How Often the Alabama Offense has Capitalized on Defense's Turnovers

The Crimson Tide scored zero points off turnovers in the loss to Tennessee despite forcing three first-half takeaways.

Oct 12, 2024; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide defensive back Malachi Moore (13), lineman LT Overton (22), and defensive back Jaylen Mbakwe (9) react to recovering a fumble by the South Carolina Gamecocks during the fourth quarter at Bryant-Denny Stadium. / Will McLelland-Imagn Images

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Three times, the Alabama defense forced a turnover against Tennessee on Saturday and tried to swing momentum in the Crimson Tide's favor. But the three turnovers resulted in zero points for Alabama as the offense followed each one with a punt.

Alabama offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan used a form of the word "disappointing" three times in his answer to a question during Monday's press conference about the offense being unable to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the defense.

"In the games that we’ve played the best collectively as a team, we’ve done that–– our defense has created turnovers, and we’ve been able to put points on the board off of those," Sheridan said. "And unfortunately for us this past week, we didn’t do that. That was disappointing because I certainly felt like there were opportunities in the game for us to capitalize on those, and we didn’t do it. And it goes back to execution, the calls that you make. Obviously you always reflect on that and what you could’ve done different. That was a factor in the game, and I was disappointed we weren’t able to capitalize in those moments.”

Creating takeaways has been a strength of Kane Wommack's "Swarm D" so far this season. Not including turnovers on downs or missed field goals, the Alabama defense has forced 15 turnovers this season (eight interceptions and seven fumble recoveries), which is tied for eighth in the nation in turnovers gained. (For reference, Alabama only created 19 total takeaways in 14 games last season.)

Alabama's offense has scored six touchdowns after the defense has forced a turnover this. Five times the ensuing possession ended with a punt. Twice the Crimson Tide turned the ball back over on Jalen Milroe interceptions, and two times (Georgia and South Carolina) an interception was the final live play of the game. (Technically Alabama ran two plays to kneel the ball out after Zabien Brown's game-sealing interception against Georgia.)

The defense has yet to score a touchdown of its own on a pick six or scoop and score. Alabama does not have any type of non-offensive touchdown this season through seven games. The chart below shows the resulting drive of every Alabama offensive possession after a defensive turnover.

Opponent	Defensive turnover	Next offensive possession
Western Kentucky	Keon Sabb interception	2 plays, 16 yards- Milroe rushing TD
Western Kentucky	Sabb interception	3 plays, 26 yards- Kendrick Law receiving TD
Wisconsin	Fumble recovery	7 plays, 28 yards- Milroe rushing TD
Wisconsin	Que Robinson fumble recovery	3 plays, 18 yards- Milroe rushing TD
Georgia	Domani Jackson interception	3 plays, 22 yards- Germie Bernard rushing TD
Georgia	Jihaad Campbell interception	3 plays- Milroe interception
Georgia	Sack fumble	3 plays- punt
Georgia	Brown INT	N/A (end of game)
South Carolina	Fourth-down fumble recovery	5 plays- punt
South Carolina	Sack fumble	3 plays- Milroe interception
South Carolina	Fumble recovery	3 plays, 31 yards- Milroe rushing TD
South Carolina	Jackson interception	N/A (INT was end of game)
Tennessee	Fumble recovery	9 plays- punt
Tennessee	Malachi Moore interception	3 plays- punt
Tennessee	Jaylen Mbakwe interception	3 plays- punt

So the first five times the Alabama defense forced a turnover, the offense was able to turn it into points, specifically a touchdown, but it has only happened one time since then with Milroe's touchdown run in the fourth quarter against South Carolina.

"We were good at that early in the season," Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said Monday. "We've got to get back to taking advantage of those opportunities playing off the defense, and those momentum swings, keeping them on our side when those times come. Credit the defense, a couple times in a row they've gotten the ball loose or have made some interceptions. Again, we've got to play team football and make those opportunities pay off."

After the Tennessee loss, DeBoer lamented Alabama's inability to play team football with both sides of the ball clicking at the same time. And Saturday was a perfect example. The defense, which has struggled getting off the field, forced the three turnovers and allowed the Volunteers to go just 1-of-5 on third downs in the first half, but the offense was only able to put up seven points at the break.

In the loss to Vanderbilt, the offense was clicking to score 35 points on just 46 plays, but the defense allowed the Commodores to convert 67 percent of third downs and didn't force any turnovers.

Alabama will be playing a Missouri team this Saturday that has done a really good job of holding onto the ball. The Tigers are tied for fifth in the country with only four turnovers on the season. Missouri is led by a veteran quarterback in Brady Cook, who has only thrown one interception this year. So if he makes any mistakes, the offense will need to capitalize.

"How do we play team football, offense, defense, special teams, collectively together to maximize our opportunity to win?" Wommack said. "You’re going to have moments where one side of the ball versus the other is executing better on any given moment. The most ideal thing is if we’re all hitting on all cylinders for four quarters, but that rarely happens in a game or in a season."

"As you look at this — there are no excuses, right? The standard is the standard and you have to find a way to win and you have to find a way to play complementary football across the board. But these are some of the growing pains we’re going to deal with and continue to work through as a football team, but I think there’s a ton of confidence in our players and our coaches knowing that we’re taking steps in a direction to be able to have great team chemistry. I think Kalen does a tremendous job with the culture of our program and the buy-in from our players. When you have adverse situations like this, it’s always about how you respond, and I think our guys have done a really good job in terms of their response, just in talking to them yesterday and with the demeanor that they had this morning.

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