Alabama’s offense continues to light up the scoreboard, but that doesn’t mean the Crimson Tide are going to coast to Atlanta and beyond. The long and mounting injury list is one major area they’ll have to solve, according to SEC Network host Paul Finebaum.

The Crimson Tide are already playing the most freshmen in the front seven in coach Nick Saban’s career, and as the strength of the schedule ramps up, especially in November, that’s when the test will come. LaBryan Ray, Dylan Moses and Joshua McMillon are among a host of key defenders out.

“I am still officially concerned about Alabama’s defense,” Finebaum said on his regular weekly appearance on Birmingham-based WJOX, 94.5 FM program “The Roundtable.” “It’s not the fact that seem to give up late touchdowns every week that skew the score a little bit. It’s just that there are so many key players that are missing and don’t know when they’re coming back. When Alabama moves up in class, thought it was going to be against A&M, but it will be obviously against LSU, for that three- or four-game gauntlet, are they equipped to make enough stops? Because that offense can score with reckless abandon, but the defense is going to have to do something for them to win a championship.”

The Crimson Tide are off this week, and return to action at Texas A&M on Oct. 12. The key remaining games appear to be LSU on Nov. 9 and the Iron Bowl on Nov. 30.