Alabama’s Defense Erased the Offense’s Mistakes in Momentum-Building Win Over Texas A&M

The Crimson Tide turned the ball over twice, but it didn’t result in any points the other way.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — It’s already been said a lot this year, but Alabama’s defense is really, really good.

How good?

The Crimson Tide (5-1, 3-0 SEC) turned the ball over twice on Saturday afternoon at Texas A&M, including once inside its own 30-yard line. Alabama lost the turnover battle. The Crimson Tide had 14 penalties, including 10 on the offense. Let’s throw one more thing in there — Alabama had 23 rushing yards. That sounds like a Crimson Tide loss, right?

Wrong.

In No. 11 Alabama’s 26-20 victory over the Aggies (4-2, 2-1 SEC), the defense once again led the way, limiting the high-powered Jimbo Fisher offense to just over 300 total yards. Like the Crimson Tide, the Aggies couldn’t run the ball, picking up just 1.9 yards per carry on 35 attempts. They kept trying, but could never find any success against the staunch Alabama front.

It wasn’t a turnover fest like last week, but true freshman Caleb Downs reeled in his second interception in as many games — and it couldn’t have come at a better time. With 11:06 remaining in the third quarter, with the Crimson Tide trailing 17-10, Jalen Milroe threw an interception inside Texas A&M territory.

The very next play, Downs nearly jumped over a receiver to take the ball right back. From there, Alabama tied the game with a touchdown and then scored another seven points on its next drive to take the lead, which it never lost from that point.

“That changed the momentum of the game,” head coach Nick Saban said. “I think the fact that we were able to keep them out of the end zone and play good in the red zone was really, really important early.”

“I’m just proud of our guys and the way they played.”

Up 24-17 with 11:44 to go, Jermaine Burton fumbled to give the Aggies the ball at the ALA 29. The Crimson Tide didn’t just hold Texas A&M out of the end zone, but off the scoreboard completely. Chris Braswell blocked the Aggies’ ensuing field goal attempt.

In the loss against Texas, Alabama surrendered 10 points off of two turnovers. On Saturday in College Station, the Crimson Tide turned the ball over twice again. This time, it turned into zero points the other way.

Zero.

Alabama played the entirety of the second half without its most experienced defender, Malachi Moore — forcing the Crimson Tide to shift around its secondary.

It didn’t matter.

“We strive for turnovers,” Braswell said. “We just strive to go out there on defense — strike fear into our opponents. [...] Malachi is a big part of our team, our organization. But you know, we’ve got a lot of guys that [can] back him up, and go out there and get the job [done], too. That’s ‘Bama — we’re gonna be good.”

“It means a lot to go out there and execute. We just strive to be dominant on the field, just go out there and do our job. We were very dominant this game, but also there [are] a lot of things we can clean up on defense and everything. You can never be perfect — we always try to go out there and do our best, get better each and every week.”

How about Alabama? Early in the season, it looked like you were going to be able to count out the Crimson Tide’s losses with your fingers. If Alabama keeps this up, it may be adding something to its finger at season’s end.

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