Nick Saban on why offenses are torching defenses this season
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Offense is the name of the game in college football these days. You have to be able to score to hang with many of the spread and RPO-based schemes in the Power 5.
We saw that on Saturday night, as Alabama and Ole Miss combined for a whopping 111 total points in the Crimson Tide’s 63-48 victory.
After the game, Alabama coach Nick Saban was asked about all the offensive outbursts in college football, and he explained why he thought the scoreboard was lighting up at a historic rate (via AL.com):
“Well I think there’s a lot of advantages to the offense. The quarterback runs a quarterback draw. The offensive line is blocking a running play. They throw a pop pass to the tight end. I don’t know if there’s anybody downfield or not. It’s hard to play RPOs. Every time you play middle of the field coverage they run RPOs, so they’re running slants. It’s bang-bang plays but they’re 10 yard plays. But then you try to play other things to take that away, and it’s hard to stop the run. So I think the offense that we have in college football right now is very, very difficult to defend. Not any old-fashioned offense. It’s spread. Lots of very difficult plays to defend. So we have to score a lot of points if we’re going to win. But we have to play better on defense, too.”
Indeed, it is tough to play defense these days. But, Alabama will face one of the best in the country this coming week when Georgia comes to town. That should be an interesting juxtaposition of one of the best offenses vs. one of the best defenses.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
