Welcome back to our Sunday afternoon conversation. Loyal readers noticed last week’s edition didn’t appear after this writer was a little under the weather. Back to full strength, for whatever that’s worth, we’re back to take a look at a few big topics from the weekend that was in college football.

Almost every preseason conversation this newsman had about Alabama football came back to the same question.

Who are the dudes?

That roster was full of guys, but who was the alpha? Offensively, it went beyond the rah-rah locker room stuff. Who’d be the Jameson Williams, the John Metchie or the Jahmyr Gibbs of recent seasons?

It wasn’t clear and the first five weeks didn’t really separate the receivers, running backs and tight ends. There had been flashes, but no Mr. Reliable until Jermaine Burton announced his presence with authority Saturday.

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Before Alabama’s 26-20 win at Texas A&M, no Crimson Tide player had caught more than five passes in a single game. That happened twice. One other had four and the rest were distributed among a large supporting cast.

Burton had nine catches in College Station. He took the team’s previous season high for receiving yards (76) and more than doubled it to 197.

And the two receiving touchdowns gave him the Tide’s first multi-score performance in the passing game.

Three catches came in third-and-long moments.

Six netted more than 15 yards.

When Jalen Milroe wanted to fire the arm cannon, Burton was likely the target. The lone exception was the 52-yard touchdown heaved to Bond, the season leader with 19 receptions.

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But Burton is the explosive threat who Milroe and Alabama needed to make a defense of Texas A&M’s caliber buckle. It’s one thing to torch MTSU’s No. 102 passing defense in the opener and another to hang 321 total passing yards Saturday on an Aggie group that allowed a total of 283 in the previous three games combined.

Burton, the transfer from Georgia’s No. 2 nationally in catches of 40+ yards with five. And when the intermediate passing game is still a work in progress, taking the top off a defense will be a requirement as the temperatures turn colder.

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That’s also where Alabama’s strengths and weaknesses overlap in a complicated intersection. Hitting the deep ball requires time, and in moments Saturday, Milroe had the cleanest of pockets.

He was also sacked six times.

Through six games, Alabama’s No. 128 in sacks allowed with 4.3 a game. To put it lightly, there aren’t many bluebloods in that neighborhood of that statistical ranking where Georgia’s allowing just 0.67 a game. Those failures, in a twist of the saying, have many fathers.

But when it works, Alabama hums.

Milroe throws a silky deep ball and if defenses have to commit a defender as a spy to throttle his running threat, man coverage on the outside could be the recipe when a play or two can change the whole dynamic of a game.

Burton appears to be that dude.

He was limited by injury a week earlier at Mississippi State but didn’t appear to struggle in College Station. This didn’t come completely from the clear blue as Burton showed his home run threat late last season but he doubled his season output in receptions and yards in Saturday’s statement.

What about the defense?

It’s borderline disrespectful to get this far without mentioning what this Crimson Tide defense has done.

By the fourth quarter, they were bullying the Texas A&M front in a way an Alabama observer hasn’t witnessed in a while. Since Quinnen Williams was drafted, the Crimson Tide defensive line hasn’t had that dude in the middle.

And while the damage is still mostly coming from the edge with Dallas Turner and Chris Braswell, a few linemen had their day at A&M. Justin Eboigbe, Jahiem Oatis and Tim Keenan had their moments on the interior. Eboigbe’s sack for a safety in the fourth quarter was the capstone on the performance as the Aggies had neither the gas nor the answer for an energized defensive front.

Linemen also contributed three of the seven recorded QB hurries and half of the tackles for loss.

Through six games, Alabama has allowed the 13th-fewest touchdowns (10) and 14th-lowest scoring average (15.2 per game). Since surrendering four touchdowns against Texas, Alabama’s allowed just five in the four games since.

They’ve also eliminated the big plays. Opponents have just one play of 50-plus yards in six games. Since allowing the 454 yards to Texas, the next four Tide opponents averaged 281.5. That includes Ole Miss who managed just 301 a week before hanging 706 on LSU.

Georgia is Georgia again

The No. 1 ranking went to Georgia over the first month almost by default. The two-time defending national champs haven’t had to sweat much after having to drop Oklahoma from the September slate.

