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The last few years, my Six From Saturday notes have been included at the bottom of my MMQB column on Monday mornings. This year, they’ll be published as a separate post each week. Here are my thoughts on this weekend’s college action, geared mostly toward what should be of interest to NFL fans.
1) It didn’t wind up winning the game for Alabama, but the play Will Anderson Jr. made in the fourth quarter for the Crimson Tide did make the job of Texas kicker Bert Auburn (and what an amazing name for a guy who’s trying to beat Nick Saban) that much harder on Saturday—pushing his go-ahead field goal out to 49 yards. Auburn drilled it, forcing Bama to come back and answer with a game-winning field goal. But that shouldn’t prevent you from going back and looking at the play. And it wasn’t so much anything Anderson did. Because Saban’s defense stressed Texas’s protection with a corner blitz, no one picked up Anderson, so he had a free run at Hudson Card. Looking closer, though, you see the obscene closing speed where Card thought he’d have time to throw it away or escape, and Anderson changed that in the blink of an eye. And Anderson making that sort of impact wasn’t uncommon Saturday. In fact, Anderson was the one who chased QB Quinn Ewers into Dallas Turner’s arms in the play Ewers got hurt on. So yeah, that’s why, if a quarterback isn’t the first pick in April, Anderson probably will be.
