Alabama whipped anxiety as well as the Aggies

photo Alabama wide receiver Christion Jones (22) celebrates with teammates after a long punt return in the Crimson Tide's 59-0 win over Texas A&M on Saturday.

No turnovers. No penalties. No points allowed and 59 points scored.

It all added up to an enjoyable Saturday afternoon for the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Enjoyment had been lacking at times during the first half of the season for Alabama, but smiles abounded in a 59-0 thrashing of Texas A&M. The Crimson Tide began this month with a 23-17 loss at Ole Miss and a 14-13 escape at Arkansas before arriving at Bryant-Denny Stadium, where all their problems seem to vanish.

"That's the kind of energy and enthusiasm we've been trying to get our guys to play with," Alabama coach Nick Saban said after posting his biggest blowout of a Southeastern Conference foe. "There has been a lot of anxiety and expectations that our guys have played with that we've been trying to get rid of on our team. You make you who you are by what you do, and that's what we've been trying to sell to our players. It's all about the team and what we do and how we do it.

"Everybody has to forget about all that other stuff, and it does affect you. It affects a lot of teams, and that's why we see a lot of these top teams struggling because you're playing like you're No. 1 rather than playing like you need to play to win."

Alabama was No. 2 before losing to the Rebels in Oxford, Miss. The Crimson Tide, who are 78-10 since the start of the 2008 season with three national titles, remain vibrant in this year's title chase after moving up to No. 4 in Sunday's Associated Press poll.

They are back in the top five with the goal of continuing to improve -- if that's somehow possible given Saturday's destruction -- and not looking back at the team's tentative disposition of recent weeks gone by.

"We had been playing afraid to lose, and after we took that loss, there was nothing else to be afraid of," linebacker Ryan Anderson said. "Everybody's more comfortable now, playing their game and running their race."

Said quarterback Blake Sims: "Everybody was out there having a lot of fun. We weren't as tense as we've usually been. It was a good day for us."

Saban pointed out last Monday that the waning moments of the win at Arkansas, specifically a Landon Collins game-sealing interception of Brandon Allen, caused an excitement among his players that he had not seen in a while. He talked to his team this week about the legendary horse, Secretariat, whose handlers had a lot of money and pressure riding on a potential Triple Crown in 1973.

When it was determined to just turn him loose and let him run, Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths.

"Sometimes you get people so tight and tensed up and anxious that they don't play with the kind of personality that they are capable of," Saban said, "and that's something we've been working on since the Ole Miss game. I think our players have responded to it, and I think they're having more fun playing, which is really what we want them to do.

"Maybe we're young and inexperienced, but they've gotten really, really nervous before games. We've been telling them to cut it loose, play hard, have fun and play with good intangibles."

Should the Tide continue to roll this week at Tennessee, players will view the Collins interception at Arkansas as the turning point, even if he doesn't see it that way.

"I don't know," Collins said smiling. "We just try to dominate day in and day out, turn the page and then dominate the next game."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

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