Through six games, Alabama has seen its defensive numbers trend negative and then positive over three-game periods.

The Crimson Tide allowed 322 yards in a season-opening win over Missouri. Those numbers went in the wrong direction as Texas A&M gained 450 yards and then Ole Miss went for 647 yards.

After winning the 63-48 shootout over the Rebels, UA’s numbers got better. Georgia gained 414 yards on the Tide. The following week, Tennessee gained 302 yards. Last week, Alabama held Mike Leach’s Air Raid at Mississippi State to just 200 yards of offense.

In his Wednesday press conference, Nick Saban commented on Alabama’s improvement on the defensive side of the ball.

“I’ve talked a lot about the defense,” Saban said. “I think we’ve gotten a little bit better each week. I think there’s a lot of room for us to continue to have improvement. We’ve got several young guys playing and those guys, I think, are developing more and more confidence in what they’re supposed to do, how they’re supposed to do it, why it’s important to do it that way. So, the mental errors are going down, and we tackled better in the last game, which I thought the Ole Miss game was not very good. And I think we’ve tackled a little better in each game.

“So, I think those things will be critical in finishing. We played a little better on third down the last couple weeks, which is also important to getting off the field, not letting people extend drives on you. So, there has been improvement. There’s a lot of things we definitely need to continue to get better at. I think Dylan (Moses) is a lot more comfortable in his role now as being a leader, calling the defenses, being able to help everybody else do what they’re supposed to do but still do what he’s supposed to do. I think sometimes that can be a little different for guys, but he’s done a really good job of that. So, we’re making progress.”

Alabama is off this week before facing LSU on Nov. 14. The Tigers rank No. 4 in the SEC in total offense at 458 yards per game. Ed Orgeron’s squad posted a season-low 347 yards of offense in a 48-11 loss at Auburn.