Alabama Cruises to Easy Victory Over Mercer

Tuscaloosa, AL. - The Alabama Crimson Tide rolled exactly the way fans wanted on Saturday, with Alabama handling its business at home against the 9-1 Mercer Bears, who play in the FCS Southern Conference.

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The Crimson Tide got its stars involved early and often, with Ryan Williams scoring the first two touchdowns on the day with a 29-yard run and a 14-yard catch to give Alabama a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.

Early in the second quarter, Alabama's big tight end, Robbie Outz, got involved as well on a 44-yard touchdown pass from Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe, who ended the day with three total touchdowns, giving him 15 passing and 17 rushing on the season.

Despite struggling to run the football outside of Jalen Milroe, Alabama controlled everything it needed to over the Mercer Bears. A cupcake opponent was chewed up and spat out by the Crimson Tide in a SCORE victory for the Crimson Tide.

Alabama did what Alabama needed to do on offense:

Get quarterback Jalen Milroe in rhythm and a couple of touchdowns (229 total yards, three total touchdowns).
Stat pad the freshman phenom at wide receiver and bolster more receiver numbers -
Williams - 65 total yards, 2 TD
Bernard - four catches, 81 yards

Alabama's defense did what it does best - take the football away and make the opponent fear Jihaad Campbell, who continues to make himself NFL money every time he steps on the field.

Zabien Brown recovered a fumble from Mercer and took it 68 yards the other direction to be the second Alabama player wearing No. 2 to score on the day. The Crimson Tide was rolling into halftime with a 31-7 lead over the Bears.

In the second half, Alabama opened with a flurry of touchdowns from the goal line, one by Justice Haynes, one by Jam Miller, and even Kadyn Proctor scored. None of them counted, however, due to reviews and penalties, but Jalen Milroe called his own number with a three-yard score to give Alabama a 38-7 lead in the third quarter.

Milroe's day was done well before Dixieland Delight was played in Bryant-Denny Stadium, which had a little more moxie following Alabama's back-to-back dominant wins.

Ty Simpson was able to pass a couple of times as well, but could not quite connect with Kobe Prentice on what would have been a 40+-yard touchdown.

Ty Simpson still flashed despite playing late in the contest. In the fourth quarter, he ducked under a sack, rolled right, and launched a pass down to the one-yard line, which was caught by Josh Cuevas to set up a Richard Young one-yard touchdown.

Even Austin Mack had some run, with the redshirt freshman from Washington throwing a very pretty ball to freshman Rico Scott for a 31-yard touchdown.

Stat Leaders

Passing: Jalen Milroe - 11-16, 186 yards, 2 TD
Rushing: Jalen Milroe - 6 attempts, 43 yards, 1 TD
Receiving: Germie Bernard - 4 catches, 81 yards
Defensive: Jihaad Campbell - 9 tackles, 1 sack, 1 tackle for loss

The Crimson Tide will hit the road next week for the final road trip of the regular season, when Alabama takes on Oklahoma on November 23. Kick-off is slated for 6:30 p.m. CT in Norman, Oklahoma.

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Wyatt Fulton is the TIde 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.