From here, they almost looked bored with early-season cupcakes. They played well enough to win but didn’t make anything think it would be another steamroll to a third straight crown. The scare at Auburn last week was interesting but the fourth-quarter outburst was a preview of what came Saturday.

Facing a No. 20 Kentucky team fresh off embarrassing Florida, the Bulldogs flexed. A 51-13 boat race saw Georgia cover the spread for the first time this season. Carson Beck looked sharp (28-for-35 with 389 yards, four touchdowns and an interception) with Brock Bowers in his toolkit. The tight end from Napa Valley had seven catches for 132 yards

Auburn was off

The open week came Saturday for an Auburn team coming off consecutive SEC losses but a slight tailwind considering the scare it gave Georgia.

There’s not to report before they get back to work this week for a Saturday trip to LSU.

If you’re looking for a transitive success, Cal scored 40 points (but lost) to No. 15 Oregon State on Saturday. That was the same offense Auburn limited to 10 points in the Week 2 win in Berkley. UMass offered no help as the Tigers’ season-opening opponent fell to 1-6 with a 41-24 loss to Toledo.

Miami, seriously

Let’s talk about what happened late Saturday night on the ACC Network. Perhaps one of the most impossible collapses in memory when defeat was snatched from a vice-gripped victory. Handing off instead of taking a knee up 3 in the closing minute was baffling if we’re being generous. Here’s a look at how it ended after Georgia Tech hit a quick play after the fumble to cross the 50 and set up this moment.

There was a heavy Alabama influence on the whole situation. Both head coaches in the game — Miami’s Mario Cristobal and Georgia Tech’s Brent Key — were former Tide offensive line coaches. And the receiver was Christian Leary, a transfer from Alabama.

Cristobal was always well-liked in Tuscaloosa both as a positional coach and a recruiter. But woof, this will go down as one of the all-time blunders.

Interestingly, Alabama itself had a vaguely similar situation at Texas A&M on Saturday. After icing the game with a third-down conversion under 2:00 and the Aggies out of timeouts, a pass was inexplicably thrown incomplete. The time math worked out to where Alabama could’ve kneeled it out and walked to the dressing room.

Instead, it had to take a fourth-down snap and depend on Milroe to throw it just high enough for the final seconds to tick off the clock. Not nearly as costly but still a bizarre moment in the game-management category that hasn’t been explained publicly.

Quick hits

LSU defense: Seriously, what’s the deal? The Tigers enter Saturday’s visit from Auburn with the No. 124 total defense. A week ago, LSU allowed an astonishing 706 yards to Ole Miss in a 55-49 loss. They followed that by spotting Missouri a 22-7 lead before rallying for a 49-39 win. Missouri rolled up 527 yards with an average of 7.75 per snap. That’s not terribly far from the 8.02-average from the Ole Miss loss. This is a group featuring big-name talent like Harold Perkins, Maason Smith and Mekhi Wingo but has been spiraling the last few weeks. A visit from Auburn’s No. 90 total offense might be the key to finding whatever is missing.

Michigan wins again: The second-ranked Wolverines continue its winning streak that’s yet to fully reveal what they are. A 52-10 boat-rowing of Minnesota was impressive if you consider the Golden Gophers a test, which we don’t. Wins over Big Ten dogs Rutgers, Nebraska and Minnesota came by a combined 128-24 score. And don’t expect anything interesting for another month since the next three opponents are Indiana, Michigan State and Purdue before welcoming No. 6 Penn State on Nov. 11.

Peak Friday night: It doesn’t get more Friday night than the two Power 5 games that aired on cable this week. Oklahoma State’s 29-21 win over Kansas State was a masterpiece next to Nebraska’s 20-7 slog of a win at Illinois. Cue up Yakety Sax before rolling the highlights of that collective mess.

Defense: A few weeks ago we noted the fact seven FBS teams were holding opponents below 10 points a game and that hadn’t been done for a full season since Alabama did it in 2011. Well, that number is down to two with Michigan’s tour de sacrifice is limiting opponents to 6.7 points a game. Penn State has an Iowa-aided 9.6-point average allowance.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.