Alabama's offense had a much-neded bounce back against Texas A&M.

After scoring a combined 27 points over the past two games and being held to 201 yards against Tennessee in a dreadful 26-10 loss, the Crimson Tide threw for more than 300 yards en route to a 31-20 victory over the Aggies. At the center of Alabama's offensive success was a revitalized RPO and play-action offense and a return to form for the tight ends.

We'll get into all of that and more in today's film breakdown.

Tight Ends Feast in Pass Game

We'll start the study by specifically honing in on the tight ends, who had their biggest performance of the season in the pass game against the Aggies. Alabama's two second-half touchdowns were scored by tight ends, but it started with the first snap of the day, this 16-yard completion to Josh Ford.

This unwillingness to abandon plays and formations that have stopped working is a clear, identifiable flaw in Grubb's playcalling. It appears we're heading down the same path with the I-formation, which was successful in Starkville two weeks ago (four runs, 25 yards, two touchdowns), but has bottomed out as Georgia and Tennessee recognized that it signified a run. Will Grubb be willing to abandon it, or at least start throwing out of it more often moving forward?

Me, last week's Alabama film breakdown

This is a perfect play call from Ryan Grubb. His opening scripts have faced a lot of scrutiny, but this was set up by the last three weeks of Alabama film. Texas A&M had no reason to expect this ball to be thrown. Exceptionally done, and now it reopens the run game out of the I-form.

Ford, who's only reception entering the game was his three-yard one-handed touchdown snag against South Carolina, also hauled in another ball, this one for seven yards to move the chains.

One of my stronger takes entering the season was that I thought the tight ends would combine for 75 receptions this year. It was unlikely coming into the year, but it has an outside shot now, as the unit sits at 37 with anywhere from five to eight games to play. Regardless, the room continues to get more important as the season progresses.

We saw this firsthand last week in Knoxville, where the unit had a down game and was unable to match the physicality of Tennessee's elite defensive front. Without the tight ends as gamechangers, Alabama's offense loses a dimension. They were right back to form against the Aggies, and it showed.

Alabama scored what proved to be the game-winning touchdown on this throw to Marshall Pritchett, who leads the room with 18 receptions.

And then Keelon Russell made one of the best red-zone throws of his career minutes later as Kaleb Edwards provided the Crimson Tide with some insurance.

RPOs, Play-Action, and More Explosive Offense

The meat and potatoes of Alabama's offensive success, though, came in the play-action and RPO game. First, Alabama's second-longest play from scrimmage, a 36-yard connection from Russell to Rico Scott.

Look at Lotzeir Brooks (#3) at the 0:33 mark in the video. Brooks sells it perfectly. Cornerback Dezz Ricks (#2), freezes up for just a split-second, more than enough for Scott to use his inside leverage to get completely free.

Brooks was Alabama's No. 2 receiver with three catches for 73 yards, one of which came on this slant, where he was able to corral a low throw from Russell.

Notice the clock at 8:23 as Brooks is tackled with defenders on him. The TV broadcast goes to replay, and has to cut it short because Russell and the offense are moving. Less than 20 seconds later, the ball is snapped, and Russell has Scott for an easy chunk play.

This is high-level operation. This is Russell showing his development and growth and using it to elevate Alabama's offense — not through sheer talent but through intangibles.

This next play is the opposite. Russell makes the wrong read on this RPO, passing up on what appeared to be a Trae'Shawn Brown touchdown to instead try to find one of his receivers. Nobody's open, and he takes a scary-looking hit instead.

Russell looked the best he has all season in RPO plays. There are always going to be misses; even the most experienced NFL veterans have them. But that potential touchdown would have been huge for a run game clearly lacking in confidence in the midst of another rough performance.

Moving forward, here was Russell's purest throw of the day. Beautiful ball to Scott.

And my favorite play of the game actually didn't come until the final drive. Does this look familiar to you?

It should. Grubb ran it on a third-and-seven last year in the final minutes against Georgia, and Ty Simpson found Jam Miller to ice Alabama's 24-21 win in Athens on the play. Hill is in the place of Miller, and with this play on the far hash, there wasn't room for him to get the ball.

I absolutely love this play and really enjoyed getting to see another variation of it.

Russell's Inexperience Shows

It wasn't all perfect for the Crimson Tide offense.

For the third straight game, Russell showed his inexperience a number of times. The RPO miss was just the tip of the iceberg. Here's a third-down miss, where Russell has double slants on the bottom of the screen, and goes to a covered Hill instead of an open Brooks.

It's not a bad throw, but Alabama moves the chains if Brooks gets that ball.

Here's another interesting moment from Russell, who entirely loses track of the line of scrimmage on this play. It's becoming a bit of a trend for the sophomore. With time, he'll surely learn to just run with that ball in that moment.

Speaking of running, it felt like Russell took the most hits he has in weeks in this game. Texas A&M almost got a late comeback opportunity after a near-fumble from Russell on this scramble.

As a general rule of thumb, a quarterback's feet should never end up above his head during a play. I'm sure the Alabama staff reminded Russell of all the improvements made in sliding and avoiding unnecessary hits after the game.

If you watched the game or have been on social media since, you knew this one was coming.

This is about as impressive an interception as a quarterback can throw. Russell immediately said in his postgame press conference that he knew he shouldn't have tried to force that ball. No notes, but an objectively hilarious play to watch live.