Alabama rolls past Georgia State

Georgia State’s revenue from losing 45-3 to No. 1 Alabama on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium? $700,000.

However, the costs in this first vs. worst matchup were high not because the result was unexpected — nobody thought that the Georgia State, in its first year in FBS, would keep it close against a team that is the back-to-back defending national champ — but because the Panthers’ poor performance, particularly in the first half in which they fell behind 38-0, was. Things did get better in the second half, but it was too little, too late.

“Our young men competed hard, but when you are playing the No. 1 team in the nation, at their place and are major underdogs, you can’t help them,” coach Trent Miles said. “And we went out and helped them in the game.”

Georgia State could get little working on offense, defense, special teams or even with their helmets, which featured a new logo that couldn’t be seen by most of the stadium.

In the first half, Georgia State’s longest drive was to its own 39-yard line.

Its longest play was 15 yards.

The Panthers totaled 2 rushing yards on 12 carries, or one more than they had in turnovers after fumbling a kickoff return. They finished with a program-worst 15 yards.

Alabama scored on all six of its drives in the first half, taking advantage of missed tackles to score two touchdowns on what should have been short gains.

“They did a good job of doing what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it,” Miles said.

The Panthers had what Miles described as physical practices for the past two weeks, but there’s a difference between physical toughness and mental toughness. The team accumulated three penalties in the game for illegal substitutions. At one point, the center didn’t snap the ball, which resulted in a false start.

Miles gave Alabama credit for inducing some of the physical errors, such as missed tackles, but he said the mental mistakes such as the substitution errors have to be fixed.

Georgia State didn’t play without passion, as they seemingly did in a 42-14 loss to Chattanooga in Week 2. The team took shots downfield against Alabama on offense, but couldn’t execute most of them either because the Crimson Tide made plays, or the Panthers didn’t.

The defense also made a few good plays, but Alabama has a roster filled with potential NFL players, as Miles noted many times this week. The Panthers have a roster mostly filled with players recruited for FCS. Georgia State finished with 175 yards to Alabama’s 477.

The highlight for Georgia State came in third quarter on a 53-field goal by Wil Lutz, which set a school record.

“I wish my field goal would have meant more, but it was an awesome experience,” Lutz said. “I know everybody feels the same way. We wish it would have been much better.”

The final score could have been much worse. After AJ McCarron efficiently passed for four touchdowns on Alabama’s first five drives, he left with a 35-0 lead in the second quarter.

The Tide didn’t try anything too fancy. Runs up the middle were the norm, with play-action and quarterback rollouts, or simple down-the-line throws to wide receivers, serving as the passing attack. Linebacker Tarris Batiste said that was exactly what Georgia State prepared for.