It was not always pretty on Saturday for Alabama's defense, but you have to give credit where credit is due: with an offense that fell silent and failed to produce any second-half points, the defense stepped up when it had to in order to get stops and hold Georgia to just seven second-half points to preserve a three-point victory.
Alabama did get a couple of breaks to help: Georgia WR Talyn Taylor dropped a sure touchdown on a deep ball from Gunner Stockton that would have given the Bulldogs the lead late in the third quarter.
But Alabama also made plays when it had to. LT Overton stuffed out a 4th-and-1 in the redzone in the fourth quarter, and the Tide's defense forced a punt near midfield with under four minutes to play thanks to a big negative play forced by freshman CB Dijon Lee.
But the defensive concerns that were there before the game remained. Alabama was once again gashed on the ground, allowing the Bulldogs to rack up 227 yards. It's the second time in four games that Alabama has allowed over 200 yards on the ground. For the season, the Crimson Tide now ranks 75th in the country in rushing yards allowed per game at a jarring 160.5 yards on average.
Against Georgia, it wasn't that the Bulldogs were consistently dominating the Tide up front and racking up five, six, or seven yards a pop; it was the explosive plays, typically around the edges, where Alabama struggled the most. According to Kane Wommack, 171 of the rushing yards allowed occurred on just six plays. The Tide frequently struggled to set the edge, gave up containment, and then took poor angles to the football to allow explosive plays.
It's that fact that Wommack called unacceptable when talking to the media on Monday.
Kane Wommack: "The ball rolled off the edge and created six explosive plays for 171 yards. ... Those six rushes that the ball got outside on us and we didn't take the air out of the ball ... we didn't finish. That is unacceptable."
— Charlie Potter (@Charlie_Potter) September 29, 2025
Vanderbilt will bring another big test for Alabama's run defense
If you take out those six explosives, Alabama's run defense wasn't terrible on Saturday night. The other 27 carries went for just 56 total yards. But you can't discount the explosives, obviously, and the concerns will be even greater when Vanderbilt comes to town.
Alabama struggled mightily with Vanderbilt's motion-based offense attack last year, and they're even better and more efficient so far this season. Diego Pavia is a master of his craft at QB, and the 'Dores rank 14th in the country in rushing at 230 yards per game.
Part of Alabama's issues against Georgia was that they couldn't set the edge effectively. That plagued them a year ago in Nashville, too. With Qua Russaw and Jah-Marien Latham out, that job just became a lot more difficult. As good as Yhonzae Pierre has been as a pass rusher, he's yet to prove he can effectively stop the run.
Alabama will also be without starting defensive tackle James Smith for the first half of the Vanderbilt game, thanks to an erroneous targeting penalty in the second half in Athens.
The job of stopping Vanderbilt's ground game and not allowing them to dictate the tempo of the game was always going to be a difficult one. Wommack will have to find the answers without several key guys. His future as the defensive coordinator may depend on it.