Nick Saban's thoughts on Georgia, and more

Alabama head coach Nick Saban followed Kirby Smart on Sunday’s teleconference to preview Saturday’s game.

The following are excerpts of what he had to say.

… Regarding running back Brian Robinson, who left the game against Auburn following a 37-yard run and did not return: “He has a lower body pulled muscle. We'll kind of see how he progresses during the course of the week and see where he's at,” Saban said. “I can't tell you any more than that right now. We'll just kind of see how he progresses during the course of the week.”

… Saban had glowing words to say about Bulldog nose guard Jordan Davis: “I mean, I think the guy is one of the most dominant players in college football. Any defensive lineman, I guess you can look at a lot of things, but the number one thing is how hard are they to block? And he's really hard to block,” Saban said. “He's got great size. He's very powerful, but he's got really good initial quickness, short-area quickness, and can push the pocket and pass rush. He's about as good a player as I've seen for a long time as an inside player on any college football team.”

… Who else stands out on Georgia’s defense? “I think the fact that they've got like nine different players that have 4-1/2 tackles for a loss. One guy has 8 1/2. They've got five different players that have multiple sacks. There's nine different players that have at least two sacks. So, there's a lot of issues. They're well-coached. They've got a good scheme. The players do a good job of executing it. They've got good linebackers. They've got good front people. They're aggressive in the secondary. This is not a one-man wrecking crew. This is a really, really good group of players who play well together. There are multiple players that have ability to make plays.”

… On the play of his offensive line: “Obviously, it wasn't very good. We didn't do a very good job of pass blocking. We didn't do a very good job of finishing blocks on the running plays. So, it's pretty obvious to everybody that we didn't execute very well.

“We did a much better job in the second half, I think. Wasn't always perfect, but much, much better. I think some of the adjustments we made were a little better for them to execute relative to the way Auburn was playing us. So, we made some improvement during the game, but it wasn't very good in the first half.”

… On Georgia’s effort against the pass: “To me, they've got some really good rushers up front. They do a great job of pressuring the quarterback. They've got really good scheme in terms of how they pressure the quarterback. They mix up the coverages in the back end quite a bit. They've been very effective with the way they play pass defense all year long. So, it's going to be very challenging for us. It's not just about throwing the ball. It's about protecting, whether it's man-to-man, zone, reading it, throwing the ball to the right guys. There's a lot of things that go with that.

“When we play the best, we have some kind of balance on offense, which really wasn't the case last night. So it's going to be important for us to be able to create that as well.”