Where Alabama ranks defensively will mortify traditional Tide fans

It’s no secret, Alabama’s defense has been on a bit of a drastic dip over the past three seasons. Despite there being no shortage of talent on that side of the football, the unit has been put up a number of performances that Crimson Tide fans are unaccustomed to.

Just by looking where Alabama lands in the Southeastern Conference and national rankings, is enough to prove that the defense is not the one of old.

Currently, the Crimson Tide is ranked 10th in total defense in the SEC allowing an average of 427 yards per game which also has Pete Golding’s unit tied for 64th in all of college football.

Alabama has struggled especially against the run this season as it gives up an average of 147 rushing yards per game. A short time ago in 2017, the team was allowing its opponents to gain an average of just 95.7 yards on the ground.

Normally Alabama is near the top of these lists, or at the very least in the top 25. But massive yards and points performances they’ve allowed this season like the games against Ole Miss and Texas A&M have exploited a ton of the weaknesses.

The defense has shown some signs of hope to turn the ship around after a solid performance against Tennessee last weekend which Saban deemed to be the best performance of the year. But even then there is still a fair amount of work to do to get things squared away.

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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77