Film Study: How Bama reaffirmed the SEC goes through Tuscaloosa

It’s like the feeling you get when you’re far away from home and your GPS isn’t working on your cellphone due to insufficient coverage from your wireless provider (yes I’m talking to you, T-Mobile).

The now 9-1 Alabama Crimson Tide disposed of the previously No. 1-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs in front of a chaotic home crowd. The sea of Crimson and White supporters were treated to one of their team’s best defensive performances of the season, behind the design of head coach Nick Saban and his trusty sidekick, and future star head coach himself, Kirby Smart (defensive coordinator).

While a 25-20 win doesn’t scream complete domination, when you factor in how those results were derived you could pretty much say State was dominated. Going into the game it was a widely known fact that State wanted to establish the line of scrimmage behind the dynamic run stylings of quarterback Dak Prescott and running back Josh Robinson.

Additionally, the Bulldogs wanted to render Alabama a one-dimensional offense by limiting its run game. The Bulldogs pretty much wanted to punch Bama in the mouth and see if it would fold at home.

But as we’ve seen time and time again, Bama is the one that virtually always ends up doing the punching.

Stout Against The Run/Bend-But-Don’t-Break Pass Defense

As expected, Bama supporters fretted all week about the prospects of facing yet another spread-to-run offensive attack with an extremely athletic QB.

And who could blame them?

After watching Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M), Nick Marshall (Auburn) and even Trevor Knight (Oklahoma) rack up a plethora of highlights — over the last couple of seasons — being nervous about Prescott didn’t seem too out of the norm.

But coming into the game, Bama demonstrated supreme run defense against numerous high-powered rushing attacks — most notably in tilts versus LSU and Arkansas — and looked to field possibly the best unit of the Saban-Smart era (in regard to rushing defense).

Where State differed from those aforementioned spread offenses was in its ability to consistently get the QB to the edges in the run game. That’s not to say that Prescott can’t bend the edges, periodically, it’s merely shedding light that his damage is mostly done in between the tackles.

With someone like Marshall, the Tide have to be worried about him breaking contain. With Prescott, you have to worry about him breaking through to the second level by running through interior linemen and over off-the-ball linebackers.

So this meant that it was in Bama’s best interest to employ some type of underneath zone coverage so that the linebackers would have very little reason to turn their backs to Prescott.

This also meant that Bama could spend a great deal of time in its heavy package on defense employing the services of chief run stuffers Jarran Reed, Brandon Ivory and Dalvin Tomlinson.

And anytime the Tide get to line up in a 3-4-based alignment, it becomes a sight to see for fans of physical defense (like yours truly).

Look at how Bama collapsed the pocket with its base package against a designed QB draw. The 0-technique, Reed, was athletic enough to beat the cut block and force Prescott toward an oncoming Jonathan Allen.

Coming into the game, Prescott had generated 779 yards on 143 attempts (5.4 yards per carry). When combined with Robinson’s amazing 984 yards, on just 146 attempts (6.7 yards per rush), you had the makings of an explosive dynamic duo (cue the Dakman and Robinson quips).

But in typical Saban fashion, which coincides with what his coaching buddy Bill Belichick believes in, his defensive unit stifled both Robinson and Prescott to the tune of 12 carries for 37 yards (3.1 average) and 22 carries for 82 yards (3.7 average), respectively.

Teams have to know that Saban’s units are going to take away what you do best.

In this particular sequence, a read-option play was foiled by Bama’s fast-flowing defense. Smart sent nickel corner Geno Smith on a blitz which, theoretically, sealed the edges. Robinson thought he could still hit the edges as he had a pseudo lead blocker with the “Ghost” action provided; Bama’s front was just too physical.

Future NFL star linebacker Reggie Ragland had his typical 10-tackle performance, despite being deployed in coverage a ton due to State running a ton of “10” and “11 personnel.” Fellow off-the-ball backer Trey DePriest chipped in with 9 tackles of his own.

