After Close Call at Arkansas, Intensity is the Name of the Game for Alabama's Defense

'Intensity' was the most-repeated word by Nick Saban and his Crimson Tide defenders following the Crimson Tide's 49-26 win at Razorback Stadium.

Joey Blackwell | Oct 1, 2022

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Alabama Crimson Tide

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — For just the second time in its five games this season, Alabama's defense gave up over 200 yards on defense.

377 to the Arkansas offense, to be exact. 190 in the air, and 187 on the ground.

Heading into halftime, the Crimson Tide had stifled the Razorbacks, holding them to just 52 passing yards, 97 rushing yards and seven points. The second half was a different story, though.

90 rushing yards and 138 passing yards for Arkansas was all Alabama was able to settle for in the second half, with the Razorbacks putting up 19 points on the board. Heading into the game, the Crimson Tide had given up just two touchdowns — both of them rushing. On Saturday afternoon inside Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, the Razorbacks added three to the Crimson Tide's season total: two on the ground, and one in the air.

So what happened to change the defense so much between the first portion of the first half and the two quarters that followed? After the game, the word that head coach Nick Saban used to describe what the defense had lacked resonated with his team: intensity.

"You can’t play defense if you don’t have great intensity," Saban said. "You can’t tackle well if you don’t have great intensity. You can’t knock the guy back if you don’t have intensity. You can’t cover a guy if you don’t have great mental intensity.

“So when you lose that, you get soft and three-yard runs become eight-yard runs so it’s second-and-two instead of second-and-eight. You don’t get off the field on third down when you have an opportunity because you don’t cover as well.”

In the third quarter, Arkansas outscored Alabama 16-0, cutting what was a 28-7 halftime lead to 28-23 — and putting a lot of pressure on the Crimson Tide's defense. On top of that, a shoulder injury to quarterback Bryce Young that had occurred in the second quarter placed even more urgency on the defense to perform well.

The situation was simple: keep Arkansas' offense off the field, give Alabama more opportunities for its offense to take advantage of. However, the Crimson Tide failed to stop the Razorbacks on three of its third-down conversion attempts in the third quarter, ultimately leading to those 16 points.

That being said, Alabama linebacker Dallas Turner said that despite what happened in that third quarter, he and his teammates remained confident due to having experience with those situations.

“As a defense, we’re always trying to stay calm no matter what situation we’re in,” Turner said. “We already know the standard we’re always held up to no matter what yard line the ball is on, so we just always play hard no matter the circumstances.”

Heading into the fourth quarter, Arkansas had all of the momentum on their side of the field. However, Alabama's defense finally showed back up.

In total, the Razorbacks managed to record just 87 total offensive yards in the fourth quarter. Three points from a lone field goal was all that Arkansas managed to score, and the Crimson Tide defense had successfully put the game away.

Arkansas's longest play in the fourth quarter was a pass for 17 yards — a play that gave the Razorbacks just enough juice to drive for its lone field goal. After a second and third quarter that saw Alabama's defense dominated by Arkansas, the Crimson Tide pulled away as expected — albeit a quarter late.

“I do believe momentum is a real thing, but it can also be broken very quickly,” Turner said. “And can be crushed very quickly. […] I do feel like we crushed their momentum toward the end of the game and we came out victorious.”

To Alabama, reignited its intensity was the key in turning the tide at Arkansas. While it might have had two quarters where it struggled to stifle the momentum of the Razorbacks, it ultimately found the intensity to fight through and finish the job it started in the first quarter.

As Saban said, maintaining intensity is the crucial factor that the team's success depends on. Without it, halting momentum of the Razorbacks— particularly on the road with a rowdy fanbase —wouldn't have been possible.

Next week, Alabama hosts Texas A&M in a game that has been circled on both fanbases' calendars since the Crimson Tide's loss in Bryan-College Station last October. With such an important game looming — and a road trip to a harsh Tennessee environment the following week — the Crimson Tide will have to regain its focus and intensity in a hurry.

To linebacker Will Anderson Jr., maintaining that intensity on defense will be a focus heading into next week, and it all starts in practice.

“I think we did a really good job coming out early,” Anderson said. “I think everybody [was] really locked in. We were paying attention to detail, everybody was focused. Towards the end of the half we lost the intensity — I know Coach Saban, that’s one thing he mentioned — we can’t lose intensity. We gotta keep fighting, we gotta keep going. But other than that, I think when it got hard — we’ve been in situations like that before last year — we knew how to fight through these situations.

“Coach puts us in all types of situations throughout practice, throughout the offseason and everything like that. So I think defense, we did a really good job. We just need to execute and keep the intensity through all 60 minutes of the game.”

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