Alabama football blew out Mercer on Saturday, dispatching the overmatched Bears 52-7. By the end of the game, the Crimson Tide’s walk-ons were getting into the game, which served as UA’s tune-up FCS matchup before the conclusion of the regular season.

It wasn’t all perfect though. Here are our grades from Saturday’s Alabama performance.

Offense: A-

The Crimson Tide was not facing the caliber of defense that it’s used to in SEC play. However, all we have to judge on is what happened on the field, and Alabama looked good.

The first-teamers broke the game wide open for Alabama, with nice plays coming from the usual suspects, including Jalen Milroe and Ryan Williams.

The backups looked good as well, with Austin Mack completing a nice touchdown pass to Rico Scott late. All-in-all, a solid effort, albeit against an overmatched Mercer team.

Defense: A

Same deal as the offense. Mercer didn’t have the talent to compete and it showed, but Alabama took care of business.

The Crimson Tide scored its first defensive touchdown of the season in the first half, when Zabien Brown picked up a fumble and found the end zone. Alabama generated three turnovers throughout the game.

When the backups got in, the Tide didn’t let up. A good performance that could serve to build momentum entering next week’s trip to Oklahoma.

Special teams: B-

This was the worst part of Saturday’s game. James Burnip wasn’t his usual self at punter, sending a couple of kicks far shorter than Crimson Tide fans are accustomed to seeing from him.

It wasn’t all bad though. Graham Nicholson made a field goal, and the Tide’s kickoff team issues from the LSU game didn’t carry over to Saturday.

Overall: A-

Alabama had two major jobs entering Saturday’s game. The Tide needed to beat the brakes off of an SEC opponent and get its backup players a chance to show out, without any major injuries if possible.

Mission accomplished on all fronts. It gets harder again next week, but the Mercer performance was exactly what it needed to be.