The Best News in the World for Alabama Fans!
By: Larry Burton
A few weeks ago I wrote an article that stated some alarming facts if you are a fan of the Crimson Tide. In it I pointed out that earlier this season, Alabama had the nation’s 85th best defense out of 125. Yes, indeed the season didn’t start of with a resounding vote of confidence. The offense looked inconsistent, the Tide couldn’t convert third downs, the running game looked pitiful and the defense was bleeding points to the opponents, the defensive backfield was blowing coverages and the team was getting dumb penalties.
The only good news was that at least they still found a way to win.
Now, just a few weeks later, the Tide has risen to have the second best defense in the SEC and a national ranking of eighth. For the math impaired readers, that’s an increase of 77 places in less than a month.
Now let’s talk irony, when I wrote the article on September 26th, the Alabama offense was also rated as the nation’s 85th ranked offense. Today as you read this, the Tide has risen to be the nation’s 44th best. While that’s not as lofty a lift as the jump on defense, over the last month when you only allow one touchdown over the four games, the offense doesn’t have to be all that stellar.
McCarron is throwing darts and went from a 61% completion percentage earlier to now being almost at 70%. The interceptions have stopped and he’s looking like the Heisman Candidate he should be. Cody Mandel is leading the SEC as the best punter just as I said he would be this winter and Cade Foster is “Mr. Automatic” with his field goals this season. But mostly, the defense that looked so shaky early, is looking more and more like a typical Alabama defense.
In six games this season, Alabama has defeated the nation’s number six team and two others from the top 25. No other team in the top 10 has defeated three teams ranked in the top 25 and the good news for Bama fans is that this Crimson Tide team is a much better team than it was at the beginning of the season and still hasn’t peaked.
More good news is while other teams, Georgia mainly coming to mind, are suffering injuries that make their team a weaker team than earlier in the season, Alabama has mostly escaped the injury bug that could hurt them in the big games to come.
Simply put the nation’s number one team is getting better each week and is much better than the nation’s number one team from a month ago, which as you know is the same team.
As the old saying goes, the rich just keep getting richer and for opponents on the upcoming Alabama schedule, they just have to wonder how much better they’ll get.
Larry is an award winning writer whose work has appeared in almost every college football venue. Now he primarily writes for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter
