Alabama’s Bryce Young threw for 316 yards and four touchdowns in the first half alone, as the Crimson Tide clobbered Vanderbilt by a 54-3 score at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Saturday night.

The Crimson Tide opened the second-half scoring with Will Reichard’s 21-yard field goal with 6:55 left in the third quarter, making it 34-3. Alabama never let up, with Jamarion Miller ending the scoring on a 40-yard run with 34 seconds to play.

Young, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, hit 25-of-36 throws for 385 yards and four touchdowns.

Alabama scored first when Young hit Ja’Corey Brooks with a 21-yard throw, but Vandy answered when former Crimson Tide kicker Joseph Bulovas nailed a 41-yard field goal on the Commodores’ next trip.

Young came right back, leading Alabama 75 yards in 10 plays, finding Treashon Holden open in the end zone for an 8-yard TD pass. After Vanderbilt failed on fourth-and-1 from its 34, Young hit an open Brooks down the left sideline for his third touchdown pass of the half.

Young hit Jahmyr Gibbs with a short touchdown throw in the second quarter, then ended the half by leading Alabama on a drive that ended in Reichard’s 40-yard field goal at the buzzer that made it 31-3.

Alabama out-gained Vandy, 628-129.

1. Water is wet, the sky is blue, Alabama is a lot bigger, stronger and faster than the Commodores and there’s nothing they could do. If you’d like to sum the game up in one stat, it was Alabama’s 371-to-64-yard edge in total offense at half, with a 10-to-2.1-yard edge per play. If you want a second, it was that it felt like Vanderbilt played the run pretty well in the first half, except that was really a mirage of everything else being so bad (the ‘Tide ran for 6.9 per carry on eight tries before the half). If you’d like a third, the Crimson Tide went over 500 yards before Vandy eclipsed 100.

So where should the finger point? First of all, it’s Alabama. But on the other side, it’s mostly at Derek Mason and previous staff, for all the failure to get SEC-level speed and physical guys at almost every position, and especially on defense.

I had said it looked like the ‘Dores were getting a little faster in fall camp, but a) the bar was so low compared to the previous year, and; b) It’s Vandy-on-Vandy. When Elon started getting behind the Commodore secondary, that was the first big hint something was wrong. And unsurprisingly, the same defenders were chasing Alabama wideouts all night.

The deficit was just as much (or maybe more) obvious in the trenches. The Commodore offensive line got no push in the run game, as every one-yard gain felt like five. The pass blocking—Vandy had allowed one sack in four previous games—fell apart in the first half, as Alabama had three before the break. At one point, Alabama rushed against six or seven blockers and got to Swann for a sack in no time anyway.

Vanderbilt’s just not ready to compete against the elite teams and Saturday night removed the mystery (if there’d been any) from that.

2. Alabama left its starters in most of the night. For context, Alabama didn’t take its foot off the gas in terms of personnel. All-everything linebacker Will Anderson was in on a play that forced a punt from deep in Vanderbilt territory, and the Crimson Tide finally replaced Young with Jalen Milroe on the ensuing drive. Alabama went three-and-out and punted.

Several of Alabama’s first-team defenders were still in the game on the ‘Dores first possession of the the fourth quarter, several of its first-team offensive players were still in after Young was pulled and and Milroe took at least one deep shot with the score 41-3.

3. The lack of pass rush is probably the team’s biggest weakness. Vanderbilt had seven sacks coming in, but looked a lot more like the squad that had nine a year ago. Young had all day most of the night and predictably made the ‘Dores pay.

4. Anfernee Orji looked like he belonged on the field. You can't say that about too many Commodores given the opposition on Saturday night, but Orji had 13 tackles (three solo) and was one of the few guys who looked like he created anything resembling a problem for the 'Tide.

5. Punter Matt Hayball may be Vandy’s best special-teams cover guy. Hayball had a couple of tackles and forced a fumble. On another occasion he got in the way of Kool-Aid McKinstry near the end of a 27-yard punt return as teammates made the tackle.

6. Ray Davis looks like he’ll struggle against better defenses. Davis is one of my favorite guys on the team for a bunch of reasons, and I thought Davis was the team’s best offensive player in fall camp. Davis also broke a lot of big plays in camp. However, now we have more context: Davis doesn’t appear to have that burst against better defenses and certainly wasn’t able to find that against Alabama.

7. Jayden McGowan is one of the few Vanderbilt players who might see the field at Alabama, but he keeps reminding us he’s a freshman. McGowan, who’s had ball security issues this year, muffed a kickoff at the 1, leading to Vanderbilt getting possession there.

8. Starting lineman Xavier Castillo was out tonight and Julian Hernandez got hurt late. It appeared Hernandez took a finger to the eye late and went to the sidelines afterwards. Castillo is one of the offense's better players and missing him against the 'Tide didn't help.