Andy & Ari On3 - INSTANT REACTION: Alabama ROLLS Wisconsin | Are the Tide ready for Georgia?

Episode Date: September 14, 2024

Welcome to Andy and Ari On3, presented by Wendy’s! Andy and Ari covered Alabama's BEATDOWN over Wisconson, 42-10, and they are LIVE from Madison, Wisconsin, following the game Watch the show here instead! https://youtube.com/live/IJwl43Rm0Q4Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy and Arianne through your instant reaction show. Madison, Wisconsin, the band a little bit, but that was the biggest hiccup of the day. Alabama is a team that came into this game we knew would be more talented. We were very interested to see if Wisconsin was able to modernize the program, do some things, but even through a sleepy first half with Alabama, it seemed like nothing even caused them to break a sweat in this game, which then, of course, turns it forward to what does this mean for the Georgia game coming up next. Yeah, I mean, Alabama was very efficient in the passing game. Jalen Milrow looked very good.

You know, there were a couple of questionable throws early, but then you see him throwing deep. Like, that first touchdown pass to Ryan Williams was just a thing of beauty. And then, right before halftime, you had that beautiful throw in the corner of the end zone. He does feel like he's evolved as a passer somewhat. Yeah, absolutely. I think that in the past we kind of got a lot of that missing some throws he should make but then throwing beautiful passes.

But I think he's a more complete quarterback. I think he's a very dangerous quarterback with his legs. And Alabama has a really, really special young wideout now to pair with him. Isaiah Bond was very good last year. But Ryan Williams is only going to get better as the season goes on and they're going to be a really, really special young whiteout now to pair with him. Isaiah Bond was very good last year, but Ryan Williams is only going to get better as the season goes on, and they're going to be a really, really tough out. So I was very impressed with Alabama's run blocking. Obviously, we saw Caden Proctor lead the team out of the tunnel,

and you're like, okay, he's good to go. And so Caden Proctor and Elijah Pritchett, when they are starting at tackle, this is a very different team than the one we saw struggling against USF with neither of them playing for the first three quarters last week. And also let this be a reminder, too, that when a team is playing a really rough game like last week with Alabama did with USF, not to overreact to that, and I'm the biggest culprit of that. Oh, a team stinks because they had a really bad game.

A Wisconsin team that probably is going to win eight, nine games this year or hopes to didn't even have a chance against this Alabama team, which makes me believe there's a clear line in the sand between being an elite level program that's going to be able to compete with Georgia for an SEC championship game and just a pretty good football. Well, all right. So let's talk about that, though. Let's talk about Alabama. The next time we see them will be against Georgia in two weeks. Now, I will say, Chesma Lucy, Katie Ackermelie,

the two top backs for Wisconsin, they had some success on the ground. I would worry about that if I were them. I might have been cruising the Bama online message where it's just a skosh. Well, what were they saying? Were people freaking out? They were a little worried about the run defense.

And here's the thing. You're extrapolating from what you're seeing here to what you're going to get when it's george's offensive line and it's trevor et and running the ball with carson beck throwing the ball yeah i mean wisconsin got a pretty tough break and you lose your quarterback on the first exactly game yes he doesn't come back in but wisconsin drew some stuff up i still think that they need to find an identity as a program but before halftftime you had receivers getting behind the Alabama defense. Wisconsin ran the ball fairly well. It was a pretty competitive game for much of the first half

until it got away from them right before halftime. And with Alabama, I just think there's a lot to clean up before they get to Georgia because this was not perfect by any stretch. They overmatched Wisconsin, and at times it looked easy. Georgia's never going to let it look easy. But Alabama certainly has the talent to play with Georgia to beat Georgia. It's a matter of do you clean up some of the things that you saw today. Yeah, I mean, I think one of the more encouraging things,

and again, you've got to keep the opponent in the perspective, but when Wisconsin was scoring or threatening to score in this game it was a 17 play drive yes it was a 10 play drive it made it look like every ounce of energy was needed for them to move the football down the field against Alabama and then Alabama was going 80 yards in two plays so we're really worried I think the run defense is a very important thing to keep track of. But Alabama, I was still on Alabama offense watch coming into this year because it had very long stretches of dysfunction a year ago, and getting guys open and moving the football with ease

