Alabama Football 2014 Pro Day 1

AJ McCarron meets with the media during Alabama football's Pro Day, Wednesday, March 12, 2014, at the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility in Tuscaloosa/

(Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- After a loss, there's going to be some second-guessing.

AJ McCarron knew all about that as a three-year starter at Alabama. He recalled that experience in his weekly segment on Tuscaloosa's Tide 99.1-FM radio show.

The injured rookie for the Cincinnati Bengals also had a few observations following the 23-17 loss at Ole Miss. Answering callers' questions along with host Ryan Fowler's, McCarron said the Alabama offense is missing leadership.

He also cautioned fans from overreacting to one loss and didn't think it was time to panic.

LISTEN: For the full interview with McCarron listen to Part I and Part II of his appearance.

McCarron was also asked about the distribution of Blake Sims' passes and if he thought Amari Cooper was targeted too often. McCarron said he thought the Tide should be spreading the ball more.

"I don't know if that's Lane doing that or if coach Saban is kind of putting the handcuffs on Lane like I've known Coach to do in the past on his offensive coordinator and we're going to be very bland and run this play and do this and we'll throw it on third down if we have to," McCarron told the Tide 99.1 audience. "It's going to be interesting to see how they bounce back against Arkansas this week and what kind of offense comes out this week."

McCarron had good things to say about the receiver who's led the team in receiving in each of the past three years.

RELATED: Nick Saban responds to McCarron's comments

"I understand Coop is an unbelievable player," McCarron said. "He was that for us when I was there, but when you target somebody so much ... I think that was one of the best things we did while I was there. We spread the ball around to everybody. I mean, I think in numerous games ... where we had almost everybody on offense catch the ball that was eligible to catch the ball. Teams could never really pinpoint and play their defenses to cover Coop and I think that's one of the things they're struggling with right now.

Cooper has 52 of the 111 total receptions (48.8 percent) for Alabama so far this season.

"I'll tell you one person who I thought I'd see a little bit more out there making plays and get a little more of the offense going toward him is Christion Jones. He was a huge playmaker when I was there. I looked for him all the time. If I saw anyone one-on-one with Christion, I'm going to him. He's an excellent route runner. He's got good hands. I think right now, just this last game, I didn't see a whole lot of balance and spreading the ball around the field. I think they were keying on Coop a little too much and that hurt them."

Jones is third on the team in receptions with 11 for 154 yards.

Another caller asked about the problem with procedure penalties Alabama's had this season.

"I think one of the things that this team is lacking that hurts them the most is not having the true leaders like we had last year and guys that, when things go bad, 'hey, let's calm everybody down, pick it back up and go back to work and get back on the right track. I feel like when things go bad, this team struggles a little with bouncing back and making good plays."

Back in July, Jones said the leadership on the 2014 team was considerably better than it was in 2013.

Later in the show, McCarron said he sees strong leadership from defensive players like linebacker Trey DePriest and Landon Collins.

"But they have to find that leader on offense, I don't know if that's Austin Shepherd or, with Ryan (Kelly) being out, somebody needs to establish that. Blake needs to step up and do it. It's going to be a tough road."

UPDATE: McCarron will appear again Wednesday evening on 99.1-FM to discuss his comments from Tuesday, according to the station's Twitter account.