Strong Defensive Adjustments Turning Alabama Football Into a Second-Half Team
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama fans have had to be patient this season. With six national championships since 2009, it's hard to be at times, right?
After years of buildup, Texas came to Tuscaloosa and dominated the Crimson Tide down the stretch in its own backyard. The following week was perhaps Alabama's worst team performance since Nick Saban took over in 2007 — the Crimson Tide defeated USF 17-3 after a lengthy south Florida rain delay.
But, since that sloppy sack fest, Alabama has won six straight conference games, including three ranked opponents. But even still, Crimson Tide fans haven't been treated to clean, blowout victories.
Alabama trailed in four of the six, including a seven-point deficit in College Station and a 13-point deficit at home vs. Tennessee. Things haven't been easy, but there has been steady improvement throughout. And in the second half against LSU on Saturday night, everything came together for the Crimson Tide.
Heisman hopeful Jayden Daniels and the No. 1 offense in the country scored just seven points in the second half, and zero from the 11:14 mark in the third quarter on.
The second half has become the turning point in just about every contest during this impressive stretch. In the 120 second-half minutes against Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Tennessee and LSU, Alabama had an 82-13 advantage.
82-13. Think about that.
Both the offense and defense are responsible, but it's defensive coordinator Kevin Steele's changes that are the most obvious.
The Crimson Tide allowed three points in the second half to both the Rebels and the Aggies. Alabama shutout the Volunteers in the final 30 minutes. And on Saturday, the Tigers scored 28 in the first 34 minutes of the game.
Then, nothing else.
"We all contribute to trying to make adjustments in the games," Saban said on Monday. "Kevin's done a really good job. He's in the box, so he has a really good perspective of what we didn't do correctly, what we need to fix. What's not working, what might work better. But I think we also do a great job on the sidelines of showing the players the series before. The first series of the second half was not a good one for us, but we actually played better toward the end of the game. But I think we need to have a little more consistency. The drive right before the half was not great. The first drive of the second half was not great, but I thought we played really, really well after that."
"But we're getting a lot of stuff, man. A lot of multiples that players have to adjust to. And we want to do more things, but make it simpler for the players, so we can actually do these things, and be able to adjust to all the stuff we're seeing, so they're confident we can make the adjustments we need to make."
A piece on the defense that helps with veteran leadership is defensive back Malachi Moore. Saban said that he makes the other players around him better.
"Malachi is a great leader but he's also very smart," Saban said. "He's got lots of experience, he understands the system of what we do. I think he really helps the other guys with adjustments that we need to make in the game. He's been invaluable. He's played well and I think he's helped everybody around him play better."
Moore says that it's important for all 11 guys on the field to be on the same page. Communication on the field, and at halftime, is vital to correcting mistakes.
"I would say it just comes from regrouping when it comes to halftime," Moore said. "Sometimes, we feel like we’re not playing our best, or the offense gives us some crazy looks we might not have seen before. So we just fix those things, and at halftime, we just make sure we’re all on the same page because as long as we’re all on the same page, we can go out there and execute the call and all 11 men are doing the same task and doing their job and going out there and being successful."
