Quick hit: Nick Saban says Alabama's biggest defensive issue is "mental mistakes"
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Even though Alabama is on a bye, Nick Saban is looking for the defense to improve this week.
The coach touched upon it twice on Wednesday, in the morning on the weekly SEC teleconference with reporters, and again during his post-practice press conference.
After started four true freshmen in the defensive front seven against Ole Miss last Saturday, with Jordan Battle also the dime defensive back. The Rebels ended up executing 88 offensive plays, with 476 total yards during the 59-31 game at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Saban called the unit's biggest problem: "Mental mistakes."
“I mean, you got to get off the field when you get opportunities to get off the field, especially on third down, he said. “We lost contain on a quarterback two or three times on third down where we had people covered just keep the quarterback, make the quarterback throw the ball from the pocket. You know other times we make mental errors, whether it's gap control or how to fit plays. So you know the responsibility for the guys on the field when you're on defenses is 'We've got to get off the field.' So get more turnovers. Get more third down stops.
“The responsibility for you on offense is stay on the field. (We're) supposed to, you know, end every possession with the kick. But you also want to extend those drives as much as you can, try to score every time you can whether it's touchdown or field goal and it's going to be you know, sometimes when we have to punt when we're smart and they do things to take advantage. But try to keep the ball when you got it on offense, and then you want to try to make plays on special teams that are going to score or set up a score or control the vertical field position in the game.”
Here are some other things he said:
On getting the freshmen as many reps as possible this week:
"I don’t think there’s any question about the fact that the more repetitions that they get, the more opportunities they get to learn, the more exposure they get to things other teams are going to do to them, which you have an opportunity to do during a bye week when you don’t have to get ready for one particular team, I think will help these guys, help their knowledge. You can’t really coach experience. The players just have to get experience, and I think this does offer them an opportunity to get more experience."
On the play of the defensive front:
"I don’t think when you stop the run — I’m sure that’s what you’re really talking about — that it’s just the defensive line. I certainly think that we are playing with some young players up there that we all need to do a better job. But it’s also how the rest of the players ... linebackers fit runs, that type of thing. I think it’s a unique situation in terms of how we play on the perimeter, how we play at linebacker, how we play up front. I think that all those areas, we’re working on to improve for the future.
On using the bye week to help the young players especially:
"Either you can say, OK, this is a week off. I’m going to just kind of go through the motions. Or you can say, we’ll do quality control with every unit and every player. Here’s the things I need to work on so I can play better, because this is what I’ve put on tape, this is what other people see, this is what they’re going to try to take advantage of. I think you want to do it with every player. I think obviously young players probably have a little bit more room relative to their knowledge and experience and how they can sort of benefit from having this extra time. You like for some of your older players to take the same approach to it and support and help those guys do it."
