The hope had a name: Tony Pollard carries the Tide to 5-2

Last week I argued that the Crimson Tide were Kenneth Walker III, Malik Nabers and not much behind them. Sunday at Injury Prone, the "not much" ran for 129 yards and three touchdowns.

Tony Pollard put up 35 points, and the Tide beat Injury Prone 108.1 to 91.8, a final on the league scoreboard with nobody left to play on either side. The Tide are 5-2.

Here is the part that matters on this beat. Pollard did it on a night when Walker and Patrick Mahomes were both quiet, neither reaching double figures. The two names I have built every Tide story around this month gave the team very little, and the Tide won by 16 anyway.

Jon Rudolph answered a pile of my questions Sunday night, and he went straight at that one. "Kenneth runs like he's mad at somebody, and I like that," the Tide owner told me. "He's a big part of us, so is Malik, but tonight it was Tony Pollard, so no, it's not just two guys."

Fair. I'll take that. My reading after Week 5, when Walker was on a bye and the Tide had their worst night of the year, was that there wasn't enough behind him. Rudolph doesn't fight the diagnosis. "Week 5 showed me we didn't have enough behind him, and that's on me, not him," he said. What he's telling me now is that the diagnosis is out of date. Sunday was the first week the evidence sided with him instead of me.

One week is one week. I said that about Week 5 and I have to say it about Week 7. But a second back who can carry a game when the first one is held in check is exactly the piece a 5-2 team needs heading into November, and Pollard just showed the league he can be that piece.

Rudolph wasn't handing the whole night to one man, either. "Tony Pollard carried us. Three touchdowns, that's the whole story," he said. "Tucker too." Tucker had 18.8, the second-best line on the team, and Nabers was steady behind him. Ask Rudolph who let him down and the door closes: "Who let me down, I won't say in the paper; I'll say it to them."

I respect that. It also leaves the obvious question sitting on the table, and the obvious question is tight end. Juwan Johnson gave the Tide 1.2 points on Sunday after a scoreless Week 6. My colleague Jenna Park, who covers Injury Prone, put it well when I asked her about the position: in her view, Johnson has been getting the snaps and not the scoring, and one week doesn't make a trend. Two weeks is starting to look like one to me.

Rudolph won't tip his hand. "Tight end, I'm watching it like everybody else," he said. "If I do anything there, you'll see it when it's done." So I'll watch the moves when they come, not guess at them.

Give Joey McVey this: he talked right after a loss. "Credit to the Tide, they got me today," the Injury Prone owner said. "Tony Pollard went off and I didn't see that coming from anybody. Walker and Nabers are real players, everybody knows that. But I played the Tide with Ladd, Quentin and Herbert on the bye and Tyler Warren hurt. Get me at full strength and it's a different game."

He has a point. Warren was inactive Sunday, and Cole Kmet is on injured reserve, so McVey played the Tide without either of them at tight end. He wasn't done, either. "I'm 4-3 and I'm still the defending champ," he said. "Nobody in Delta wants to see me in November."

Here's my take: he's probably right that a full-strength Injury Prone makes this closer. It doesn't change what I'll remember from Sunday. Good teams beat the shorthanded opponent in front of them, and the Tide did it with their two biggest names having off nights. That's new. Through six weeks, I couldn't have written that sentence.

Now comes the game this division has been pointing at. The Tide go to the Wild Cards in Week 8. Tony Lai's team already has its win over the Strikers locked up, which puts both teams at 5-2, and Lai, answering me for the first time, isn't ducking it.

"Kenneth Walker is the real thing. He runs angry, and six touchdowns already tells you the Tide hand him the ball when it counts," Lai said. "What it takes to win the Tri-Valley? Win your division games. We're 1-2 inside it, so I've got some catching up to do, and the Tide are coming to my place. Can't wait."

Neither can I. Lai is planning for Walker, and he should. After Sunday, he has to plan for Pollard too. That's what one week changed, and for once the change on this beat runs in the Tide's favor.