Every college football team has flaws. Whether it’s inexperience, injuries or lack of talent on your roster, there are always ways for other teams to exploit you throughout a game or season. But Alabama’s is a bit different, the one gash in its armor in 2019 has been on the defensive side of the football. What makes this peculiar is the fact that great defense has been the calling card for this football program for the last decade.
Just like any team, there are probably three ways an entire unit can struggle for a team. Inexperience, injuries or lack of talent (sound familiar?).
Lack of talent is a bit of a stretch for Alabama teams. Nearly every player on the defense is a four-star recruit of higher and multiple will be playing on Sunday’s come next season. Inexperience and injuries ring home for the Crimson Tide this season as they have four freshmen listed as starters but end up playing about six making a majority of their rotation based around first-year players.
RELATED: Nick Saban on Alabama’s loss to LSU: “I’ll take the blame for that”
Normally these many freshmen who climb the depth chart mountain this early in the season may be a good thing, showing just how well a team recruited. In Alabama’s case though, it has been a necessity due to a bevy of injuries. From both starting middle linebackers Dylan Moses and Joshua McMillon to starting right end LaBryan Ray, the youth of the team has had to do a lot of growing up.
Quickly.
It’s a tough task to ask of first-year defensive coordinator Pete Golding as he has worked directly with both freshman linebackers Shane Lee and Christian Harris who have made steady progress. But as a unit, there are still a ton of issues in coverage and run defense which was exploited against LSU which was not only a hard game for the freshmen but also for the veterans of the team.
LSU entered the game with what was likely the best offense in the country, but with Nick Saban and his team having two weeks to prepare and having the game at home boded well for the Crimson Tide to make a bit of a stand. But that obviously didn’t happen. Right from the get-go the Tigers looked sharp and prepared for whatever Golding through at them.
Quarterback Joe Burrow and wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase carved up the middle of the field as the pair connected numerous times to move the chains. The Tigers were 8/15 on third down which helped them dominate the time of possession with them having the football for 34:34 with Alabama having the football for 25:26, over a nine-minute difference.
“We didn’t do a good job tonight on defense at all,” said junior safety Xavier McKinney. “We couldn’t get a stop. We didn’t really do anything well, honestly. We put this game on us… we didn’t play well, we didn’t make tackles, we had a lot of mental errors. A lot of what they did wasn’t because of what they did to score of move the ball. It was because of what we did.”
Despite giving up 46 points, the most ever by a Saban led defense, the Tide did have multiple selves inflicted wounds which helped tip the scales in favor of the Tigers. The team gave up 14 points in the last 30 seconds of the half to put the Tigers up by 20, which also included a busted coverage and a falling Trevon Diggs which led to more scores.
Another area that looked to make an impact was the pass rush which did get to Burrow five times. But between Terrell Lewis, Anfernee Jennings and Raekwon Davis, the three could have had double-digit takedowns for Burrow was able to slip out of their grasp multiple times and make positive plays.
Although the defense showed a lot of heart in the third quarter by holding the Tiger offense to just six points, Burrow continued to find the open man and slip away from Alabama defenders. Burrow also got a ton of help from running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire who played bigger than his 5’8″ stature on Saturday.
The junior tailback ran for 103 yards, caught 9 passes for 77 yards and had four total touchdowns.
But other than Burrow, Clyde Edwards-Helaire and the rest of LSU’s talented offense, it may have been the integration of passing coordinator Joe Brady which helped pick Alabama’s defense apart. Ed Orgeron hired Brady this past offseason to essentially change and modernize the Tigers offensive approach and it has clearly worked in their favor.
“I think (Burrow) has a really good handle on what they’re trying to do,” said Saban. “It’s challenging to defend. It utilizes the people that they have. Look, they have no weaknesses on offense. They’ve got a good runner. They got a really good quarterback. They’ve got really good receivers. They’ve got a good offensive line. They’ve got a system and a scheme and they do a really good job executing. I can’t give them enough credit for what they do.”
All things considered, LSU is one of the best teams in the country and has embarrassed nearly every defense they have lined up against this season. But this isn’t just a one-game problem for Alabama’s defense, it has been an entire season kind of problem. This time around they faced a team that was good enough to exploit their weaknesses for 60 minutes. And with just three games left in the season and possibly some bigger games ahead, something is going to have to give.
*Get the BEST Alabama football insider information, message board access, and recruiting coverage today! SIGN UP HERE to unlock our subscriber only content!*
Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
