Alabama Football: Defense wins- or loses- championships

The old saying “defense wins championships” rang true last night in Alabama Football’s crushing loss to Clemson on the biggest stage in the College Football Playoff National Championship game.

Clemson’s defense was as good as advertised last night holding Alabama football to its worst scoring game of the year. While Alabama was able to find some success on the ground game and a few great passes racking up nearly 450 yards of offense, they struggled in the red zone to find points with three turnover-on-downs in the red zone.

The touted freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence proved the stage was not too big for him accounting for 347 passing yards and three touchdowns. Trevor Lawrence was able to expose the youth and inexperience of the Alabama football secondary. The Clemson offensive line played one of the best games of the season handling Alabama’s defensive line with ease. Even when the Tide brought extra men to pressure, the offensive line was able to hold up just long enough to give Trevor time to make great throws even if he took a hit at the end.

Once again, linebacker play was dismal at best. With Christian Miller out with an injury, Dylan Moses and Mack Wilson started most of the game together. Even with our two “leaders” on defense on the field, the defense had several instances of missed assignments and busted coverages leading to big plays for Lawrence and company.

The announcers mentioned throughout the game the difference between Trevor Lawrence this year and Kelly Bryant’s game against Alabama last year. While Trevor Lawrence is a superstar as a true Freshman, the real difference between the two games was the Alabama secondary. Alabama had to start two inexperienced defensive backs in Patrick Surtain Jr and Saivion Smith whereas in last year’s matchup, Alabama had the likes of Minkah Fitzpatrick, Anthony Averett, Tony Brown, and Ronnie Harrison in the secondary.  The Alabama football defensive line was able to limit Etienne to just 86 yards rushing, but the receivers made incredible catches going 10 for 15 on third downs.

The Clemson coaches did an excellent job of capitalizing on Alabama’s mistakes and exploiting its weaknesses. Brent Venables positioned the defense to effectively confuse Tua and the offensive line. The Clemson defensive line was able to pressure Tua and force very accurate throws for which their secondary guarded tightly.

Lastly, the Alabama offensive play calling did not give the team the best opportunity to win the game. The Alabama football coaches knew of the weak secondary and expected Trevor Lawrence to have success against them. Najee Harris had a great game averaging 6.6 yards-per-carry but only had nine carries throughout the game. Tua had a very uncharacteristic game with two critical interceptions that led to 14 Clemson points. A poorly executed fake field goal along with a few other unreasonable pass attempts led to drives stalling.

All in all, Alabama was out-coached, out-played, and out-performed. Hats off to a great Clemson team coached by one of the best in Dabo Swinney. As a whole, the Alabama football team is young, so the Tide will be back. I am already looking forward to a tie-breaker fifth game.