Back in October, Alabama coach Nick Saban finally waved the white flag.
The longtime defensive connoisseur has seen enough. The idea that ‘defense wins championships’, much to Saban’s dismay, is a remnant of university football’s past.
“It used to be a good defense that gives a good offense,” Saban said before a win over Tennessee. “Good defense no longer beats good.”
And although the six-time national champion reluctantly accepted reality and adapted his team into an attacking juggernaut, the Crimson Tide is still
And on Monday night in the College Football Playoff National Championship, hosted by AT&T, the defense in Alabama will take its toughest test of the season from the strong Ohio state.
Justin Fields. Chris Olave. Trey Sermon. Garrett Wilson.
“They have a lot of guns,” said Alabama Defense Coordinator Pete Golding. ‘It is [not] a game [where] you go in and say, ‘Hey, I just stopped this guy, we’m going to win the game.’ That is not the case. ‘
How well Alabama slows down the Buckeyes will play a key role in Monday’s result.
This is not a signature of Nick Saban.
The dramatic offensive shift of college football also whipped up Alabama. Take Saban’s 2011 BCS national championship team as an example.
That season, which included a 9-6 overtime loss to LSU in the “Game of the Century,” the Alabama defense that ranked the best was stifling. The Crimson Tide allowed a minimum of 178.7 yards per game to Power 5 conference opponents, 3.3 yards per game and 7.8 points per game.
This season, Alabama has given up almost double the size (353.2 yards per game), five yards per game and 19 points per game. In eight of their 12 games this season, the Crimson Tide have conceded more yards than their 2011 average
It’s less an accusation of Bama’s defensive display and more indicative of how the game has changed – for everyone.
“It’s really not about how many yards you give up,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said Thursday.
“It’s all about stopping. … You can let them ride the whole length of the field, but if they kick field goals or you get returns, good things are going to happen.”
The numbers illustrate the offensive sport of the sport. Since 2011, the national average for yards per game against Power 5 conference teams has risen from 376.3 yards to 403.5 in 2020. The yards per game are from 5.4 to 5.7 and the score is more than two points – from 26 points per game to 28.9.
“I think there is no question about the fact that college football has changed dramatically over the last ten, twelve years,” Saban said this week.
“I think the advent of the distribution, RPOs, blocking the field when passes are trapped behind the line of, all of this has changed the style of play offensively, and it affects every part of the game.
“You have to defend how your players choose to play certain positions, because the game is now so much more a perimeter than before, and your plan to defend such changes was pretty dramatic.”
Although Tide’s defense is now more forgiving than it was then, it’s still at the top level of the sport. It is fifth nationally in points allowed (19) and meters allowed per game (5) and 17th nationally in points allowed per game (353.2).
In other words, despite the total totals, it usually gets the necessary points.
Although it was good, Alabama’s defense was sometimes frustrated this season. Two games stand out: October 10 against Ole Miss and the SEC Championship against Florida.
The 48 points the Rebels scored is equal to Auburn for most that any team has scored against Alabama in the Saban era. Ole Miss’s 647 yards were the most Crimson Tide has ever allowed. Saban and linebacker Dylan Moses believe tonight that Rebels coach and former Saban assistant Lane Kiffin knew their signals, something Kiffin later denied.
This week, Saban and Golding attributed the struggle to numerous factors.
“They had 250 yards after contact,” Golding said. ‘It’s hard to win at any level if you do. … I think we also had 28 mental errors in the game. ‘
Says Saban, referring to four of five newcomers in the secondary series and three freshmen in defense: “The knowledge and experience we had was probably not what we needed to make the adjustments and adjustments in the game and also in preparation could not make. “
Florida’s 46-point outburst in the SEC title game was the second most Alabama defense coached by Saban. Golding lamented Alabama’s third downward performance (the Gators converted 8 of 11 opportunities) and stressed that the tide should be better against the state of Ohio – a violation that is more explosive than both teams against which Alabama has struggled.
Mental errors must be ‘small in number’, ‘fit fit’ must be healthy and the Tide must ‘pack in space’, Golding said.
“You can’t give these plays to these guys,” Golding said of the Buckeyes. “They’re going to produce enough controversial plays because they have a lot of good players.”
For all the turnaround over these performances, Alabama’s defense has been good over the past two months. The Tide have allowed 17 points or less, under 300 passing yards and less than five yards per game in seven of their last eight games. In the semifinals of the College Football Playoff against Notre Dame, Alabama allowed only 14 points and 4.7 yards per game, though that was not as good as Golding would have liked on the third down (8-out-16).
The team attributes the improvement to the player experience.
“We have learned from experience what to do,” said cornerback Patrick Surtain II. “We got better every week at flying to the ball, making adjustments and learning from previous games where we struggled.”
Ohio State Offensive Coordinator Kevin Wilson agreed.
‘The Ole Miss game was early, and … I think Alabama got better because they were able to play [more games]”he said.” It’s an excellent defense with talent, length. They are going to make it incredibly challenging. ‘
The state of Ohio will be the biggest challenge so far in Alabama.
The Buckeyes are the highest point Alabama has faced (43.4 points per game), and they have rushed more than 200 yards in each of their seven games this season, equaling the longest active FBS series.
Sermon recently drove the running game and has averaged 212 yards and 9.1 yards per carry in the last three Buckeyes games.
Fields, a true double-threat quarterback – one of whom has given Saban’s defense problems in the past – is one of the best in the country. And Olave and Wilson offer him an uber-talented reception duo. Olave has five catches this season on throws from 25 or more airfields, most equal in the Power 5.. Surtain said Olave’s speed is a challenge: ‘He quickly creates separation at the top of his tracks. … He also is very patient and fluid with his route. ‘
Due to the firepower of the Buckeyes, Golding feels that turnover will be important.
“The state of Ohio averages 43 [points] – and if they do not, it’s because they turned the ball over, “Golding said. It’s not because people stopped them, it’s because they made a mistake. … so I think this is a critical piece for this game. ‘
Clemson, who is in a similar talent stratosphere as Alabama, was dominated by the Buckeyes. Ohio State averaged a whopping 8.9 yards per game and finished with 639 total in their 49-28 victory. The state of Ohio turned the ball over only once.
But the Buckeyes said this defense in Alabama is part of the video.
“They’re the type of group that never makes a mistake in terms of the gap they’re supposed to be in,” Ohio center Josh Myers said. “If they have a flash, there’s no one wasting it … I’ve watched a bunch of movies after it, and I’ve not seen it once.”
Kevin Wilson says: ‘[Our offensive line is] going to get their strongest test Monday night with Alabama’s up front, because they’re the best we’ve seen. ‘
Saban and Golding praised Day’s playful skill, and according to Golding, the mix of formations and tempos makes the Buckeyes a challenge.
“He does a very good job of manipulating things through formation,” Golding said. “They do a lot of different things from the same staff group.”
As Alabama’s defense changed with college football, so did its offense. The Tide is the country’s second-best points list (48.2 points per game), and its transformation into an explosive unit has made it so that Saban’s defense is no longer asked to close teams. Mac Jones, Najee Harris and DeVonta Smith are likely to do their part on Monday.
The Tide defense faces another tough challenge. If it slows down in the state of Ohio on Monday, it will come down to several key factors, Golding said: to tackle space well, to force the Buckeyes to clear passing constraints, to pick up for the third time and turn around turnover create.
Regardless of the site, Alabama should simply stop.
“The most important thing is that great teams do every week to win, and that’s what their defense does,” Kevin Wilson said. “And that’s what coach Saban did, as well as anyone who has ever coached the football game.”