A few years back Alabama's defenses under Saban were known for strong defensive backs, outstanding linebackers, and a line that held their ground and allowed the linebackers to make plays (essentially a 3-4 defense, though it shifted around some) Basically the line consisted of a huge anchor at nose tackle which clogged the middle, and defensive ends which contained the outside, and were pretty good at run stopping also.

This worked great for a few years obviously, but the chink in the armor was always dealing with up tempo offenses and mobile qbs.

The most glaring case of this weakness was dealing with Manziel and Texas A&M in 2012/2013.

Compare Bama's performances against those A&M teams with LSU's 4-3 defense against them, and obviously the Tigers were doing something right that Bama was missing out on. Opposite to Alabama's line as described above which freed up the rest of the D to make plays, I always felt like LSU built their line with 4 monsters who were big, but still fast and explosive, and could stop the run and also raise hell for the quarterback. Again, Manziel couldn't do much against them while he was tearing everybody else apart.

I felt like in 2012 that while Saban's overall defensive schemes were still great, Bama did need to look at doing more of a 4-3 with 4 great playmaking linemen to combat the spread similar to what LSU was doing. Since that time with the way Bama has recruited and schemed, I've noticed that shift happening, and especially this year where the defensive line is the strength on that side of the ball for Alabama. They are getting sacks, batting balls at the line, and still stopping the run as good as ever.

Just wanted to share during this rivalry week