re: Net Points Scored per Drive, through Week 7 - Our defense is not good.

Yea, I think we're in good shape in SEC play. The prospect of facing Ohio State or Clemson with our defense is pretty terrifying. I don't trust them to be able to get any stops against offenses of that caliber.

And unfortunately I don't think we'll really know if they've gotten any better until then (maybe LSU/Georgia x2 would give us some clues).

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If Myles Brennan is healthy, LSU will tell us how we are doing defensively.

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Yeaaaa not super excited to have Arik Gilbert against our Safeties and Linebackers + Terrance Marshall going deep. Of course Sark would literally eat the LSU defense we’ve seen so far alive

Someone else said it and it’s worth repeating: your offense is going to have an off day one game where it ain’t working like a Swiss watch. Can the defense be good enough that day?

We’re putting tremendous pressure on the offense with the mindset that they need to score every possession because we don’t know how many stops we can muster. We’re playing with a championship caliber offense and a Liberty Bowl defense.

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We were one punt or so away from giving up the lead in that game, IMO.

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Yep - which made that offensive performance so impressive.

Agreed. There's been improvements. My hope is that CNS sees that our best hope for a solid defense is to play zone. At least with everyone but Jobe and Surtain. The safeties and linebackers can't handle man to man. His pattern matching D may be brilliant but not if the players can't handle it.

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It used to be that good defense beats good offense. Good defense doesn't beat good offense anymore," Saban told ESPN on Friday. "It's just like last week. Georgia has as good a defense as we do an offense, and we scored 41 points on them [in a 41-24 Alabama win]. That's not the way it used to be. It used to be if you had a good defense, other people weren't going to score. You were always going to be in the game. "I'm telling you. It ain't that way anymore." And how's that sit with Saban, one of the foremost defensive minds in the game and the architect of some of the more dominant defenses in college football over the last two decades? "I don't like it," he said with a wry smile. "But we just have to make sure we have an offense that's that way and that explosive, which we have." "It's hard to coach defense now, because there are so many run-pass concepts in what everybody does," Saban said. "I mean, it's really, really hard to coach the secondary ... because you get so many mismatches back there." "We're not very good on defense, average at best, but I think we will get better," said Saban, adding that to be elite on defense requires being especially good in the secondary. "We're going to get there, but this group [in the secondary] doesn't have enough experience. You've got to go through growing pains with these guys because they see so much stuff now in college football. We see something different every week."

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Might as well get used to this type of defense when the GOAT speaks like this . You know it is killing him

We all know Golding sucks.

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It is to a point. When a defense has to keep personnel on the field to play run or pass it is much easier to find mismatches against LBs or Safeties who can’t cover

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So if you invent a better defensive mousetrap, wouldn't it start with a better defensive base?

I realize coach Saban didn't elaborate about exactly what he meant and context is everything but there are some serious defensive minds out there that are trying different schemes and styles. I'm seeing some top 5 defenses running a hybrid dime package as their base. (Clemson). They are top 10 almost every season it seems, including this season. I'm watching teams running exotic zones, rushing 3 and dropping 8 in coverage, putting extra safeties in the box. They went small. These DCs have at times turned what looks like a Heisman QB one week into a turnover, pick-six machine the next. I watched Kevin Steele break out some crazy 3-1-7 look vs LSU in BR last season as his base defense. One middle LBer and safety standing directly behind him making it almost impossible for the QB to read. They went small and were even zoning up. And came as close as anyone did all season to shutting Burrows down.

The offense has the advantage but some of this is an unfair fight because OCs stay in the lab and keep inventing all this crazy stuff and DCs are fighting with a lot of old ideas.

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It is easier to slow down offenses with zones like Arky is playing but not sure that is what Saban likes philosophically . Still believe a better pass rush with one gap responsibilities would help a lot also

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He's the one that says it's all about stops, not stats.

I'd rather see our guys jumping routes in these zones, as a spread team tries to slowing works their way down the field, than chasing inferior athletes all over the field in this man to man, bend but don't break style.

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Zones can be bend but don’t break at times too . But I agree with what you are saying on the whole . We are not used to seeing teams gash us running and receivers running uncovered for the most part

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Slowly down the field, or bend but don't break. Zone or man to man, either way, it seems to be our defensive philosophy. I know you didn't say it, but it's pure football mythology to suggest you can't have kick-azz pressure on the QB in these zones as they wait for their guys to find the gaps.