The Atlantic

Will the Alabama Crimson Tide Keep Rolling?

In Saturday’s game, the college-football powerhouse will either reinforce their brilliance, or suffer a historic upset. Whatever happens, it’ll be an incredible watch.
Source: Marvin Gentry / USA TODAY Sports / Reuters

Minutes into an early-October game against Texas A&M, the University of Alabama defensive end Jonathan Allen danced around his blocker and set his sights on the quarterback Trevor Knight. A running back stepped up to try to slow Allen. It was a common enough sequence, but what came next was a rarer sight. The back crouched to deliver a blow, and Allen—a 6’3”, 291-pound native Alabaman—simply leaped, went horizontal, and in one motion cleared the block and brought Knight to the ground. It was like watching an armored truck sprout wings and lift off the road. By the time the play reached YouTube, someone had to the score.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic5 min readAmerican Government
What Nikki Haley Is Trying to Prove
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Nikki Haley faces terrible odds in her home state of
The Atlantic8 min readAmerican Government
The Most Consequential Recent First Lady
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. The most consequential first lady of modern times was Melania Trump. I know, I know. We are supposed to believe it was Hillary Clinton, with her unbaked cookies
The Atlantic3 min read
They Rode the Rails, Made Friends, and Fell Out of Love With America
The open road is the great American literary device. Whether the example is Jack Kerouac or Tracy Chapman, the national canon is full of travel tales that observe America’s idiosyncrasies and inequalities, its dark corners and lost wanderers, but ult

Related