Concerns over Alabama’s defense have never flared up more than in its historic loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday.
Instead of learning from its second half issues against Georgia, or its uninspired showing against USF, the Crimson Tide looked right past a Commodores team that was sick of living at the bottom of the conference.
When the No. 1 team in the nation is able to put up nearly 400 yards of offense and 35 points on the road against a .500, unranked historically abysmal program, there aren’t usually fans rushing the field afterwards.
Instead the Alabama defense failed the assignment.
Led by transfer quarterback Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt’s offense put up 40 points with 418 total yards, leading the team to its first win over a team ranked inside the top five in the history of the program.
What led to the Commodores’ success and the Crimson Tide’s demise, was the abysmal third down defense from Kane Wommack’s unit.
Vanderbilt converted on 12-of-18 third downs on the day resulting in pure domination in time of possession holding onto the ball for 42 minutes and 8 seconds. The Commodores were also successful on all four of its tips to the redzone, and turned a fourth and one opportunity into a 36-yard touchdown pass from Pavia to Junior Sherrill on a busted coverage.
Alabama’s offense on the other hand converted on 3-of-7 attempts, having the ball for just 17 minutes and 52 seconds. When a defense is that much of an issue, handing out conversions like candy at the end of this month, it forces the offense to play near perfect football.
That wasn’t the case either and showed on the Crimson Tide’s first offensive drive as Jalen Milroe’s pass was tipped up in the air and intercepted for a touchdown by Randon Fontenette. Milroe would also be stripped with just under 10 minutes to go in the 4th quarter as Alabama was driving in a one possession game which led to a game sealing score by Kamrean Johnson.
Yet even with the mistakes, the points were able to come for the offense but larger issues are looming for the other side of the ball.
The Crimson Tide have now allowed three teams to rush for over 140 total yards in five games, and is now the second straight contest it has allowed 35 points or more.
The modern day of college football clearly favors offense, but it hasn’t gotten to the point where a defense like Alabama’s to gets tossed around like the bottles of Jack Daniels that surely will be on Broadway tonight.
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