But it was defensive line that did its part while mostly working the two-gap method.

5-technique defensive end A’Shawn Robinson, a future top-10 pick in the NFL draft, contributed eight tackles, while Tomlinson generated a sack to go along with his seven tackles.

And when you factor in Reed’s eight tackles, it’s evident that Saban had a plan that was executed to near perfection.

Free safety Nick Perry, 12 tackles with one interception, made his presence felt unlike we’ve seen from him the majority of his career. He played well in space, and he consistently came up and filled the alley in the run game.

Here we see Prescott throwing an interception into combination coverage. Throwing an in-breaking route into combo coverage requires an anticipatory throw with a ton of velocity; Prescott was late with a wobbly pass.

Superstar safety Landon Collins continued his bid to be considered the very best defensive back in the nation with a seven-tackle one-interception performance of his own. And even much-maligned cornerback Cyrus Jones got in on the action making quite a few plays against State’s star receiver De’Runnya Wilson — coming up with an interception in the process.

Many of Prescott’s yards came when the Tide called off the Dogs — so to speak — and went to a more conservative approach on defense. As someone who played defense, I can contest that many QBs come up with a ton of yards between the 20s, but can’t deal with the constricted area of the red zone.

The majority of Prescott’s 290 passing yards resulted in what I like to call “empty calorie yards,” meaning it was more cosmetic than anything as Bama clamped down when State was close enough to threaten.

While it may not look like it on the surface, Bama imposed its will on a team that had a lot going for itself prior to the matchup. When we look back on this contest, it may very well be the performance that shuts people up about Bama not being able to defend the spread.

This is just another game that furthers the notion that this may be arguably Saban’s best coaching job ever when you consider how much doubt has been cast on the program the majority of the season. One close loss to the University of Mississippi — on the road — is nothing to hang your head over.

Especially when people are already trying to spin the Bulldog’s loss to Bama as some type of moral victory as they erased a 19-0 deficit and made it look respectable at the end, but a 23-17 last-second loss to a highly ranked Mississippi squad couldn’t afford Bama the same benefit of the doubt?

Stop the madness, people.

Sims Better Than Prescott

The consensus going into the game, for some odd reason, is that State had the clear advantage at the QB position. Those who thought that are clearly prisoners of media hype as Prescott had not shown anymore ability than Sims despite having more playing experience.

What he does have is a ton more rushing yards (861 to 280), which really has nothing to do with being a quarterback, per se, but it should be stated that Prescott also has 110 more attempts as he’s the second option in State’s run game.

Most of the time when Sims is running he still has his eyes downfield looking to get the ball to one of his targets. He has steadily improved at operating from within the pocket, which is a necessity for a rhythm-and-timing West Coast offense, and the majority of the praise should go to offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin

Where the two differ is with Sims’ ability to protect the ball. While Sims has only totaled three interceptions, Prescott now has 10 to his credit. Additionally, Sims has a slightly higher completion percentage (61.8 to 60.3) and yards per completion average (8.9 to 8.8).

So if being deployed more often as a runner makes Prescott flat-out better than Sims — then so be it. But as we’ve seen, Sims is equally dynamic with the ball in his hands; his ability to manufacture first downs sealed the game for the Tide.

Case in point: Sims bailed the Tide out on this third down where he looked as if he were dead to rights. Despite the efforts of State’s defense to keep Sims from breaking contain, he stepped up in the pocket and proceeded to break a couple of linebacker’s ankles: Beniquez Brown and Matthew Wells.

If anything, we can say that Sims and Prescott are even in ability, but all the talk coming into the tilt was about how Prescott was a prime Heisman candidate.

Things that make you go hmmm.

The Crimson and White dominance will only get stronger as Bama has figured out new ways to operate on both offense and defense. And not to mention the Tide have a ton of young talent just waiting to flex its muscle.

The road to the SEC will be going through Tuscaloosa for the foreseeable future.