The Alabama Crimson Tide might be the No. 1 team in the nation, but they certainly did not look that way against FCS opponent Colorado State. Despite the 31-6 victory at home, the Tide looked sluggish on the field, struggling to run the ball and defend the pass. While Nick Saban was certainly upset by the team's performance, some of the veterans were ever more angry, forcing a players-only meeting.
Senior linebacker C.J. Mosley, quarterback AJ McCarron and junior safety Vinnie Sunseri held a meeting to discuss buying into the system and getting better with mental errors and communication, issues that have taken center stage for the Tide so far this season.
"I was pretty upset, especially with the defense," Mosley said, AL.com. "The things we gave up were mental errors, just little things, just fundamental errors, so I felt like we're about to play Ole Miss next week and about to start getting into SEC play and those little things will get us beat bad, get us embarrassed so we've got to make sure everyone's doing their job."
Spoken like a true product of Saban. The Tide are undefeated having completed one of the biggest wins of the season against Texas A&M and yet no one is satisfied with the performance on the field and off the field. Mosley noted that both McCarron and Sunseri fed off his words and stressed that every player needs to start doing their jobs better in order to last the entire season.
Mosley will be a big piece for the team come Saturday's big SEC matchup against Ole Miss. The Tide defense has seen some struggles this season after allowing Johnny Manziel and the Aggies receivers to walk all over them. Despite holding Colorado State to just six points, Mosley is still not happy.
"We didn't really execute to our full abilities," Mosley said. "It's not an SEC opponent that we just played and the win really wasn't what it should have been. I felt like we kind of got away with a win. We didn't really dominate that win."
They will need to dominate against the Rebels as Ole Miss has some of the top receiving threats in the SEC. Ranked at No. 21, Mosley is not overlooking the offensive attack Ole Miss can bring. Nick Saban notes that the Rebels run a different type of offense than Texas A&M, but they pose the same threat level as the Aggies.