It looked like Alabama was on its way to a blowout win after a 17-0 start in the first quarter, but Colorado State kept battling on Saturday night, eventually falling 41-23.

Following the game, head coach Nick Saban met with the media to discuss the 3-0 start and what he saw from is team.

“I was really pleased with the way we came out and started fast in this game on both sides of the ball," Saban said. "That’s something that we have not done in our games (before tonight), and that was certainly the goal – to try and come out and be a dominant team, but we did not sustain that and we didn’t finish the game like we needed to."

The defense, which is missing a number of players to injury, gave up 391 total yards to the Rams offense. That was the second-most yardage allowed in the past 12 games.

"We didn’t execute very well defensively: not stopping the run; not getting off field on the third down; didn’t play great in the red zone, so we have a lot of work to do. We made a lot of mental errors with the new guys playing, in some cases different positions. The continuity and togetherness is not what it needs to be on that side of the ball."

Alabama will have one more week to make adjustments before SEC play opens against Vanderbilt on Saturday.

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