Paul Finebaum names Alabama's biggest weak spot ahead of game at Texas A&M
The Alabama Crimson Tide face perhaps their biggest test of the young season on Saturday, traveling to College Station to take on a ranked Texas A&M squad.
The Tide will still be heavily favored to win, but this isn’t a perfect team by any means.
This week, SEC Network host Paul Finebaum diagnosed the biggest weakness the Tide have, saying the defense hasn’t looked as strong as in years past (via 247Sports):
“This is not a vintage Nick Saban defense and quite frankly, this is not even a good Alabama defense,” Finebaum said during Tuesday’s appearance on SportsCenter. “They’ve been pedestrian so far. You may have heard of the guys on the other side of the ball with Tua, Jeudy and Ruggs — the Alabama offense has been spectacular, but the defense has lost some of its best players including Dylan Moses, their captain, and has not looked good.
“I think they could be gashed a little bit in College Station this weekend.”
Now, Finebaum didn’t say he thinks Alabama will lose, but he did say that the Aggies could keep things close.
Will that be the case? Tune in to CBS at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday to find out.
Bama by 13. It is close until the 7 minute mark in the 3rd.
The defense is super talented but very little experience. I’m not sure what the ceiling will be for them but I believe they have the potential to be a very good defense by the end of season… I don’t expect them to be the elite defense Bama has had in the past but if the offense continues to click they don’t have to hold everyone scoreless to win..
It’s more of a mix of really experienced guys and freshmen. Lewis, Davis, Jennings, Diggs, Surtain, McKinney, Carter, Mayden – these are all mostly seniors with alot of playing time, so to say that this defense is not experienced isn’t really accurate. There are far more vets on this defense than freshmen. The problem, in my opinion, is that none of the vets are really stepping up as a consistent playmaker. Last year, Quinnen would take over games with big plays, and we just haven’t had that from any of the vets. Davis is still disappointing (I don’t think he even has a sack yet), and McKinney is solid, but not making big plays. The defense needs an identity and part of that is having a big playmaker that consistently wrecks plays.
Ags will roll.
JK.
This isn’t the typical Alabama defense by any stretch but a deeper dive shows they’ve given up 43 points in non-garbage time over five games. That’s an average of 8.3 points when the game is still “competitive.” The offense is averaging 41 points during non-garbage time. They might be giving up far more yards than we’re used to but they aren’t giving up points when the game is still in question. There are things to improve upon. Taking better angles, tackling, communication, run fits are a few that come to mind. All should improve with more reps. We haven’t seen the defense put it all together just yet but considering how few points they’ve given up when the game is still a game, I’d say the outlook isn’t as bleak as the talking heads would have us believe.
I think this is because the 2s aren’t as good as they have been. Which is not good because they will called on in this game when it matters. We use to be 2 to 3 deep at almost every position on D. Those days are gone.
That because the 2’s are the starters now so the current 2’s are actually 3’s and 4’s…
There last three NFL drafts have really depleted the defense.
Starters are still learning. They get out schemed way too often against not very good offenses. It will be rough down the stretch for this group up the middle. Seems like the DBs are coming together, and I really like Battle. He can cover the slot and outside. He has a little bit of nastiness to him. I don’t know where Jobe has disappeared. I had envisioned him working his way into the Dime package this fall. Haven’t seen him much.
The level of competition has been really down in the first five games. To say that the defense is not allowing a lot of points when it matters isn’t saying much.
I agree. Our 2s should play better against these types of teams through the first 5 games. I wonder if the DC is being out coached.
Ole miss scored with 5 sec left and SC with 11 sec left. It happens every year. Alot of 4 qrt points. I’ll worry when one of these crappy teams has 24 or 31 in the 3rd and are within 10pts of us.