Hard to Find Fault in Alabama’s Defensive Effort Against Utah State

The Crimson Tide first- and second-team units looked impressive in shutout.

Edwin Stanton | Sep 4, 2022

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — These type of games are bothersome for Nick Saban. When Alabama plays lights out football, there isn’t much for him to complain about, and the Crimson Tide head coach prefers his team not to be complacent.

Utah State helped Saban out with a couple of fourth-quarter drives. That gave something for him to point to following the 55-0 season-opening win.

“We missed some things, which we need to clean up, but it was a good team win,” Saban said. “But there are some things we need to get better at. The players need to understand the importance of sustaining the intensity, whether it’s preparation, practice, so that we can improve as a team.”

There certainly wasn’t much else he could nitpick with the defensive effort-not when the Aggies gained just 136 yards and failed to cross midfield until five minutes left in the third quarter.

Granted, this performance wasn’t against a ranked team or SEC member, but the effort was there and never waned, even when the backups took over in the second half.

“We’re going to play teams that are much more aggressive and talented, so we’re going to have to do things correctly as a group,” Saban said.

The starters up front, DJ Dale, Tim Smith and Byron Young, along with backups Jaheim Oatis, Justin Eboigbe and Jamil Burroughs, didn’t allow anything up the middle, limiting the Aggies to 79 rushing yards.

It was worse for Utah State on the edge, where All-American linebacker Will Anderson Jr. and Dallas Turner were waiting. Anderson had five tackles, including one big hit on an Aggie running back behind the line of scrimmage, and Turner had three tackles with a quarterback hurry.

There wasn’t much work for the defensive backs, thanks to an intense Alabama pass rush that hounded quarterbacks Logan Bonner and Cooper Legas. Utah State completed a 23-yard pass on the game’s first play with first-year starter Terrion Arnold defending. After that, Utah State’s longest pass was 10 yards.

The defensive backs didn’t get a lot of work on pass coverage, but they did get to the ball on run support.

“The biggest positive from the game was seeing everyone flying around to the ball,” defensive back Brian Branch said. “In preseason we focused on trying to do the little things, and I felt like everybody did their job tonight.”

Khyree Jackson set the tone with a tackle on a screen pass. He blew up the Utah State receiver trying to block him, knocked his helmet off and drove him into the ball carrier for the tackle. The play lost yards.

“Kyree did a great job of getting off the block and making the tackle,” defensive back Brian Branch said. “That’s something we do in practice and he did it in the game, so that was good for him.”

The Aggies blocked a punt late in the game, setting them up with a scoring opportunity. The defense denied the Aggies points to preserve the shutout.

“Getting the shutout was good, but we still have some things we need to work on,” Branch said. “It’s not like we played a perfect game.”

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