There are certain things that an undefeated team with national championship aspirations can afford to live with throughout the duration of a 12-game regular season.
Giving up explosive plays isn't one of them.
Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack has watched his secondary surrender 15 explosive pass plays of 20 yards or more through its first five games, along with three additional chunk plays of 20-plus yards in Saturday's 56-23 win over Mississippi State.
The Crimson Tide has been able to overcome them up to this point, but that doesn't mean the recurring hiccups haven't given opposing offenses opportunities to capitalize.
That makes Saturday's matchup against No. 2 Georgia particularly interesting.
The Bulldogs have a quarterback who has shown he doesn't need many opportunities to make defenses pay. Gunner Stockton has displayed this ability throughout Georgia's 5-0 start, averaging more than 10.3 yards per attempt while connecting on completions of 70, 61, and 55 on the season — impressive numbers for a player whose ability as a runner is arguably the best part of his game.
Wommack's knows Alabama will have to account for it all.
Kane Wommack knows that with Alabama's defensive flaws on film, Gunner Stockton and Georgia are capable of taking advantage
"He's really impressive," Wommack told reporters Monday during his weekly press conference. "You can see he's very comfortable; he's very decisive. And I think this is a credit to him and their coaching staff, but he has great answers when you do pressure. He knows where to go with the ball. And I think he's done a really nice job in that regard. And so, like anything, you still have to make the quarterback uncomfortable, and you've gotta find creative ways of playing that — When do we pressure? When do we drop into coverage? But certainly he presents a significant challenge because he's so dialed into what they're doing and has great answers based on what a defense shows."
Stockton's ability to find those answers is exactly why Alabama's underlying defensive lapses have to be addressed now.
The Tide has created plenty of disruption on its own, tied for sixth in SEC with 16 sacks through 20 quarters. But Wommack knows the explosives his secondary has allowed are sitting on tape for Georgia and every opponent that follows to study.
"Ultimately, this is us continuing to elevate our game and just get better in the little details for things that we need to get better at," Wommack said. "Good defenses get better as the season goes on. We've put things on tape in the first five weeks that we are going to have to answer for, and teams are going to try to find ways to attack us. And so we've gotta be able to continue to be able to keep our world tight and demand a lot more in practice, which our coaches are doing right now and our players are stepping up and responding to it in practice and on game day."
Saturday is Alabama's first chance to show that growth against an opponent capable of making it matter.
It'll be interesting to see whether the Tide can eliminate the openings that have been the Achilles' heel of Wommack's defense before Georgia gets the chance to make them hurt.
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