🏈 Alabama's pass defense is back to being...

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Via Bill Connelly of Football Study Hall

Alabama's pass defense is back to being the best in the country

62
In 14 games last season, Alabama defensed (intercepted or broke up) 72 passes. In eight games this year, the Crimson Tide have defensed 62. After ranking 26th in FBS with 5.1 PDs per game last season, they are currently first with 7.8 and are on pace for more than 100 this season.

After some lackluster (by Tide standards) pass defenses in recent years, which led to plenty of overreactions about Nick Saban's defenses falling behind modern offenses, the Tide have surged to No. 1 in the country in Passing S&P+. And it's been a team effort. Five defensive backs have at least five passes defensed -- including three freshmen (Minkah Fitzpatrick, Marlon Humphrey and Ronnie Harrison) who have combined for 20 -- and linemen Dalvin Tomlinson and Jonathan Allen have gotten their big paws on a combined 10. Recent recruiting is reaping immediate dividends, and Alabama is once again well positioned for a national title run despite its offense struggling to produce as many big plays as normal.

Alabama also ranks 15th in Adj. Sack Rate. The Tide don't usually rack up huge sack numbers and tend to be content with strangling you and gang tackling. But Bama sacked Tennessee's Josh Dobbs five times and got hands on three of Dobbs' nine incompletions in a 19-14 Third Saturday in October win.

Great, so now you can't run or pass on Alabama.

 

[TerryP]

Via Bill Connelly of Football Study Hall

From the same article:

In between, FSU was almost the surest bet in college football. The Seminoles outscored 28 ACC opponents by an average score of 40-17, averaging 465 yards per game and allowing 319. Only eight of the 28 wins were decided by single digits, and 11 had margins of 27 points or more. The Seminoles averaged seven or more yards per play 15 times and allowed fewer than 5 yards per play 16 times. They won three straight conference titles (and could put themselves in position to win a fourth with an upset of Clemson) and a national title.
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That's not even close to being true. Just to start they are 2-6 ATS at home over their last eight.

 

[Tidestalker]

The pass rush and sacks are every bit as responsible for the improvement as the secondary.

 

[colbyjacks]

From the same article:

In between, FSU was almost the surest bet in college football. The Seminoles outscored 28 ACC opponents by an average score of 40-17, averaging 465 yards per game and allowing 319. Only eight of the 28 wins were decided by single digits, and 11 had margins of 27 points or more. The Seminoles averaged seven or more yards per play 15 times and allowed fewer than 5 yards per play 16 times. They won three straight conference titles (and could put themselves in position to win a fourth with an upset of Clemson) and a national title.
​

That's not even close to being true. Just to start they are 2-6 ATS at home over their last eight.

I don't think he was actually talking about betting ATS. From reading the article, it sounds as if he was saying they were one of the surest bets to actually win the game against ACC opponents.

 

[TheChief]

I don't think he was actually talking about betting ATS. From reading the article, it sounds as if he was saying they were one of the surest bets to actually win the game against ACC opponents.

Yeahhhh....probably not a good turn of phrase then. Most of the time people, kinda, you know, bet on games. Then, he talks about margin of victory... soooooo...

 

[BamaFan334]

Well I can clearly see a difference in this year and any year with our defensive linemen batting balls down. Which was something that was said to be a point of emphasis in the offseason, so it's great to see all that ahrd work paying off for those guys.

 

[TheChief]

@colbyjacks That last post by me sounded bad. Sorry. You're a good sport and giving the benefit of doubt. I dunno. I hope your assessment is correct.

 

[colbyjacks]

No worries. I don't think it sounded bad at all. I understand when you put the word "bet" and "sport" together, it can come across in a certain manner.