Alabama Football: Defense did better than you think vs. Notre Dame

The defense performed better than you think for Alabama football

As the Rose Bowl closed and Alabama football emerged victoriously, the feeling was not optimistic for fans. It felt as if the defense was a tremendous disappointment against Notre Dame. Despite this feeling, that may not be the case. Here’s why.

Let’s start with the obvious stat. Notre Dame only scored 14 points in the Rose Bowl. While they left some points on the board, the fact remains that a veteran offensive line and a senior quarterback only scored two touchdowns for the Fighting Irish.

Alabama also held Kyren Williams to under 100 yards from scrimmage. While he had plenty of strong plays against the Tide defense, he did not break them like he could have. If you told me that Williams would end the game with 95 yards on 24 touches, I would call that a win. After all, limiting Williams was a key to victory.

Notre Dame’s biggest play from scrimmage was 27 yards. They had a few plays for 20 or more, but they failed to have a truly explosive play. That was a key for the Irish to beat Alabama football, and they failed to do so.

Notre Dame dominated the time of possession, and that kept Alabama from scoring 35 points like they have all season. The time of possession is a true concern, but Alabama did not break. They would bend plenty, but they held tough when they needed to. Considering how many plays from scrimmage Notre Dame had, they were unable to truly capitalize.

Did Alabama have a perfect game defensively? Absolutely not. Penalties hurt them, and they failed to get off the field on multiple occasions. If a couple of things went Notre Dame’s way, this game would have a completely different narrative.

That being said, this performance was nowhere near as bad as fans might think as they watched the Rose Bowl. If Alabama can improve a couple of things in practice, the defense can do enough to simply what the offense must do. As long as they can hold their opponent to 30 points or less, the Tide offense can do its job and win the game.

From what we saw in the Rose Bowl, Alabama should be able to do just that in the national championship.