In October, Alabama coach Nick Saban finally waved the white flag.
The old defensive connoisseur had seen enough. The idea that “defense wins championships”, much to the dismay of Saban, is a relic of college football’s past.
“In the past, a good defense was better than a good offense,” Saban said before a victory over Tennessee. “A good defense is nothing more than a good offense.”
And while the six-time champion has reluctantly accepted that reality – and turned his team into an attacking juggernaut – the Crimson Tide still has
And on Monday night at the College Football Playoff National Championship presented by AT&T, the Alabama defense will take the toughest test of the season from powerful Ohio State.
Justin Fields. Chris Olave. Trey Sermon. Garrett Wilson.
“They have a lot of guns,” said Alabama defensive coordinator Pete Golding. “This is [not] a game [where] you go in and say, “Hey, I just stopped this guy, we’re going to win the game.” That is not the case.”
How well Alabama slows down the Buckeyes will play a key role in Monday’s outcome.
This isn’t Nick Saban’s signature defense.
The dramatic offensive shift from college football has also engulfed Alabama. Take as an example the national champion team of the BCS 2011 of Saban.
That season – including a 9-6 overtime loss to LSU in the “Game of the Century” – Alabama’s top-ranked defense was stifling. The Crimson Tide allowed a miniscule 178.7 yards per game to Power 5 conference opponents, 3.3 yards per game and 7.8 points per game.
This season, Alabama has given up nearly double the yardage (353.2 yards per game), five yards per game, and 19 points per game. In eight of their 12 games this season, the Crimson Tide gave up more yards than their 2011 average
That’s less of an indictment of Bama’s defensive performance and more of an indication of how the game has changed – for everyone.
“It’s really not about how many yards you give up,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said Thursday.
“It’s all about making stops. … You can let them run the length of the field, but if they kick field goals or you get sales along the way, good things are going to happen.”
The numbers illustrate the sport’s offensive revival. Since 2011, the national average for yards per game against Power 5 conference teams has increased from 376.3 yards to 403.5 in 2020. The number of yards per game has increased from 5.4 to 5.7 and the score is over two points increased – from 26 points per game to 28.9.
“I don’t think there’s any question that college football has changed drastically over the past 10, 12 years,” Saban said this week.
“I think the advent of the spread, RPOs, the blocking of downfield when passes are caught behind the scrimmage, all of those things have drastically changed the playing style in an offensive way, affecting every part of the game.
“You have to defend how you choose players to play in certain positions because the game is so much more of a perimeter game now than it used to be, and what your plan is to defend those kinds of changes has been pretty dramatic.”
While the Tide’s defense is more forgiving now than it was then, it’s still in the top tier of the sport. It is fifth nationally in points allowed (19) and yards allowed per game (5) and 17th nationally in yards allowed per game (353.2).
In other words, despite the totals of meters, he usually gets the stops he needs.
While good, the Alabama defense has been frustrated at times this season. Two games stand out: October 10 vs. Ole Miss and the SEC Championship Game vs. Florida.
The 48 points scored by the rebels are equal to Auburn for most a team has scored against Alabama in the Saban era. Ole Miss’s 647 yards were the most the Crimson Tide has ever allowed. Saban and linebacker Dylan Moses took the view that night whether Rebel coach and former Saban assistant Lane Kiffin knew their signals, something Kiffin later denied.
This week, Saban and Golding attributed the battle to numerous factors.
“They had 250 yards after contact,” said Golding. “It’s hard to win at any level when you do … I think we also had 28 mental errors in that game.”
Said Saban, citing four out of five new starters in secondary and three freshmen on defense: “The knowledge and experience we had was probably not what we needed to make the adjustments and adjustments in the game and also in preparation. . “
Florida’s 46-point burst in the SEC title game was the second highest a Saban-coached defense of Alabama has allowed. Golding lamented Alabama’s third-down performance (the Gators bet 8 out of 11 chances) there, stressing that the Tide must be better against Ohio State – a foul more explosive than either team Alabama struggled against.
Mental errors should be “few in number,” running should be healthy, and the Tide should be “tackling in space,” Golding said.
“You can’t give these guys those plays,” Golding said of the Buckeyes. “They’re going to make enough contested plays because they have a lot of really good players.”
Despite all the hand-wringing about those executions, Alabama’s defense has been good for the past two months. The Tide has allowed 17 points or less, less than 300 passing yards and less than five yards per game in seven of the past eight games. In the College Football Playoff semi-final against Notre Dame, Alabama allowed only 14 points and 4.7 yards per game, although it wasn’t as good as Golding would like on the third downs (8-of-16).
The team attributes added gaming experience to the improvement.
“We have learned from experience what to do,” said corner defender Patrick Surtain II. “We’ve gotten better every week by flying to the ball, making adjustments and learning from previous games that we struggled with.”
Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson agreed.
“Ole Miss’s game was early, and … I think Alabama has gotten better because they got to play [more games]’, he said.’ They are a great defense with talent, height. They are going to make it incredibly challenging. “
Ohio State is set to be Alabama’s toughest challenge to date.
The Buckeyes are the highest scoring team Alabama will have experienced (43.4 points per game), and they have rushed more than 200 meters in each of their seven games this season, even for the longest active FBS series.
Sermon has recently powered the running game, averaging 212 yards and 9.1 yards per carry over the Buckeyes’ past three games.
Fields, a true double threat quarterback – the type who has caused Saban’s defensive troubles in the past – is among the best in the country. And Olave and Wilson offer him a very talented host duo. Olave has five touchdown catches this season on pitches from 25 or more airports, most even in the Power 5. Surtain said Olave’s speed is a challenge: “He is quickly creating separation at the top of his routes. … He also is very patient and flexible with his route. “
Because of the Buckeyes’ firepower, Golding thinks sales will be key.
Ohio State averages 43 [points] – and if they don’t, it’s because they turned the ball over, ”Golding said. It’s not because people stopped them, but because they made a mistake. … So I think that’s a critical part of this game. “
Clemson, in a similar talent stratosphere to Alabama, was dominated by the Buckeyes. Ohio State averaged a whopping 8.9 yards per game, finishing with 639 total in their 49-28 win. Ohio State turned the ball over only once.
But the Buckeyes said this Alabama defense looks good on video.
“They’re the type of group that never makes a mistake in the gap they should be in,” said Josh Myers, Ohio State Center. “When they’re in a blitz, nobody’s screwing up … I’ve watched a lot of movies about them and I don’t think I’ve seen it once.”
Kevin Wilson said: “[Our offensive line is] Monday night they get their strongest test with Alabama’s front, because they are the best we’ve seen. “
Saban and Golding praised Day’s playful insight, and Golding said the mix of formations and tempos makes the Buckeyes challenging.
“He is very good at manipulating things through formation,” said Golding. “They do a lot of different things from the same staff group.”
When Alabama’s defenses changed with college football, so did offense. The Tide is the second highest scoring team in the country (48.2 points per game), and its transformation into an explosive unit has meant that Saban’s defense is no longer asked to take out teams. Mac Jones, Najee Harris and DeVonta Smith will likely do their bit on Monday.
Nevertheless, tide defense faces a tough challenge. If it has to slow down the state of Ohio on Monday, it will boil down to several key factors, Golding said: get it right in space, force the Buckeyes into clear passages, execute on third downs, and generate revenue.
Regardless of the distance, Alabama just needs to get stops.
“Most importantly, the great teams do what it takes to win every week, and that’s what their defense does,” said Kevin Wilson. “And Coach Saban has done just as well as anyone who has ever coached the game of football.”