It wasn’t the typical first-half performance from Alabama’s defense on Saturday against LSU. Rather than pull through with a few red zone stops to help out a pedestrian offense, Tigers quarterback Jayden Daniels was gashing the unit on the ground and through the air putting up 21 points through the first two quarters.
Following halftime Daniels led another 75-yard touchdown drive which hinted that this would be the shootout many had anticipated the week leading up to kickoff and that would’ve played right into LSU’s favor.
But all of a sudden the flip was switched and the Crimson Tide didn’t allow another score and surrendered just 70 yards of offense for the remainder of the game.
So what changed coming out of halftime?
RELATED: Nick Saban gives injury updates following Alabama’s win over LSU
During his postgame press conference, head coach Nick Saban shared what the message was to his defense to get it back on track.
“The message was, we told them at halftime, we’ve gotta be a little more aggressive,” Saban. “We’re going to have to play man-to-man. We’re going to have to push the pocket. And we did a pretty good job of that. Of course, Dallas getting the tipped ball and the interception was huge in the game. And that’s how you gotta play. The last four times they got the ball, we got stops on defense, which was huge. The score was 28-28. The offense did a great job controlling it so they didn’t get it back very much.”
More specifically, Saban and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele were dialing up the pressure and closing the windows for Daniels in the second half. Instead of keeping back a spy for the speedy quarterback, Alabama opted to rush the full five to keep him in the pocket as long as possible.
“Well, I think when you’re playing a game like this, you’ve got to encourage the defense to just keep playing,” Saban said. “And I think the thing that got us when (Daniels) ran for 167 yards, and most of those were on pass plays. It wasn’t like they were designed quarterback runs. We had spies on him — spy couldn’t get him to the ground. We rushed four guys. So the best success we had was actually rushing five. It kept him in the pocket, pressed him up a little bit.”
Allowing 478 yards isn’t going to be tolerated by this side of the ball, but it made the necessary adjustments to get the job done on the night.
*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
