We thought Saban's issue at stopping teams that ran the hurry-up had been fixed, but last night proved once again the way to beat Bama is to run as many plays as possible in order to tire out the Bama defense.

Alabama's defense is built to be on the field for roughly 65 plays per game. For decades, typical college football games consisted of roughly 60-65 plays per game. In recent years that number has been increasing to close to 70-71 plays per game.

All of Saban's success at Bama can pretty much be traced back to having a dominant defense that keeps opposing offenses off the field. Since 2008, Alabama's opponents have averaged running just under 62 plays each game... well below the national average.

Alabama Opponents Avg. Plays/Game by Season:
2008: 61.3
2009: 60.1
2010: 61.7
2011: 55.4
2012: 59.8
2013: 59.3
2014: 67.5
2015: 64.2
2016: 65.5

Saban's defense hit the sweet spot from 2011 until the Iron Bowl in 2013. In those 38 games, Alabama held opposing offenses to running just 57.5 plays per game... which is astoundingly low. Then things began to change.

In 2013, Auburn's offense ran 68 plays against Alabama... roughly 11+ plays more than what Bama had been averaging since the first game of the 2011 season. Oklahoma followed that blueprint by running 74 plays per game. And they handed Bama consecutive losses to end the 2013 season.

That's when Saban resorted to trying to change the rules under the guise of "Player Safety" while meanwhile bringing in Lane Kiffin to simultaneously speed up his own offense. The year before Kiffin arrived, Alabama's offense ran 63.5 plays/game. From the point on, things sped up. Alabama's offense averaged 72.7, 72.5, and 70.4, respectively, during the last 3 seasons. That is a remarkable increase that signals a total shift in offensive philosophy.

But while Kiffin brought the Alabama offense into modern era, Saban still hasn't been able to figure out how to stop a competitive offense that is capable of running more than 65 plays per game against the Bama defense. The way to stop Bama is to wear that big defense down.

Take last night: Up until the 4th quarter, Bama's defense held Watson and the Clemson offense in check. Until the final 5 Clemson drives (which began in the closing seconds of the 3rd quarter), Alabama's defense held Clemson's offense to just 272 yards on 63 plays (4.32 yards/play).

Beginning with Clemson's last 5 drives, they crossed that 65-play threshold and that's when the Bama defense began falling apart. In the final 5 drives, Clemson's offense ran an additional 35 plays and racked up 239 yards (6.83 yards/play).

Clemson's offense was nearly 60% more productive in the latter part of the game.

This is the same old story. Bama has been plagued by teams that have the ability to run more than 65 plays in a game.

Going back to 2012, in games in which Alabama won by 14 points or more, Bama's defense held those opponents to just 59.5 plays per game. Meanwhile in competitive games decided by 13 points or fewer (including Bama losses), Alabama's opponents have run 72.7 plays per game.

That's a net difference of +13.2 plays compared to blowout Bama wins.

The blueprint of beating Bama is to find a way to run 70+ plays against the Bama defense. They tire out at that point, and that's why teams have been able to be more productive against them in the 4th quarter.

Since 2012, in the 12 games in which Alabama opponents have managed to hit 70 offensive plays, Alabama has averaged allowing 6.9 point per quarter in the first 3 quarters of each game.... yet they've given up 11.3 points per quarter during the 4th quarter of those games.