re: Official In-Season Practice, Injury Reports and Press Conferences Thread: 12-0

quote:

---

TUSCALOOSA -- It’s now been more than a month since No. 1 Alabama’s defense surrendered a touchdown to an opponent. The Crimson Tide (11-0, 7-0 SEC) has not allowed a touchdown in the last 207 minutes and 54 seconds of game action, dating back to the third quarter of its 33-14 win over Texas A&M.

Aggie wide receiver Christian Kirk caught a 25-yard touchdown pass in the Week 8 game. That was the last time an opposing team crossed the goal line against Alabama’s No. 2-ranked total (252.6 yards per game) and scoring (11.6 points per game) defense. So what’s been the cause of this dominant run?

“It just means that we’re doing our job,” sophomore defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick said. “Everybody is out there executing, being disciplined. That’s kind of what we pride our defense on. It’s good that we’re doing that.”

Alabama blanked the Aggies over the final 27:54 of that game and shut out LSU, 10-0, in Baton Rouge the following week. The Tide then limited Mississippi State to a field goal on Nov. 12 in a 51-3 victory and defeated Chattanooga 31-3 this past weekend.

The Crimson Tide’s 31-3 win over UTC marked the 65th time it’s held an opponent to 10 points or fewer under head coach Nick Saban since the start of the 2007 season and the eighth time in 2016, excluding only Ole Miss (48-43), Arkansas (49-30) and Texas A&M (33-14).

As a pair of games against top-15 teams begins this weekend with No. 13 Auburn, Alabama will want to sustain that suffocating approach on defense. So what is it exactly that enables it to keep teams out of the end zone?

“I think the guys have played well together,” Saban said. “They have a good competitive spirit. They’ve prepared pretty well. I think they have a lot of pride. But this is going to be the most challenging group that we’ve faced, probably, in terms of the multiples of things that they do and how we need to adjust and how people need to be responsible and doing their job. That’ll be a real key to it.

“It doesn’t really matter what we’ve done in the last three weeks. It matters what we do the next week and that’s really what we’re focused on here.”

On the season, the Crimson Tide has only allowed 13 touchdowns, and 11 of those came in three games, including two on the road.

In order to keep Auburn’s league-leading rushing offense (297.82) off the scoreboard in Bryant-Denny Stadium, Alabama will need to clean up some things from its last game against UTC -- at least in the players’ eyes. And that brought linebacker Ryan Anderson back to this past weekend.

“We didn’t play good that last game,” Anderson said. “It felt like we gave up 21 points last game. I was embarrassed. … We didn’t play good.”

It’s been one month and one day since a team was able to score a touchdown on this Alabama defense. And with the Iron Bowl as the next game on the schedule, shutting its in-state rival out of the end zone would be a perfect end to the regular season for the Tide.

“It’s always good when you can shut down an opponent, especially an SEC West opponent,” defensive end Jonathan Allen said. “So if we’re able to do it this week, that’s going to be great.”

---