After Alabama beat Tennessee 44-13 Saturday night, head coach Nick Saban was asked if he thought his team had just played its most complete game of the season.
“We were really pleased with the way the guys played 60 minutes in the game,” he said. “That’s what it would take, and they kept grinding and we finally got control of the game. This probably was our most complete game.”
The Crimson Tide was balanced on offense, rushing for 233 yards and passing for 249, and the defense held Tennessee to 282 yards of total offense and had two interceptions that the Bama offense turned into touchdowns.
So now that Alabama has outscored its seven opponents 287-58 and leads the nation in all defensive categories—scoring, passing, rushing and total defense—and pass efficiency (A.J. McCarron went 17-of-22 for a career-high 306 yards and four touchdowns against UT and has a rating of 183.63), it’s no surprise the team is No. 1 in the BCS rankings for the second week in a row.
Alabama was also ranked No. 1 in both the AP and USA TODAY/Coaches’ polls released Sunday morning.
The Coaches’ poll and Harris poll account for one-third of the BCS formula, the last third determined by the average of six computer polls.
Some say Alabama hasn’t been tested yet, but the Tide faces No. 11 Mississippi State, No. 6 LSU (in Baton Rouge) and No. 20 Texas A&M over the next three weeks, so the beef of the schedule is coming up.
The BCS Top 25:
1. Alabama
2. Florida
3. Kansas State
4. Oregon
5. Notre Dame
6. LSU
7. Oregon State
8. Oklahoma
9. USC
10. Georgia
11. Mississippi State
12. Florida State
13. South Carolina
14. Texas Tech
15. Rutgers
16. Louisville
17. Stanford
18. Clemson
19. West Virginia
20. Texas A&M
21. Boise State
22. Michigan
23. Texas
24. Ohio
25. Wisconsin
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