Alabama's Sack Attack Unrivaled in College Football

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — What’s different for University of Alabama junior defensive lineman Jonathan Allen is now he can go through opponents as well as around them.

It makes all the difference as Mississippi State learned the hard way last Saturday. Lining up in various spots, Allen recorded three of his team’s nine sacks and led an assault by the Crimson Tide’s front seven that could only be described as relentless and suffocating.

“Jonathan was a really good in high school on the edge as a pass rush guy,” head coach Nick Saban said. “Very, very good. I think he has gotten bigger and developed a lot of strength where now he can rush off the edge. But he's a really, really effective inside rusher because he's gotten bigger and stronger."

“He's got enough pop now to turn speed to power on people as well as enough quickness to get by them. That usually is the combination that makes a really good pass-rusher.”

The thing is, Saban could almost say the same thing about a number of other Crimson Tide defenders, as Alabama is getting to quarterbacks like no other team in college football.

Year	Sacks
2007	24
2008	26
2009	32
2010	27
2011	30
2012	35
2013	22
2014	32
2015	38*

So far, 15 players have been in on a sack and 20 have contributed to a tackle for a loss, those numbers only tell part of the story. Granted, its total of 38 sacks is second in the nation only to Penn State’s 42, but the Nittany Lions don’t have the same depth, and most of their sacks have come late in games.

Former walk-on Carl Nassib has 15.5 by himself, a school record, and Penn State just played its second ranked opponent (and lost to both). Alabama, which is now fourth nationally in total defense and much better against the run, has faced six ranked opponents and eight teams that were in the Top 25 at some point this season.

“I thought that was going to be the strength of our team going in, and every one of those guys has gotten better, which is a tribute to their work ethic but also Coach Bo Davis has done a nice job with them,” Saban said about the defensive line. “Some of the guys got lighter and are quicker. Some of the guys have developed and been able to play more significant roles. I think the diversity we have in players is very helpful.”

Although Saban doesn’t necessarily equate sacks to success—his position has long been it’s more about affecting the quarterback—he’s still never going to turn one down. When he was at LSU, the Tigers went from just 11 sacks in 2000 to 20, 27 and 44 during the national championship season, and 37 in 2004.

The most sacks by a Saban-coached team was during his last year at Michigan State, 1999, when the Spartans had 60 to go with 119 tackles for a loss. Alabama had that same number in 1988 when Derrick Thomas recorded an amazing 27.

Name	School	Season	Sacks
Julian Peterson	Michigan St.	1999	15
Robaire Smith	Michigan St.	1997	12
Wallace Gilberry	Alabama	2007	10
Julian Peterson	Michigan St.	1998	10
Dan Williams	Toledo	1990	10
Courtney Upshaw	Alabama	2011	9.5
*Jonathan Allen	Alabama	2015	9
Xzavier Dickson	Alabama	2014	9
Courtney Ledyard	Michigan St.	1995	9
Marcus Spears	LSU	2004	9

Specific to this season, three obvious qualities that stand out about the Crimson Tide’s pass rush are experience, talent and depth.

All the players involved, except for freshman defensive tackle Daron Payne, who has quietly started two games this season (vs. Arkansas and LSU), have been in the system for a couple of years, and senior linebacker Reggie Ragland leads the communication on the field.

The talent has been well documented, but the depth is greater than most realize. Alabama legitimately rotates in nine or 10 defensive linemen who may all someday play in the National Football League, and it also uses linebackers like Ryan Anderson, Rahsaan Evans, Ragland and Tim Williams as pass-rushers.

Player	Sacks
Jonathan Allen	9.0
Tim Williams	5.5
Ryan Anderson	4.0
A'Shawn Robinson	3.0
Da'Shawn Hand	2.5
Reggie Ragland	2.5
Rashaan Evans	2.0
Minkah Fitzpatrick	2.0
D.J. Pettway	2.0
Denzel Devall	1.0
Reuben Foster	1.0
Ronnie Harrison	1.0
Dillon Lee	1.0
Jarran Reed	1.0
Daron Payne	.5
Total	38

So it's really going with a 14-man rotation, and Williams, who gets largely overlooked because he’s not considered an every-down player, may be the best pass-rusher of them all.

“I think that he's always had good pass-rush ability,” Saban said. “It's always been a question of dependability in terms of is he going to do the right things on and off the field so that you could know that he's going to be responsible enough to make the kind of choices and decisions that you need him to make, so that he can play winning football on the field."

“Tim’s worked very hard, made a lot of sacrifices to try to get where he is right now, and we certainly appreciate it. A lot of people in our organization have tried to help and he's been very, very productive.”

Over the last seven games, Williams has been in on a sack in each except for one, Tennessee. Of his 14 tackles, more than half (7.5) have been for a loss including his 5.5 sacks. He’s second on the team in both categories.

“We do a chart not only sacks, but quarterback pressures, as well as batted balls,” Saban said. “Those two things have been very good in terms of what the defensive line has been able to do, as well. They've been able to consistently make the quarterback uncomfortable and affect the way the guy has played, and I think that helps the secondary when the quarterback is not feeling like ‘I can get in a rhythm, I got time, I can stand back here and wait for guys to come open.’”

In Alabama’s official stats (the ones made public) junior defensive lineman A’Shawn Robinson leads the team in quarterback hurries with eight, although it’s an unreliable gauge because of how they’re credited.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

For example, Mississippi State tallied four for the Crimson Tide, three fewer than it had for the Bulldogs. The statisticians at A&T Stadium for the Wisconsin game had Alabama down for two, and Georgia’s crew didn’t credit a player from either team with one, which isn’t uncommon.

As for batted passes, Alabama’s linemen have 16, which is tied with UCLA for the most in the NCAA. Junior Dalvin Tomlinson, who would be starting just about anywhere else, tops the Crimson Tide with six.

Another statistic that Alabama keeps track of is quarterbacks hits, and Saban noted that in addition to the sacks, Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott got hit 12 more times and ran six quarterback scrambles.

Although Saban said Alabama didn’t seem to affect Prescott too much—“I have a tremendous amount of respect for that guy as a competitor and a player,” the coach said—it did manage to force his second interception of the season.

“I’m proud of the way our defense played,” Allen said. “It feels great when you execute the game plan, we did a hell of a job up front. But a lot of times it was cover sacks, so the DBs deserve a lot of credit. They were knocking down receivers and giving us a lot of time to get to the quarterback."

“So as good as we played, they played just as well.”

Alabama’s improving secondary has been sort of the missing piece for the Crimson Tide defense, which had struggled in key games last year. That and the improvement made by linemen like Allen, senior Jarran Reed and Robinson, plus everyone behind them.

“I don't know if they were doing anything special but just beating guys up there," Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen said.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.