Alabama had little trouble moving to 4-0 on Saturday with Southern Miss in town. The 49-7 win was secured early with several young players in key roles on both sides of the ball.

A few things popped out while taking a moment Sunday to rewatch the game Sunday afternoon.

Interrupted briefly by the commitment from 5-star quarterback Bryce Young, here are the weekly observations from a second viewing of Alabama’s win over Southern Miss.

-- Alabama started out on defense for a change and Southern Miss went on attack immediately. On the second play, they shifted four receivers to the wide side of the field. There was confusion among Alabama’s linebackers and just before the snap, freshman middle linebacker Shane Lee ran all the way down to the sideline to cover running back De’Michael Harris. Noticing the mismatch, Southern Miss QB Jack Abraham threw a go route that missed the mark. Freshman Jordan Battle made a nice open-field tackle on the next snap to force an early punt.

-- The quick screens returned for Alabama’s offense and they require at least one good block. Jerry Jeudy didn’t get that on the first drive when Henry Ruggs III couldn’t get a hand on the defensive back who threw Jeudy for a loss. The Tide’s top receiver didn’t have another catch until the second quarter, a 17-yard touchdown pass.

-- Alabama also runs a lot of passing plays with routes mirrored so it looks like a given pass could be caught by the high or low man. That was the case on Ruggs’ first touchdown. Both he and DeVonta Smith ran matching slants in the RPO game. The ball went to the outside guy in Ruggs who broke two poor attempts at tackles for a 45-yard score. Just too fast.

-- Back on defense, it looked like true freshman Justin Eboigbe lost contain on the 11-yard QB run that opened USM’s second drive. Making his first start, the rookie made three tackles.

-- The Golden Eagles took a few shots down the field but the longest play was a 37-yard wheel route to the running back Harris. The next longest throw was a 25-yarder. And for the season, Alabama’s allowed no throw longer than 44 yards.

-- A true freshman whose name hasn’t come up much helped with a sack to end USM’s second drive. Byron Young met Abraham just after Anfernee Jennings got a hand on the passer as he was called for intentional grounding. Jennings got full credit for the sack. Young was also in the mix for a second-quarter sack from Lee, the freshman LB.

-- It almost looked like Ruggs would be caught from behind on the 76-yard touchdown pass. The throw looked like it slowed down the speedy receiver but there’s another gear on the junior from Montgomery who broke untouched from the snap. Ruggs is No. 3 in catches behind Jeudy and DeVonta Smith with 16 but his 350 yards and four touchdowns are No. 2.

-- It’s hard to tell exactly what happened when Will Reichard injured himself kicking off in the first quarter. Saban said the freshman kicked more of the ground than the ball on a 29-yard kickoff that looked weird in real time. Reichard had been booting touchbacks on 80 percent of his kicks and this one looked like a pooch. Saban said it was a hip flexor for Reichard, an injury not exactly advantageous for kickers.

-- Trevon Diggs went Willie Mays for his second interception of the year. Just an athletic play for a former receiver.

-- Tagovailoa was in the pocket 4.18 seconds scanning the field before hitting Jaylen Waddle on an athletic 25-yard pass early in the second quarter.

-- On the 17-yard touchdown throw to Jeudy, it almost looked like Ruggs was a decoy. Off the snap, three defenders bit on a fake screen pass to Ruggs. That allowed Jeudy, an All-American, to slip untouched behind the defense for an easy pitch and catch. One of the DBs lost his shoe trying to chase down Jeudy.

-- Tight ends haven’t been a big part of the passing game after two caught touchdowns in the opener. Only one completion went to a tight end Saturday, a one-yard gain to Miller Forristall in the second quarter.

-- On the 37-yard pass USM completed, the running back Harris did a great job of deking Anfernee Jennings. He slow-played the route, almost walking like he wasn’t involved in the play before sprinting past Jennings for the big play that set up USM’s only score.

-- That play also drew Alabama’s only penalty flag. After being penalized 11 times at South Carolina, the late-hit call on Josh Jobe was the only infraction for the Tide on Saturday.

-- Rewatching the D.J. Dale injury, it just looked like an offensive lineman fell on his ankle and the defensive lineman went down.

-- After the game, Tagovailoa took the blame for getting sacked in the hurry-up drive at the end of the first half.

-- The running game picked it up after halftime starting with a 13-yard run from Najee Harris. Freshman Evan Neal got the key seal block to spring Harris straight up the middle. Then on the next drive, it looked like center Chris Owens had the seal block on Brian Robinson’s 14-yard run. Harris gave all the credit to his 110-yard game to his offensive line.

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.