Alabama’s tight ends found real room to work in the 49-18 win over South Carolina, and the Crimson Tide made it count in both phases.
The passing game finally featured that room more prominently. Kaleb Edwards, Marshall Pritchett and Josh Ford combined for seven receptions, 107 yards and a touchdown, a noticeable uptick for a group that had been quieter through the last couple of weeks.
The production didn’t come in a vacuum, either. Alabama’s tight ends have also been doing the dirty work as run blockers, with Ford, Danny Lewis Jr., Jay Lindsey and others landing key blocks over the first four games as part of the Tide’s upgraded rushing attack.
After the game, Kalen DeBoer pointed to that balance when talking about the tight ends’ role.
“They were, I thought, getting very consistent,” DeBoer said. “Lot of different guys involved.
The touchdown with Josh [Ford], that was great to see, and the throw and the catch at the end to Marshall [Pritchett] was pretty impressive. When you’re running routes and getting tight ends involved that far down the field, usually you think of receivers running some of those routes.
That shows the confidence and the ability level that those guys have and that we have in them. And so, we’re gonna get the run game going.
Tight ends are going to open up in the play-action game, and that showed up tonight quite a few times, not just with the tight ends but also with the receivers as well.”
Ford delivered the flash play of the night, hauling in a one-handed touchdown grab that stood out as one of Alabama’s biggest highlights. It was his lone catch, but it went for six.
Pritchett added two big catches and finished with 60 receiving yards, while Edwards led the tight end group in targets and production with four receptions for 44 yards.
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