McElroy makes Tide's defense look like Swiss cheese

Greg McElroy, the senior quarterback completed 26-of-33 passes for 362 yards and six touchdowns as the Tide's offense had little issue getting the best of their teammates on the other side of the ball. Additionally, redshirt freshman A.J. McCarron 21-for-26 for 241 yards and two touchdowns.

Head coach Nick Saban let it be known he was not pleased with what he saw from his defense Saturday.

"I don't think defensively as a whole, we played very well at all," Saban said. "I don't think we played good gap control up front, we didn't tackle, we didn't finish, we didn't clean up tackles and knock runners back. We didn't have the eye of the tiger that we need to be a good defensive team, and that's all 11 of them."

Saban admitted there are issues with the secondary, but also expressed confidence they would be overcome.

"It's been one thing after another in the secondary," Saban said. "Whether it's losing guys, suspending guys, having guys hurt now, we really can't get the continuity we'd like. But we're going to stay positive about it.

"We like some of the players that we have, we've just got to get them on the field and work them. They have to stay healthy enough to be on the field so that they have a chance to improve and get better and develop confidence in what they're supposed to do and how they're supposed to do it."