Defense Coming of Age
11/16/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
At the beginning of the season they were some of the players who were considered the biggest question marks for the University of Alabama defense, simply due to their lack of experience.
They were new starters, most taking over for someone now in the National Football League. There were essentially two on the defensive line, two at linebacker and three in secondary, and that's just for the Crimson Tide's base formation.
Among them were guys like Nick Perry, who arguably had the biggest game of his career Saturday night when Alabama knocked off No. 1 Mississippi State 25-20 at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The senior free safety led the Crimson Tide with 12 tackles and had one of the three interceptions of Heisman Trophy candidate Dak Prescott.
"Nick's been doing a great job and hands down to him," junior safety Landon Collins, who also had a pick. "He knows the defense better than I do. You can see he's being the player that we need him to be."
Perry's just the latest of the first-year full-time starters to have a big game on a defense that's coming of age and getting contributions across the board. With defensive lineman Jarran Reed being in on 15 tackles against LSU and Reggie Ragland developing into a Butkus Award semifinalist, coordinator Kirby Smart has another elite unit that's only getting better as the season progresses.
"To be the best, you have to beat the best," said junior cornerback Cyrus Jones, who had an interception in the end zone Saturday.
Consider Alabama's last five games all against Southeastern Conference opponents:
At Arkansas the defense took over in the third quarter. After Alabama took the lead the Razorbacks went three-and-out, three-and-out, four-and-out with a stop on fourth-and-1, three-and-out, and then Collins sealed the victory with an interception.
It completely shut out Texas A&M, which leads the league in total offensive yards and touchdowns.
"That's how we fight," Collins said "We don't give up. We don't like any team scoring on us and if they do, they have to throw it in the air. We don't let anyone run in the end zone. That's what Coach Saban wants to be done."
Tennessee, which took the redshirt off a quarterback the Crimson Tide really wasn't prepared to face, only moved the ball after being down 27-0.
Physical LSU ran the ball 56 times, but for an average of 3.27 per carry, with the longest gain 15 yards.
Finally, No. 1 Mississippi State never led after Alabama recorded an early safety that was instigated by another player stepping up.
"Geno (Smith) came off the edge and he actually got blocked, but he made a kick outside and I just made a play over the top," said linebacker Trey Depriest, who along with defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson tackled running back Josh Robinson in the end zone.
Six times the Bulldogs had the ball in the red zone (inside the Alabama 20-yard line), with two resulting in turnovers, and they twice had to settle for a field goal.
"Three instead of six is always the best option," Jones said.
The final time Mississippi State had the ball, down 25-13 with 3:18 to go, the Crimson Tide's primary concern was the clock. It took the Bulldogs 13 plays to finally get into the end zone, but with just 15 seconds remaining they still needed to recover an onside kick and score another touchdown.
"Confusing the quarterback, showing different coverages, showing different techniques as we're playing, just to get him confused so we could get him making bad decisions and bad throws like we did today," Collins said were the keys.
Alabama did so without registering more than once sack, but did have six pressures and six pass breakups led by sophomore cornerback Eddie Jackson's three.
That the Crimson Tide has been able to apply pressure without having to blitz much has been a real credit to the deep front seven that's seen sophomore end Jonathan Allen have a breakthrough season and sophomore end A'Shawn Robinson steadily look better after sustaining a sprained knee during training camp.
There's also Brandon Ivory, D.J. Pettway and Dalvin Tomlinson, and pass-rushers like Xzavier Dickson, Ryan Anderson and Tim Williams ...
"It's kind of mixing it up, a little bit like pitching," Saban said his defensive approach against dual-threat quarterbacks. "Hopefully you've got a fastball and you've got some kind of cutter or change-up or something that a quarterback's not going to know exactly what to do, the front does a good job in pass rush lanes."
Overall, Alabama is second nationally in scoring defense (14.5 points), third in rushing defense (94.6), and sixth in total defense (290.5). It's 14th in passing-efficiency defense (107.29), but after having an interception in just one of the first five games this season the Crimson Tide has at least one in five straight games.
History dictates that is you can't have turnovers and expect to win against Alabama, ask Tim Tebow and Johnny Manziel. The first time the Heisman Trophy winners faced the Crimson Tide, and won, they had no turnovers. The second time they did, and lost.
Additionally, Alabama's defense has yielded just two rushing touchdowns and no opposing player has topped 100 rushing yards this season. Since Saban arrived in 2007 the Crimson Tide has allowed a Bowl Subdivision-low nine to do so.
This isn't to suggest that the 2014 defense will eventually draw comparisons to the 2011 unit that led the nation in all four major statistical categories -- pass-efficiency defense (83.7 rating), pass defense (111.5 yards per game), rushing defense (72.2), scoring defense (8.2 points), and total defense (183.6 yards per game), in addition to third-down defense, red-zone defense and three-and-outs -- but it's closing the gap.
The more it does so the better Alabama's chances of achieving its ultimate goals.
"The focus. The mental toughness that we have. The determination that we want to be the defense that we want to become," Collins said is the difference. "Just looking back on the past (Alabama) defenses that have played here and how they played and dominated offenses and made them quit. That's the same defense we want to become."
By Christopher Walsh
