A Quiet Concern on Alabama's Defense has Grown Louder After Loss at Tennessee
Through the first few games of the 2022 college football season, questions regarding the lack of explosive plays for Alabama's offense seemed to be an oft-discussed topic of conversation.
Now, at just over the halfway point the season, it's the Crimson Tide's defense that's getting the most scrutiny.
Last Saturday at Tennessee, Alabama gave up seven big plays to the Volunteers — including three touchdowns on those plays. While there is no standard metric for what is defined as a big play, for the sake of consistency we shall define a big play by using the metric of none other than Nick Saban himself: 13 or more yards for a running play, and 17 or more yards for a passing play.
Of Tennessee's big plays, three of them were long touchdowns, and all came on passes: For 36, 60 and 78 yards, respectively.
Saban's defense isn't used to giving up explosive touchdowns like that.
“Well, we’ve limited them all year long," Saban said.
"They did a good job of taking those wide splits and creating some matchup things because of the wide splits. So guys gotta play with better focus, better leverage, gotta be able to cover people better. I mean, it’s as simple as that.
"They are our players. We think they’re good players. We think they’re capable. They need to play with good technique and good focus on the little things that help you make those plays.”
Over the first four games of the season, Alabama gave up just 12 big plays — nine passing and three rushing. Of those, only three were for 30 yards or more — all three passes at Texas.
Regardless, things were chugging along pretty smoothly for the Crimson Tide at the one-third mark of the regular season.
Then, everything began to fall apart.
Over the next three games, Alabama gave up 21 big plays, with 15 of them being passes and six being rushes.
Arkansas was able to pull off a 13-yard rushing touchdown while Texas A&M was unable to score on a big play, but Tennessee picked up its aforementioned three passing touchdowns. Aside from two of those games being on the road at Arkansas and Tennessee, there's one glaring area whose poor performance seemingly correlates with lack of success against big plays:
The pass rush of the Crimson Tide.
Heading into this season, Alabama's front seven was widely hailed as probably being the best roster in college football, able to stop the run and attack quarterbacks.
With the impressive pass rush of Will Anderson Jr. and Dallas Turner off the edge combined with Chris Braswell, the trio of linebackers formed what would become known as 'The Cheetah Package'. An assortment of defensive linemen in DJ Dale, Byron Young and Jaheim Oatis alongside interior linebackers Henry To'oTo'o and Jaylen Moody completed the impressive list, and it seemed like the Crimson Tide would be more than formidable, but imposing.
Over the first four games, the pass rush remained consistently impressive. Against Utah State, Alabama had five tackles for loss and four quarterback hurries. At Texas, three sacks, seven tackles for loss and one quarterback hurry. Against ULM, the Crimson Tide front seven made strides with four sacks, nine tackles for loss and four quarterback hurries. And against Vanderbilt, five sacks, eight tackles for loss and three quarterback hurries spelled doom for the Commodores.
Adding up all those pieces, it makes sense why opponents weren't able to pull off many big plays. When quarterbacks don't have time to throw, they can't get the ball downfield. And when running backs are constantly pressured, less ground is gained.
Here's how it correlates with Alabama's less-than-stellar recent performances.
The Crimson Tide raked in three sacks and an impressive nine tackles for loss against the Razorbacks, but failed to hurry KJ Jefferson on even one singular occasion (per the home-field statisticians, who aren't known for crediting visiting players). Texas A&M serves as an outlier, with Alabama recorded three sacks, six tackles for loss and a whopping 14 quarterback hurries.
Tennessee is where the numbers really showed what can happen when Alabama's pass rush is limited. Remember those 12 big plays and three touchdowns for the Volunteers? The Crimson Tide recorded just one sack, two tackles for loss and was again credited with no quarterback hurries.
With six of those plays being 20 yards or more, it was a long night for Alabama.
“It’s very frustrating," Anderson said on Monday. "When you have a lot of great guys up front, a lot of great athletes up front, team are gonna do anything to make sure the ball is out quick, protect different and things like that. They did a really good job of that, and during the time of the game you can’t get frustrated. You just have to keep playing, because if you get frustrated it’ll throw your whole game off.”
Anderson was right. Tennessee did do a solid job of protecting quarterback Hendon Hooker all night long, giving him ample time to get the ball down the field and create multiple explosive touchdowns. Combine that with a hurry-up, quick-tempo offense, and the Crimson Tide's defense struggled all game.
So where does Alabama go from here?
This Saturday, the Crimson Tide will host the Mississippi State Bulldogs inside Bryant-Denny Stadium in a homecoming matchup that represents much more than winning a game for the alumni present. For Alabama, it's an opportunity for the program to get back on track after a heartbreaking loss in Knoxville, Tenn.
For Mississippi State, it presents that same opportunity, coming off a 27-17 loss at Kentucky.
While head coach Mike Leach has built an offense that not even close to being as balanced in both the pass and run as Tennessee, quarterback Will Rogers presents quite a threat and can pull off a decent number of big plays himself.
Through its first seven games this season, Mississippi State has pulled off 69 explosive plays, with just 20 of those being rushes. Nine of those plays were passing touchdowns, while two were rushing scores.
The air-raid offense has the Bulldogs off to a 5-2 start, and Rogers — not Bryce Young or Hooker — leads the SEC in passing.
Focus and lack of discipline are two factors that Saban has repeatedly pointed out as issues with the Crimson Tide. The 17 penalties at Tennessee proved just that and provided the Volunteers with ample opportunity to clean their slates with new sets of downs time and time again.
For Alabama's front seven, this is especially important. Along with reducing offsides calls, the Crimson Tide needs to improve its ability to not simply get into the offensive backfield, but to make an impact back there. With Anderson being double- and sometimes even triple-teamed by offensive linemen and tight ends, opportunities are left open for the likes of Turner and Braswell.
Dale, Young and Burroughs must be quicker to close holes. Should Jaylen Moody be full-go after recovering from a bruised kidney, he and To'oTo'o need to provide consistent communication and pressure when needed.
It's all a lot more difficult than it sounds, of course. But the math adds up: when Alabama's pass rush is rendered less effective, opposing offenses have been able to take advantage. And with the SEC's leading pass offense coming up this weekend, the Crimson Tide needs to tighten up in a hurry.
Following the loss at Tennessee, Alabama's margin for error is gone.
The good news is that Alabama has a roster that is talented enough to not just return to its former success, but do so quickly. If the Crimson Tide can trudge through the Bulldogs to the bye week, then many of the team's concerns in all three phases can no doubt be alleviated.
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