is a pretty good sign against a pretty good defensive team, I think. You feel a lot more confident after watching this than you do after watching the USF game. And obviously, with the two tackles playing, it makes a huge difference. But they were just smooth they never felt like they were straining it never felt that hard we got the band right behind us i don't know if you're a genius for where you dance the video to be or the worst uh no no this is this is probably the worst yeah uh i'll give you credit i think you're a genius

but yeah i think alabama is going to be an interesting talking point going into this bye week. I think this is a team that can compete with Georgia because I'm not 100% sold that Georgia is, to borrow a thing that I learned earlier in the week, Darth Vader of college football right now. The program is, but is this team? I still think they have a lot to prove, too.

Well, and that's the thing. We don't know. We saw them against Clemson. They looked amazing. But this is going to be the first kind of SEC Titan on Titan action and we're going to get a lot of that this year because we've got we got Alabama and Georgia. Georgia's got to play at Alabama at Texas at Ole Miss you know we're going to see all these games but this is the first one of the new SEC where it's like okay do we know who the best team in this conference is?

No I don't think that we do. Honestly, I think we're going to get more context. And you know what that means? Really great games. It's going to be amazing. I'm not somebody who really loves that the SEC is 29 teams now. But at the same time, we're going to be getting some really interesting matchups with Georgia playing the teams that you just said, going down to Austin.

I'm going to hope to go to that game. By the way, can you imagine if we were in Alabama and they had lost 42-10? I don't think it would be quite as loud in here. What do you think the band would be doing? Oh, crap. Oh, crap. Yeah. Listen, they're not stopping the party.

They're not stopping the party just because they got blown out. I think they kind of expected that. Yeah, I mean, I guess that's the difference between SEC teams and Big Ten teams. When the SEC team gets its ass kicked on its home field, it looks like a morgue in here. Everybody goes home. Everybody goes home. They don't hang out. Yeah, but at the same time, too, I thought Wisconsin played about as good of a game as they probably could have.

Given the circumstances, yeah. The thing that was really frustrating, and my old pal Doug LaMaurice said this up in the press box, when you're a team that's trying to keep it competitive and you want to show some signs of growth you can't be turning the ball over the way that Wisconsin did you can't be making the mistakes that they did you know they did turn the ball over but Alabama we taught we used the term turnovers forced like these were really forced yeah like you notice Alabama like if a quarterback is loose with the ball the Alabama defenders are swatting that ball around. There were a couple moments where it didn't matter how well you blocked.

They were going to try to strip the ball. And I think that's obviously something you practice. And you wonder, is that going to pay off in one of these monster games down the road where maybe somebody does have a nice play and they get get moving but there's a peanut punch fumble and it's all different yeah i mean when you think about it that chesma lucy fumble after that 30 yard or 20 yard run down at their own end it was huge turned into a touchdown and then when wisconsin went down uh down 14 to 3 trying to get within four points right before halftime missing that field goal missing the wide open receiver in

the end zone. Alabama capitalized big. So it wasn't just forcing stops and turnovers. It was taking those turnovers that were a gut punch to Wisconsin and turning them to a quick six, too. Well, two weeks to talk about Alabama-Georgia. We're going to use every day of those two weeks, too. Two weeks if you're a Bama Online subscriber to worry about Bama, to go over every little bad thing that happened in this game. And there weren't that many bad things,

but I'm sure you're going to worry about them. But I will say this, remember the good things that happened in this game because Alabama looked like a pretty complete team, especially on offense. I think you should feel pretty comfortable at this offense going into the Georgia game. Yeah. And you know what?

Bama online subscribers freak out. Take this 42 to 10 win and freak out. That's what makes your team elite. That's what makes you elite. We're happy you're here. We're happy to be here. Awesome game, and you know what? Having Alabama being very, very good after beating a team like this on the road

going into that Georgia game is pretty much... They're doing a time warp. Let's go. You've watched Rocky Horror Picture Show, right? I don't know what that is. We love you. We'll talk to you tonight.