Alabama's third-down defense is still problematic, despite statistical evidence

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The No. 7 Alabama Crimson Tide stumbled to a 27-25 victory over the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday to take the taste of last week's loss out of their mouths and get the season back on track.

The Alabama faithful still had a lot to complain about Saturday despite remaining undefeated at home and 2-1 in the SEC. The Crimson Tide defense, which had one of its worst performances last week at Vanderbilt, allowed the Gamecocks to gain 374 yards in 71 plays and 31 minutes of possession.

The defense's inability to get off the field on third down was a glaring problem, as the Gamecocks converted five third downs in a single drive early in the second half to take a 19-14 lead.

“What were we? 7 for 15? 5 “I think they had five on one drive, right?” said Alabama head coach Kalen Deboer. “Four or five, something like that. I never talked about it on the sidelines. So the rest of the half, two, right? Two for the rest of the game, two for 10, is that right?”

“I'm just doing rough calculations. There can't be five of us on a trip, and I think it comes down to the desire to find a way to make the piece happen. I'll watch the film and we'll understand what.” This often happened in good situations. I remember the ball they caught over the middle was an advantage for us in terms of loss of possession and distance.

“Here you really have to come off the field and they are difficult to implement from the offensive side – but they did it. For most of the game I felt like we did a good job. I can't say it was great, but that second half drive set the tone and made things difficult for us for the rest of the game.

The Crimson Tide entered Saturday's contest with the ninth-best third-down defense in the country, allowing just 23 conversions on 82 attempts, or 28 percent, over the last five games.

Alabama allowed the Vanderbilt Commodores to convert 12 of 18, or 66 percent, last week and gave up five fourth-down conversions to the Georgia Bulldogs the week before, distorting the impression that the Tide have struggled all season. to come from the field.

The Crimson Tide stopped South Carolina on its first five third-down attempts in the first half, but allowed the Gamecocks to convert on seven of their 10 attempts in the second half, including five in a row to open the second half.

Alabama's attempt on Saturday won't cause the team to fall out of the top 20 in third-down defense, as the Crimson Tide has now allowed teams to convert 30 of 97 for the year, but statistically it is Falling out of the top 10 and a near-loss to South Carolina should send a wake-up call to re-emphasize fundamentals and aggressiveness on third down.

“Really, it takes no energy,” Alabama defensive lineman Tim Smith said. “Like I said, it's the same thing, we can't control how we get on the field. We can control how we leave the field. In some of these situations we would have liked to walk off the field. That’s it. “We’re just making sure we understand our job, our job, our jobs and do it.”