Alabama's Pressure Paid Off Against Texas A&M
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It might take a while to get all the grass stains out of Haynes King's all-white road uniform.
From first snap to the final hectic whistle, the pressure of the Alabama defense kept the Texas A&M offense out of the end zone just enough for the Crimson Tide to hold on for the 24-20 win.
Alabama officially recorded 14 quarterback hurries Saturday night, but the Aggies' quarterback King felt the pressure all night long. King attempted 46 passes, which means he was facing significant pressure on about one-third of his drop backs.
"He was taking some hits, but he’d get back up every time," said Alabama outside linebacker Will Anderson Jr., who was responsible for a lot of those hits.
In his postgame press conference, Alabama head coach Nick Saban said that getting pressure on the quarterback was the "big thing" in the game for the Crimson Tide, especially Anderson, who finished with eight quarterback hurries himself.
"Will did a really, really good job," Saban said. "We had a little deal where we tried to put two guys together so they couldn’t chip him, and they really had a tough time single blocking him. He’s a good player. He’s a great leader, plays hard out there, great competitor, and he certainly had a huge impact on the game tonight."
Along with the 14 quarterback hurries, which were by far a season high (previous was four against Utah State and Louisiana-Monroe), Alabama had three sacks. Dallas Turner collected his first two sacks of the season, and Chris Braswell added one as well.
The scheme Alabama used to get Anderson in more one-on-one situations paid off for Anderson, Turner and Braswell. Anderson got to the quarterback more often to disrupt plays, and the other two outside linebackers sealed the deal on three separate occasions.
"I’m really super proud of Dallas and Braswell," Anderson said. "They did a tremendous job tonight. Them stepping up big time like this, creating havoc, creating pressure on the quarterback, that’s something we need, and they did an excellent job. To have the relief, it was perfect."
All three of Alabama's sacks came on third downs, which Anderson said is one of the defense's goals on third down.
The game literally came down to the last play with Alabama holding a four-point lead. After a pass interference call in the end zone, the Aggies had time to run one play from the two-yard line. Alabama sent pressure up the middle, and King threw incomplete to the front corner of the end zone.
It was not the only big stop of the fourth quarter. At the beginning of the final quarter, Alabama got a key stop on 4th-and-3, once again caused by the pressure of Anderson. Terrion Arnold's first career interception in the second quarter was also aided by a quarterback pressure from Anderson.
"It was big," Anderson said of the fourth-down stop. "When I fell to the ground, I was just looking down to try and see what was going on, and they got the stop. It was good. The defense, they did a tremendous job. Everybody was locked in. I really want to give a shoutout to those guys on defense because those guys all week were locked in."
The first sold-out crowd of the season at Bryant-Denny Stadium also got involved in creating some of that pressure. The 100,077 stayed for all four quarters and were loud anytime the Crimson Tide was on defense.
"I think the fans were great," Saban said. "I think fans probably had as much to do with us winning the game as anything. I think the atmosphere they created certainly kept the energy level up with our players.”
Get your Crimson Tide tickets from SI Tickets HERE
