Diego Pavia and the Vanderbilt Commodores shocked the college football world one year ago with a 40-35 victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide. Nearly one year to the day after that historic moment, Alabama got its shot at revenge in Tuscaloosa on Saturday afternoon.
Let’s dive into the winners and losers from a memorable Vanderbilt vs Alabama game in Week 6, with the Crimson Tide rollign to a 30-14 victory at home.
Winner: Ty Simpson Rebounds from Early Interception
After an outstanding performance in Athens last week to beat Georgia, Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson made an early mistake on Saturday. On the Crimson Tide’s first drive of the game, with the football in Vanderbilt territory, Simpson was picked off at the 7-yard line. He was nearly flawless from then on. He led Alabama to five scoring drives on their next six possessions, twice taking advantage of takeaways created by the Crimson Tide’s defense.
- Ty Simpson stats vs Vanderbilt (ESPN): 23-of-31, 340 passing yards, 11.0 ypa, 2-1 TD-INT
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Loser: Diego Pavia Fails to Back Up the Trash Talk
There’s a lesson here for Diego Pavia. If you come at the king, you best not miss. Coming into Saturday, the Vanderbilt quarterback said it “would not be close” if he and the Commodores played their game. He fell well short of that in Tuscaloosa. Pavia turned it over twice, with both giveaways coming inside the red zone and then turned into 10 points by Alabama on its following drives. This felt reminiscent of what happened against Tennessee last season, when Pavia trash-talked ahead of his matchup against the Volunteers and then turned it over in a loss. Let’s see what Pavia has to say before the next two games against LSU and Missouri.
Winner: Jam Miller Proves his Importance to Alabama
Jam Miller was one of our winners in Alabama’s victory over Georgia for things that didn’t show up in the box score. On Saturday afternoon at Saban Field at Bryant–Denny Stadium, Miller had the numbers. The senior running back’s longest run only went for 22 yards, which shows how efficient he was on each of his 22 carries on the way to 136 rushing yards and a touchdown. Miller is finally healthy, and he has been an absolute blessing for Alabama’s offense in many ways.
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Loser: Alabama Crimson Tide’s Run Defense
If there’s one concern that Kalen DeBoer should have coming out of this game, it’s the Crimson Tide’s run defense. Alabama allowed 230 yards and 4 touchdowns in the season-opening loss to Florida State, 227 rushing yards and 6.9 yards per carry to Georgia, and it just surrendered over 140 yards and an 8.1 yards per carry to Vanderbilt. While the Crimson Tide should be favored next week versus Missouri, Tigers’ running back Ahmad Hardy (730 rushing yards, 7.1 ypc and 9 touchdowns) should be thrilled to face Bama’s run defense.
Winner: Ryan Williams is Getting Back on Track
After being kept in check by the Bulldogs’ defense (43 yards on 5 receptions), Ryan Williams made his presence felt on Saturday. The sophomore wideout led the team in receiving yards (98) and found the end zone for the third time this season. Perhaps even more important than the numbers, though, was the timing of some of those grabs. Alabama will need a performance just like this one next week against a Missouri defense that is allowing only 141.4 passing yards per game this season.
