UA has an all-time great offense, and a defense that is still up to par.
Alabama's high powered offense has been the talk of the college football season. A program that has been built on Nick Saban's fantastic defensive mind now has an offense that overshadows the past 11 years of dominance. It's weird to think that the second UA has a good offense, the media and teams take their focus away from how good the defense has been. And that is probably how Saban likes it.
But I believe after this past weekend when UA shut out LSU 29-0 the worst kept secret in college football is out. Alabama still has one of the best defenses in the country.
I guess Ed Orgeron and the Tigers focused so much on how to stop Tua Tagovailoa from picking them apart, they forgot to figure out how to move the ball. And for the most part, LSU did a decent job at holding Tua in check. The Tigers were able to hold the crimson tide to six first-quarter points and 16 total points in the first half. With the reputation, the offense has built this season any team would take those kinds of numbers at the half granted that they were able to move the ball on bama's defense. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
The second LSU's offense took the field they were already overwhelmed by the crimson tide's defense. I honestly can't remember an LSU offensive line that got so physically dominated, and for the most part by one guy in Quinnen Williams who recorded 10 tackles and two and one-half sacks. The Tigers ran for a pitiful 12 total yards for the game. It didn't get much better for them in the passing game either. Quarterback Joe Burrow was 18/35 for 184 yards no touchdowns and one interception. Most would call that a poor performance.
It was this dominating performance which helped Tua and the offense get multiple chances at beating down the opposing defense and were eventually able to put together sustainable scoring drives. And now here is probably the most terrifying statement the rest of the contending teams can hear. Tua played ok, and Alabama still dominated. Scary isn't it?
But this is no anomaly, Alabama's defense has been really good all year. They are tied for fourth in the country in interceptions, 11th in the country in opponents 3rd down conversion percentage, they are fourth in sacks and red zone defense and are ranked 11th in total defense. But I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Bama has a top 10 defense because I don't think the teams ranked ahead of us like UAB, Appalachian St and Southern Mississippi have played any teams with offenses that can be compared to the SECs.
There may not be a million all-Americans or first round draft picks on this year's defense. But they are definitely playing up to par and deserve some recognition.