Making sense of the daylight between Alabama OC Ryan Grubb’s run game vs Tennessee, and what he said Monday about the importance of one. Column 👇 tuscaloosanews.com/story/spo…

Here's the direct quote from Ryan Grubb on the running game, since I paraphrased initially. "I think if you look at our best performances and the games that we played really well, that's exactly how it went. The run game set it up. They go to close coverage. They put a seventh hat in the box, and then we're throwing play action. Play action happens. They get the extra hat out of the box, and you hit them with the run game. So, I think those things certainly are complementary. That's not, you know, rocket science. Everybody in the country knows that. But when you can't establish and consistently maintain drives, you got to find ways to get the little wins, get the quick game, get the inside zone duo, all the little hits to get yourself in second and four and call another run, get to a first down."

Kalen DeBoer on play calling vs Tenn: "Everything comes down to execution. ... When you're in third and extra longs like we had a number of times early in the game, you don't want to make a bad situation worse. ... It's OK to punt the football once in awhile ... Our mistakes early allowed Tennessee to play the game they needed to play."