Asked about progress for Alabama’s offensive line, starting guard Emil Ekiyor went straight toward consistency.

At times, they’re great. That was clear in the fourth quarter at Arkansas with a few bulldozer blocks that freed Jahmyr Gibbs for touchdown runs of 72 and 76 yards respectively.

Leading the nation with an average carry of 7.39 yards would be a feather in the cap. This is an offense whose five rushing plays of 60-plus yards is almost double the next highest total among 131 FBS teams.

But consistency, that’s the objective because there’s another piece of that story and context to those numbers.

Through five games, Alabama’s ground game has an 18.2% stuff rate — the share of runs stopped at or before the line of scrimmage. That ranks 79th nationally, according to FootballOutsiders.com.

So while Alabama’s 251.4 rushing yards per game ranks seventh, it’s in the bottom half nationally in avoiding stuffed runs. Among the other top seven, only Ole Miss has a higher stuff rate at 18.7% (No. 86) while yardage leader Air Force has the ninth-lowest stuff rate at 11.2%.

“We had little stretches where we did good things at times,” Ekiyor said, “but just the overall consistency of our play, having about 10 rushes that got six to nine yards and breaking those long runs at the end of the game, there’s more consistency in our running game.”

Texas A&M (3-2, 1-1 SEC) arrives in Tuscaloosa for the 7 p.m. CT Saturday game with the No. 97 rush defense that allows 170.2 yards per game. In terms of defensive stuff rate, the Aggies are No. 100 at 15.8%.

The Alabama defense is No. 4 with a 28.7% stuff rate.

Another number tracked by FootballOutsiders illustrates the need for improvement in key moments. The power success rate tracks the percentage of third- and fourth-down runs needing two or fewer yards that are converted into first downs. Alabama’s 60% success rate ranks 98th.

Much of this comes back to Nick Saban’s early-season challenge for the offensive line to be more physical. That was not lost among the target audience.

“It’s something everybody in the offensive line room took personal,” Ekiyor said. “I think it just starts in practice, developing those habits throughout the week. Making sure we’re practicing hard at all times, being physical at all times, even if we are on the practice field. Even if we don’t feel like it.

“Changing our mindset throughout the week of practice and having that dog mentality approach going into the game. It’s shown these last couple weeks. We definitely took that challenge seriously and we improved on it good.”

Saban on Wednesday evaluated the physicality progress from his offensive line.

“I think in the last game they showed signs of it,” he said. “They showed signs of it at times throughout the year, I just think your whole body of work is based on consistency and performance. That’s what defines success so that’s what we gotta keep working on with them and I do think we’re making progress and I do think that this last game was probably the best that they’ve been all year.”

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