16 for ‘16: Alabama destroys Florida’s flea-flicker

Much ado has been made about the Alabama defense this season, with a ferocious pass-rush and more pure speed than any have ever seen under Nick Saban.

In the SEC championship game, Florida was not immune to the same impending doom that has dismantled the rest of Alabama’s foes. With the Gator offense already reeling from two interceptions in the first quarter— one of which was returned for a touchdown-- Doug Nussemeier decided to draw up a flea flicker to try and get the aggressive Alabama defense to bite on a fake.

In a moment of pure fear, Jordan Scarlett stopped dead in his tracks and pitched the ball back to quarterback Austin Appleby without even attempting to sell that he was going to run with the ball. He then thought about trying to at least slow down 320-pounds of a charging Da’Ron Payne, but instead was knocked five yards backwards with just a forearm shove.

Meanwhile, human missile Reuben Foster rocketed around left end and locked onto Appleby. The gator QB did manage to see the linebacker screaming towards him, and tried to drop to the ground to avoid being completely obliterated from this earth. Even so, he couldn’t even fall down fast enough to totally avoid a hit from the 2016 Butkus award winner, and the Alabama defense was credited with a 12 yard sack on the play.

Three plays later, Alabama was in the endzone yet again as the special teams blocked the Gator’s resulting punt.