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Alabama players dance on the sideline during the second quarter of their 59-0 rout of Texas A&M on Oct. 18, 2014, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)
(VASHA HUNT)
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama - We've seen Alabama look like the best team in college football before. We've seen the Crimson Tide embarrass one opponent after another in the SEC West alone.
We've seen Alabama 21, LSU 0. Alabama 49, Auburn 0. Alabama 52, Arkansas 0. Twice.
We've seen Alabama look like a machine on a routine basis, which makes it hard for this program to break new ground when it comes to beatdowns, but have we ever seen a Nick Saban team have more fun than the one that engineered this 59-0 laugher over Texas A&M?
Saban and fun used to go together like Alabama and fastball offense, but look at them now, running off 80 snaps and turning Bryant-Denny Stadium into a bounce house.
Defensive linemen showed their hops on the sideline to the jock jam "Jump Around." Teammates mobbed linebacker Reggie Ragland after a leaping, athletic interception as if he'd saved the game, when all he'd done was preserve a shutout in the last minute of the third quarter with Alabama already up by 52.
Ragland called the mood on the sideline "electric."
Having shed the twin burdens of perfection and expectation the last two weeks in a late loss at Ole Miss and a too-close-for-comfort win at Arkansas, the Alabama players were fast and free from the start. They took the opening drive to a field goal and then really hit the gas.
Spoilsports will note that A&M's unbeaten September has been silenced by three straight losses, that the Aggies are 7-7 in the SEC since Johnny Manziel danced all over Bryant-Denny two years ago, that this was Alabama's first win over a ranked team in a year after three straight defeats.
Those are facts, but the truth is, Alabama didn't just look good in every phase Saturday. Alabama looked like it thoroughly enjoyed itself from the coin toss on. Racking up the largest winning margin in school history over a ranked opponent didn't hurt.
"That's the kind of energy and enthusiasm we've been trying to get our guys to play with," Saban said. "There's been a lot of anxiety we've tried to get rid of."
Perfection may be unattainable, but it's hard to come any closer against a familiar foe in the best division in college football than Alabama did in the first half. In the first 30 minutes, the Crimson Tide outgained the Aggies 449-51, scored on all seven possessions and didn't commit a turnover or a penalty.
The 35 points Alabama scored in the second quarter was a school record for a single quarter, at least since they started keeping those records in 1945. The 45 points Alabama scored in the first half was one touchdown shy of the school record of 52 set in 1990 against Vanderbilt.
Blake Sims and Lane Kiffin got their mojo back in rolling up 602 yards, and so did Saban and Kirby Smart in limiting the Aggies to 172 yards and handing Kevin Sumlin his first shutout as a head coach. Turns out Saban and Smart didn't have a Sumlin problem. It was a Johnny Football problem.
Problem solved.
If that wasn't enough good news for the home team, West Virginia handed Baylor its first loss to put a cherry on top of the day. That added juice to Alabama's opening win over the Mountaineers, and it reduced the number of major unbeatens to four, a number guaranteed to drop to no more than two by the end of the regular season.
Had one play gone the other way a week ago at Arkansas, Alabama's playoff hopes might've gone up in pig smoke. Now the Crimson Tide is right back in prime position, with contenders Mississippi State and Auburn headed here to The Real Big House next month.
So there's no reason for the men in the crimson helmets to stop smiling anytime soon.