Alabama football beat South Florida on the road Saturday, with a 17-3 final score. The game represented one of the uglier games of Nick Saban’s tenure as Crimson Tide head coach.

Before UA turns the page to SEC play with Ole Miss coming to Bryant-Denny Stadium next week, here are three takeaways from Saturday’s game.

Alabama looked bad

Alabama was playing an opponent that it had the talent to dispatch easily. The Bulls won just one game last season and were in the first season of a new head coach, with Alex Golesh.

The Crimson Tide should have been able to blow USF out of the water. That didn’t happen.

The game overall was ugly. Neither team was able to manage a touchdown until the second half.

But Alabama looked simply awful for most of the way. Whether it was sacks coming on four-man rushes, untimely penalties, bad tackling on USF QB Byrum Brown or a myriad of other problems, the Crimson Tide didn’t look like a football team with any sort of chance to fulfill the aspirations of fans.

Of the two units, the defense looked better than the offense, getting to the quarterback and making stops. But the best player throughout the game looked to be punter James Burnip.

For a team ranked No. 1 overall on 247Sports’ talent composite, that’s not a good thing.

The quarterbacks didn’t inspire confidence

Jalen Milroe started Alabama’s first two games of the season, but Tyler Buchner took the reigns as a starter for the USF game. Starting out, the offense didn’t look much improved.

By the time the game was stopped due to a lightning delay with 12:44 left in the second quarter, Buchner was 4-of-10 passing for a paltry 25 yards. He threw behind receivers several times.

In his defense, Buchner was also under duress early. Similar to how Milroe was besieged against Texas, the somewhat less-mobile Buchner was also having to escape pressure.

Buchner was pulled for Ty Simpson late in the second quarter. Simpson was also pressured, getting sacked on his first series behind center.

Simpson landed the Tide’s first significant offensive blow of the game, hitting CJ Dippre for a 45-yard gain up the middle. That play led to Alabama’s first touchdown on a Roydell Williams run.

Overall, the quarterbacks did not inspire confidence going forward. Entering SEC play, neither of the three at the position have separated themselves as the obvious starter going forward.

The Crimson Tide were sloppy

Alabama football looked sloppy at times against Texas, but the USF game seemed like a prime opportunity for a “get-right” game. That wasn’t to be from the first quarter on.

The Crimson Tide looked sloppy across the board. Caleb Downs got run over while trying to arm tackle USF’s Nay’Quan Wright.

Kool-Aid McKinstry looked as if he was trying to wave the rest of his teammates away from a rolling but ended up getting a piece of it himself. USF jumped on the ball and took the early 3-0 lead on a 44-yard field goal by John Cannon.

On the ensuing kickoff, Alabama’s Terrion Arnold made moves and ran the kickoff back all the way for a touchdown. Unfortunately for the Crimson Tide, two yellow flags lay on the field.

UA was called for holding. The drive instead started at Alabama’s 11 and ended with no points.

Coupled with some of Buchner’s throws behind receivers, more untimely penalties and shoddy blocking, and sloppiness was a major cause for concern.