road victory over Texas A&M, but this year's Crimson Tide team is so far from perfect. The team keeps winning games with Jalen Milroe as the starting quarterback, but this does not feel like the championship-caliber team we have been accustomed to throughout the Nick Saban era. A lot can change, but we have seen six games.
The Crimson Tide may crawl back inside the top 10, depending on how the last two windows of games go, as well as what the AP voters think of the Texas Longhorns after their upset defeat to arch-rival Oklahoma. Either way, Alabama is not anywhere close to being a top-four team at this juncture. That could change in a few weeks, but they will have to earn it. For now, Alabama is just another team.
So with the Crimson Tide at the halfway point of the season, are there any games where they could conceivably slip up for a second time this year? What if I told you there might be three more conference games where an Alabama L is quite possible? No, they are not dropping all three, but two of three is not out of the question. They might win all three, but they also could lose one of them, too.
Here are the three regular-season games left where the Crimson Tide seem to be very vulnerable.
3. Kentucky Wildcats have the potential to be a 10-win team this season
This game may be slightly more than a month out, but hear me out. I think the Kentucky Wildcats' combination of run and pass could make them especially dangerous in their mid-November meeting in Lexington. While Kentucky still has to play the likes of Georgia and Tennessee in SEC East play, Alabama may not be anywhere near as good as Georgia and may be worse than Tennessee this year.
A lot of this has to do with Liam Coen's offense centered around quarterback Devin Leary and running back Ray Davis. We know that this Mark Stoops-led team will be well-coached. While I am not saying that Kentucky has enough offensive firepower to hang with anyone in a shootout, can you say the same thing about Alabama in its current iteration? If it is a lower-scoring game, sure, why not?
The other interesting wrinkle in this for UK is that their game with Alabama will come as the third of three SEC games for Alabama against possibly ranked opponents. The first two, well, that would be a pair of home games vs. Tennessee before their bye week and then for the big one vs. LSU, per usual. While I doubt Alabama will sleepwalk vs. Kentucky, if that is a night game in Lexington, just watch out.
The only thing making this potential trap game anything more than that is Kentucky's football history.