The Area Where Kane Wommack Thinks Alabama's Defense is 'Still Inconsistent'

Alabama had four sacks in Saturday's win over Tennessee, tying a season high, but there is still room for growth in the pass rush.

Yhonzae Pierre sacks Joey Aguilar for a safety in Alabama's win over Tennessee | Sarah Munzenmaier/Alabama Crimson Tide on SI

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.—  Despite tying its season-high total with four sacks in the win over Tennessee, Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack still feels like his defense is "still inconsistent" in affecting the quarterback.

"Obviously four sacks and eight TFLs, that helps," Wommack said Monday. "I think we took some steps in the right direction as far as affecting the quarterback, and yet at the same time, we’ve had a number of two-minute situations that have come up the last few games where we have not been able to get the quarterback on the ground. So that’s something that we have to find a way to affect the quarterback at the end of games in particular, and that's something that we certainly will continue to look at and figure out how to put our players in the best position to go put people away at the end of games that we have not done consistently well enough.”

Tennessee was able to move the ball down the field at the end of both halves. The Volunteers got the ball back with 4:05 left in the second quarter and used 14 plays to get down to the Alabama 1-yard line with nine seconds left. Fortunately for the Crimson Tide, Zabien Brown intercepted the 15th play of the drive and returned it 99 yards for a touchdown, but the defense had not created a negative play on that drive prior to the interception.

The game was already well out of reach by the late fourth quarter with a 37-20 score in Alabama's favor, but in a rivalry game like the Third Saturday in October, the losing team isn't going to roll over and die. Tennessee got the ball back with 1:57 left and moved from its own 35 down to the Alabama 1-yard line once again. The defense rallied again to get a stop as time expired, but Wommack was not please with how easily the Volunteers were able to move the ball against his defense.

"We've got to find a way to affect the quarterback better," Wommack said. "When you get into two-minute situations at the end of games, and you’re four-man and you don't really want to play man and you don't want to necessarily pressure, you've got to still be able to affect the quarterback. And we've had a number of situations right now where they have moved the ball right down the field and we haven't touched the quarterback, and that's something that we've got to find a way to get better at— where I've got to do some things differently from a schematic standpoint so that we can certainly stifle some of their two-minute offense. On the flip side, when they did get down to the red zone, a tremendous job by our guys and fight to find a way to keep them out of the end zone, particularly in the fourth quarter."

Alabama is ranked 77th nationally and 10th in the SEC with 13 sacks on the season. Yhonzae Pierre accounted for three of the Crimson Tide's four sacks on Saturday. He now leads the team with four on the season followed by LT Overton with three.

"Very proud of Yhonzae Pierre and some of the things he did," Wommack said. "I think you look at the plays he affected the quarterback, he did his job. He did his job at a high level, and when you do your job consistently, good things happen. And that's something that we've continued to stress with him and a number of our players of just doing their job at a more consistent high level, and production will come from that."

The Alabama pass rush will have an opportunity this week against a South Carolina offense that is 135th in the country (only ahead of Auburn) with 26 sacks allowed this season. The Crimson Tide takes on the Gamecocks on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on ABC.