Film Room: Alabama Records Season-High Takeaways
All season, college football analysts and fans alike have pointed out stark differences between this year's Alabama team and teams of years past.
One of the most glaring differences? This team's lack of forced turnovers.
For years, the Crimson Tide defense was revered for its almost superhuman ability to create takeaways at opportune times, always keeping an edge over its opponent in turnover margin. Alabama even leads the nation in non-offensive touchdowns since the 2016 season.
This season, though, the defense just hasn't found a way to consistently force turnovers. As of today, Alabama ranks 96th out of 131 teams in turnover margin at -4 for the year. That means the Crimson Tide has four more giveaways than it has takeaways through 11 games this season.
Coming into Saturday's game against Austin Peay, Alabama had only forced nine turnovers on the season. That's seven turnovers less than the 2021 team, who had forced 16 through the same amount of games.
Despite these struggles, the Alabama defense forced three turnovers against Austin Peay — the most it's had in a game all season.
Below are the turnovers and how Alabama caused them:
2nd-and-6, 5:46 2Q
Late in the second quarter, the Governors were back in Alabama territory after having two previous drives that stalled out and turned over on downs in the Crimson Tide red zone. Austin Peay had a ton of success moving the ball early on, and Alabama's defense needed to get off the field to give its offense a chance to build the lead even more.
The Governors lined up with their receivers spread out nearly as wide as they can get, with one receiver out at the numbers on the wide side of the field and two receivers stacked to the boundary.
This spread the Alabama defense out as well, leaving Crimson Tide cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry seemingly on an island by himself with a whole lot of green grass to cover.
From the snap, Austin Peay quarterback Mike DiLiello looked left the entire way and threw it up to his receiver. The ball was underthrown, and McKinstry made sure to get his head turned to see the ball. This led to an interception, McKinstry's first of the year.
4th-and-4, 7:19 3Q
Now facing an even bigger deficit in the third quarter, Austin Peay began to feel some desperation. The Governors decided to go for it on fourth down on its on 40-yard-line to try to spark its offense back into the game.
Austin Peay lined up under center with a tight end in the backfield as well, disguising as a run blocker. At the snap, DiLiello pitched the ball off to his running back, who then handed it back for a flea-flicker play.
The exchange from the running back to DiLiello was mishandled and the ball ended up on the ground.
Redshirt freshman defensive lineman Damon Payne split his blockers to get into the backfield, and ended up in the right place at the right time to recover the fumble and give Alabama the ball with excellent field position.
1st-and-10, 11:02 4Q
Once again, this time in the fourth quarter, the Governors found their way into Alabama territory, this time threatening the Crimson Tide's shutout bid.
Austin Peay lined two receivers out to the short side of the field and one to the wide side, while Alabama put four rushers on the line of scrimmage and moved Jordan Battle back as a single high safety.
Before the snap, DiLiello sent his slot receiver Drae McCray in motion from the right side of the field to the left, and Brian Branch shadowed him.
McCray ran a wheel route down the sideline, with the goal of getting to the edge quicker and burning Branch downfield. Once agaun, DiLiello looked his way from the snap to the throw, and lobbed the ball up for his receiver to go get.
Branch got excellent position on his coverage, flipping his hips and eyes towards the ball and high-pointing it to secure an impressive interception for Alabama's third and final takeaway of the afternoon.
Heading into next week's Iron Bowl, Alabama prepares to face an Auburn team who is currently tied for the sixth-most giveaways in college football. If the Crimson Tide can force turnovers like it did against Austin Peay, it would be in good shape to win its third straight game in the rivalry.
See Also:
Inspirational Win? No. But Alabama Still Notches 34-0 Businesslike Victory Over Austin Peay
No. 8 Alabama Defeats Austin Peay, 34-0
Alabama Finally Wakes Up to Put Away Austin Peay
Jase McClellan Runs Around, Over and Through Austin Peay Defense
Instant Analysis: No. 8 Alabama 34, Austin Peay 0
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