Alabama weathers turnovers and shows the many ways it can beat a team

Alabama wants everyone to know that it’s not going anywhere.

While much of the nation’s attention has been on teams such as Oregon and Oklahoma, Alabama showed during its 42-21 win against Florida on Saturday that it’s in as much of a hunt for a national championship as anyone else.

It also showed it might have a better and more complete team than anyone else, too.

Alabama was not perfect against Florida — it had an astounding four turnovers — but it also kept its composure in the face of those mistakes. The defense was strong, holding the Florida offense to just 200 total yards. And quarterback Blake Sims had the game of his career with 445 passing yards and four touchdowns on 23 completions.

But when the game was tied at 21 in the second half, Alabama turned to its bread and butter — its ground game.

Derrick Henry did yeoman’s-like work juking defenders and pushing the pile. His effort in conjunction with fellow back T.J. Yeldon, wore the Florida defense down and ultimately secured the game. Sims only threw for a little more than 100 yards in the second half while the running game did the work.

That’s what makes Alabama so scary.

Sims can throw for 335 yards in the first half, the game can be tied and the Tide can not only win, but dominate, by going to a completely different facet of its offense. How many teams can do that? Better question: How many teams would have the confidence to do that?

Florida is not the top of the SEC, it might not even be the middle, but it provided a good look at all the options Alabama has at its disposal to beat an opponent.

And that's not only a championship quality, it's also pretty scary.

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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday

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