Alabama football’s first SEC road trip of the Kalen DeBoer era is here. The Crimson Tide travels to Nashville on Saturday, to face a 2-2 Vanderbilt team that’s coming off a bye week following a double-overtime loss to Missouri in Columbia.

The Tide and Commodores are scheduled to kick off at 3:15 p.m. CT at FirstBank Stadium. The game will be aired on the SEC Network.

Before the game, here are three keys to victory for Alabama.

Don’t get trapped

Alabama is coming off what will go down as one of the most exciting games of the season. The Crimson Tide took the No. 1 ranking in the AP media poll by beating Georgia in a thriller at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Now comes the classic trap game. Fresh off an emotional high, the Crimson Tide travels to Vanderbilt, a team it should beat easily, at least on paper.

Alabama’s director of player development, former UA nose tackle Josh Chapman, illustrated the point by dropping rat traps around the facility this week, a move pulled directly from Nick Saban’s playbook.

“Vanderbilt is a very good team,” Alabama edge Que Robinson said Tuesday. “Took Missouri to double overtime, and you gotta respect that. Just can’t go out there moseying around. You gotta respect the team and go out there and play our standard of football.”

Robinson, one of the more senior members of the Crimson Tide, is right. Alabama should win the game, but it can’t be taking the Commodores lightly, or it could be in for a scare.

Stop Diego Pavia

Ask Auburn about the dangers of Vanderbilt’s quarterback. He led New Mexico State to a shocking upset victory on the Plains last season.

Diego Pavia transferred to VU this past offseason, and has provided a spark to the Commodore offense immediately. His most dangerous moments have come when running an option attack.

His game is different from anything Alabama has seen thus far this season. He’s certainly a change from Georgia QB Carson Beck, who prefers to sit in the pocket.

If Alabama is to stop the Vanderbit offense, something it should be able to do, it has to start with limiting Pavia’s effectiveness.

Fine-tune the operation

The Georgia game showed that Alabama still has plenty to work on. From that standpoint, a matchup with the perennial SEC cellar-dwellers comes at the perfect time.

If Alabama can take care of the Commodores early, it could work wonders for the Crimson Tide moving forward. Some of the issues that went wrong in the second half against the Bulldogs, allowing UGA to eventually come back from 28 points down to briefly take the lead in the fourth quarter, can be worked on in a live-game setting.

The matchup could also be an opportunity for some of the Tide’s backups to see significant playing time in an SEC game. That could come in handy down the stretch this season, when depth becomes crucial.

However, none of that can happen if Alabama doesn’t handle business. The Crimson Tide needs to deliver knockout blows early, so it can spend the rest of the game building for future success.