Alabama's defense wasn't perfect against West Virginia on Saturday.
"I think that we have a lot to improve on defensively all the way around so I'm not disappointed," Alabama coach Nick Saban said in his weekly press conference Monday. "It is what it is. This is where we are. This is the starting point."
Sophomore defensive end Jonathan Allen and senior "Jack" linebacker Xzavier Dickson notched three total sacks. Allen had an 11-yard sack in the fourth quarter. Dickson had the first sack of the game in the first quarter for a loss of five yards.
Dickson added two sacks to his career total (6.5) in Saturday's win over West Virginia.
"There's more factors than how many sacks you got or how much pressure on the quarterback," Saban said. "I don't think we did a very good job of executing pressures in the game."
West Virginia netted 28 yards rushing. Alabama's defensive line had six tackles for a loss of 30 yards.
With senior linebacker Trey DePriest out for the game due to an NCAA infraction, Reuben Foster stepped up for the start at "Mike" linebacker. He had seven total tackles with one for a 2-yard loss.
"Reggie (Ragland) and Reuben playing linebacker for the first time, fast-paced game, really went fast early in the game, even though we tried to make it simple, they did a few different formations and things that sort of got their composure a little bit ruffled, and I think that that affected everybody around them," Saban said.
The majority of Foster's tackles came in the second half, including the one for loss. Ragland notched nearly every one of his six total tackles in the first half.
"This is probably the toughest situation for new players who have no experience as a signal caller trying to go out there and make those kind adjustments in the game so they're all going to benefit tremendously from that experience, which I think is probably the most important thing," Saban said.
But besides shutting down any semblance of West Virginia's running game, Saban wasn't pleased with the overall performance of the linebackers.
"We had too many miscommunications, too many missed coverages, too many missed assignments. I think that in a lot of cases, the ball came out so fast, whether it was a screen or a bubble pass or a smoke or a quick pass, and they throw so many screens, the defensive linemen have to do a really good job of retracing on the screen," Saban said.
The defensive line will face Florida Atlantic, a team that produced 95 yards rushing and 200 total yards against Nebraska, this Saturday.
- See more at: https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1676376#sthash.IhpC8x8t.dpuf
"I think that we have a lot to improve on defensively all the way around so I'm not disappointed," Alabama coach Nick Saban said in his weekly press conference Monday. "It is what it is. This is where we are. This is the starting point."
Sophomore defensive end Jonathan Allen and senior "Jack" linebacker Xzavier Dickson notched three total sacks. Allen had an 11-yard sack in the fourth quarter. Dickson had the first sack of the game in the first quarter for a loss of five yards.
Dickson added two sacks to his career total (6.5) in Saturday's win over West Virginia.
"There's more factors than how many sacks you got or how much pressure on the quarterback," Saban said. "I don't think we did a very good job of executing pressures in the game."
West Virginia netted 28 yards rushing. Alabama's defensive line had six tackles for a loss of 30 yards.
With senior linebacker Trey DePriest out for the game due to an NCAA infraction, Reuben Foster stepped up for the start at "Mike" linebacker. He had seven total tackles with one for a 2-yard loss.
"Reggie (Ragland) and Reuben playing linebacker for the first time, fast-paced game, really went fast early in the game, even though we tried to make it simple, they did a few different formations and things that sort of got their composure a little bit ruffled, and I think that that affected everybody around them," Saban said.
The majority of Foster's tackles came in the second half, including the one for loss. Ragland notched nearly every one of his six total tackles in the first half.
"This is probably the toughest situation for new players who have no experience as a signal caller trying to go out there and make those kind adjustments in the game so they're all going to benefit tremendously from that experience, which I think is probably the most important thing," Saban said.
But besides shutting down any semblance of West Virginia's running game, Saban wasn't pleased with the overall performance of the linebackers.
"We had too many miscommunications, too many missed coverages, too many missed assignments. I think that in a lot of cases, the ball came out so fast, whether it was a screen or a bubble pass or a smoke or a quick pass, and they throw so many screens, the defensive linemen have to do a really good job of retracing on the screen," Saban said.
The defensive line will face Florida Atlantic, a team that produced 95 yards rushing and 200 total yards against Nebraska, this Saturday.
- See more at: https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1676376#sthash.IhpC8x8t.dpuf
