Alabama Football: ‘Bama Hammer’ staff, deep-dive preview of Mizzou

Re-Establishing the Alabama Standard

One holdover from Odom’s staff is defensive coordinator, Ryan Walters after he led the Missouri defense to fourteenth in the nation in total defense. The strength of their defense was their pass defense, which yielded 179.3 yards per contest and boasted a national top ten defensive pass efficiency rating of 111.83. The secondary lost four critical contributors in DeMarkus Acy, Christian Holmes, Ronnell Perkins, and Khalil Oliver.

One concern for the Tigers was their inconsistent pass rush. Their leading sack artist, Kobie Whiteside, returns with 6.5 sacks. They will have a hard time against the Tide’s vaunted O-line. Can they stop the explosive offense of Alabama?

For the past two seasons, we have grown accustomed to the Crimson Tide’s offense resembling historical great Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams’ Greatest Show on Turf. Led by an MVP type player in Tua Tagovailoa, four unfairly talented receivers, a stalwart multipurpose running back, and a dominant offensive line, the offense scored at will.

The scoring offense ranked second and third in the last two years, averaging 47.2 and 45.6 points per game, respectively. Meanwhile, in total offense, the Crimson Tide finished sixth at 510 and 522 yards per game.