re: Will Alabama and Saban change his defense for the Air Raid and MSU?

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TheTideMustRoll

I fully expect us to get gashed on Saturday. I hope I'm wrong but we will see.

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I think you are correct in that certain offenses can exploit certain defensive traits, youth and experience, substitution timings and readiness, etc etc. There has been most certainly been a handful of teams over the last few years who have been successful against Bama by using these techniques (Clemson!).

Years ago, I heard a coaching quote that said (maybe it was Bobby Bowden?) that the team that puts the most talent on the field wins 75% of the games based on that alone. There has in fact been games when Bama was able to grind out wins based on sheer talent. However, Saban actually does a pretty good job with halftime adjustments - in particular, reference this years Georgia game. Even last years loss to LSU showed remarkable improvement in the second half. The rest is up to coaching, momentum, home field advantage, whatever.

This year, I think you can add in the fact that our offense is absolutely humming along - so to me, it's not so much about what we are going to do to stop them - I think we'll be OK. Rather, what are they going to do to stop US?

You never say 100% on anything these days in college football, but I think Bama will be in good shape this weekend. When I think of dangerous games on our schedule this year, MSU just doesn't feel like one of those games to me. We'll see on Saturday.