Ryan Grubb Comments on Alabama’s Redzone Disappointments

On Saturday against Vanderbilt, Alabama had the ball in the redzone three times with a chance to put away the Commodores with touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters.

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Here was Alabama's drive chart once it got into the redzone on those three drives that ended in field goals, resulting in nine points off the right foot of Conor Talty instead of 21 points in touchdowns:

1st and 10 at Vanderbilt 22-yard line - Jam Miller 5-yard rush
2nd and 5 - Jam Miller 0-yard rush
3rd and 5 - Direct snap to Germie Bernard, -3-yard rush
4th and 8 - Conor Talty 38-yard FG

1st and 10 at Vanderbilt 11-yard line - Ty Simpson sack for 10 yards
2nd and 20 - Ty Simpson pass incomplete
3rd and 20 - Ty Simpson pass to Jam Miller, 8-yard gain
4th and 12 - Conor Talty 30-yard FG

1st and 10 at Vanderbilt 18-yard line - Jam Miller 5-yard rush
2nd and 5 - Jam Miller 1-yard rush
3rd and 4 - Ty Simpson incomplete pass
4th and 4 - Conor Talty 30-yard field goal

Despite coming away with nine points, offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb was unhappy with the Tide's redzone possessions in the 30-14 victory over the Commodores. Place kicker Conor Talty is perfect on the season within 40 yards (5-5 made kicks inside 40 yards) but is just 2-5 on kicks longer than 40. The struggles in the kicking game put more pressure on Alabama's offense to come away with touchdowns rather than field goals when the offense gets inside the opponent's redzone.

"It was disappointing, to be honest. I thought our redzone execution was poor," offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said on Monday, "something we got to work at a lot. We can’t put ourselves in those positions to count on another part of the football team to take care of our business. So for us, we still got to follow the script and understand we can’t press in those moments, but certainly our opportunities there, we had done a really nice job the previous two weeks down in the red zone, and so to see ourselves take a step back like that was discouraging. So we’re gonna put a lot of effort into that and execute a lot better down there this week."

The margin for error is razor-thin for Alabama, with four ranked games left on its schedule in addition to road trips to South Carolina and Auburn. The Crimson Tide will need to execute at a high level if it hopes to return to SEC title contention and the College Football Playoff.

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_.