Mistakes kill teams in college football and Alabama had a lot of them last week.
After suffering its first loss of the season, Nick Saban can now impact everyone on the importance of doing things the right way. Four of five national championship teams for the Crimson Tide all came with one loss.
Those respective groups found a way to refocus and convince the national media on the Tide being the best program in the sport. With the College Football Playoff committee ranking it at No. 5, the Tide looks to prove it belongs as one of the top four seeds in the playoff.
This week, the challenge Alabama will face is Mississippi State.
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On Wednesday, Saban said the team’s mindset has been ‘positive’ since the LSU game.
He does not know how this unit will perform against the Bulldogs, but he did note that the energy and attention was much better in practice.
During media availability, multiple players credited lack of focus as a reason for the loss. Raekwon Davis, senior at defensive end, said Alabama will ‘finish strong’ — regardless of what occurred in the game against the Tigers.
Of the 25 missed tackles, a bunch came in the secondary.
Jared Mayden, senior at strong safety, told reporters on Tuesday that errors in the defensive backfield are highlighted more than any other group.
“When you mess up in the secondary, it’s something that everyone sees,” Mayden said.
“You don’t really get to see the defensive line or linebackers when they jump out of their gaps, but if someone in the secondary misses a tackle, usually they are the last time of defense. All you can take away from this game is the importance of your angles. When you are tackling, you can’t be over running the runner and also, just because the first guy makes contact… the second guy can’t slow up. You have to get more guys around the ball.”
LSU threw some things at the Tide that were not on film. With this being noted, Mayden said the challenge is taking the base rules and applying them the best that you can versus the opponent.
“We will always get everyone’s best game,” he said.
“Teams always want to make a statement against Alabama, so a lot of times they are not going to do what we see them do on film. Sometimes on the field, things are going fast. You are probably thinking one thing and someone else is thinking another. That is why you have to communicate and get everyone on the same page, so busted coverages don’t happen. When you play against good players, mental errors turn into points. When you play against good teams and you make a mistake, those turn into touchdowns.”
It was a humbling experience, but one to where Saban has everyone’s attention.
“I always say you learn a lot more when you don’t have success, than when you are successful,” Saban said on Wednesday. “It is more difficult for people to buy in to doing things the right way when you are having success, because they look at you as if to say ‘we are having success, so why change anything,’ but when you don’t have success and when you don’t play like you like to.. people are more likely to take notice and do things the right way.”
Mississippi State will test the Tide with a good running back – Kylin Hill – and a defense that comes after the quarterback 50 percent of the time.
Along with this, Joe Moorehead will rotate a pair of signal callers in Tommy Stevens and Garrett Shrader to try to create a good matchup.
Hope for the CFP is still alive; however, it starts with the Tide convincingly defeating the Bulldogs on Saturday at Davis Wade Stadium.
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Stephen M. Smith is the managing editor and senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
