Alabama Football: Does TIDE Stand for 'This Is Defensive Excellence?'

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer)

You are the coach of a Crimson Tide opponent, and you're down 21-3 with three minutes left to go in the second quarter.

Alabama has just scored on a seven-minute-and-change drive, and your defense is on the sideline sucking air, with faces white and hands on knees.

You know you have to get the offense moving, make some first downs, let the defense rest and get some momentum before halftime. A score here would really help get your team feeling they had a chance in the second half, or at least make it look like the blowout everyone has predicted.

You get a lucky return on the kick out to 40 and you seem like you're in business. Could you finally be catching a break in this game?

The offensive coordinator tells you on the headphone from the press box that Dont'a Hightower, the run stopping linebacker and Josh Chapman, the nose guard who's plugged the middle all game long are both on the bench. Hightower's replacement is a freshman, third-string Trey DePriest, and the nose guard is Nick Gentry.

For most of the first half, you've tried to throw on first down and Alabama is used to you doing that. Knowing how desperate you are almost a midfield, they know you may try to take advantage of the field position and go for a quick score.

So you call what you think is the perfect play.

They are looking for a pass, but you're going to run the draw against that inexperienced middle and take advantage of the two substitutes that have just come into the game.

You spread the field with two receivers and a tight end on the right side on receiver on the left to spread the field. Your running back takes a step to the left looking like he's going out for a pass and the quarterback lines up in the shotgun.

DePriest cheats over a few feet away from the middle, with his eyes on the tight end just as you had hoped he would.

Just as the ball is snapped, everything looks great. All the cornerbacks are streaking down the field away from the play, covering receivers on deep routes, one safety is running back too at full speed to provide deep cover and the other is going back to provide underneath help.

Gentry is bull rushing from nose guard, and it takes the center and the left guard backward into the pocket. The ends are both pass rushing from the outside and circling in fast. Everything you had hoped for is happening. There is a huge gap open in the middle of the field as the quarterback starts to take a step  or two forward to look like he's trying to avoid pressure from Jesse Williams, who has blown up your tackle and is now beelining for your quarterback.

Gentry's bull rush makes the quarterback take an extra step to get to the running back and tuck it in his belly, as he drops the blocking mode and now takes off to the vacant middle of the line.

It looks like it's going to go for a long gain.

But two yards past the line of scrimmage, he senses something, sees a quick flash of crimson and with eyes looking down field doesn't realize that DePriest has somehow closed the gap between covering the tight end and that hole that was there far too quickly.

The impact makes him leave his feet, and he puts out his left arm to brace for the impact of the ground as his body has left the lean of no return. But before he hits the ground, he is hit again. From nowhere, Courtney Upshaw has also closed ground and drives him back into DePriest.

The sandwich shot bend the top half of body backward, the ball comes loose and now Nico Johnson, who had dropped for middle zone coverage but read draw as soon as the quarterback took a step forward to begin the process of tucking the ball in the receiver's belly, scoops up the loose ball and runs it the other way to the 16-yard line before being tackled.

What happened? You watch as your running back is helped off the field holding his left arm. You won't learn until halftime that he's dislocated his shoulder and won't be available next week when you're playing a team you're supposed to beat come to your stadium. Suddenly your bowl season doesn't look promising without him.

It was the right call at the right time and seemed open at the moment of hand off. What happened?

What happened was Trey DePriest runs just as fast at 250 pounds as your 180-pound running back, but bench presses an extra hundred pounds. As soon as the tight end engaged him, he knew he wasn't interested on getting into a passing lane, it must be a draw.

What happened was that Upshaw read draw early too and shed his block and was bringing his 269 pounds to that open middle about as fast as your running back was also getting there.

What happened was that Johnson saw the corners had the receivers deep, the safeties had the deep and underneath covered, the tight end seemed more worried about DePriest than trying to escape into a passing lane and the running back had no intention of leaving the backfield to try and get open for a pass. That meant it was a draw, and he was closing the 15-yard gap that was open in the middle with his 4.5 40-yard speed.

What happened was that no matter how much you see it on video, you just don't get that Alabama has 14 linebackers who are as fast as your running back but bring more weight and strength to the impact down to the final substitute. No matter who is on the field from that group, they're deadly fast, well coached and all have killer instincts to be body bashers when they make a hit.

What happened was three players were not just well coached enough to read what was happening in mid play, but fast enough to react to it. Faster than any team you've played this year, and faster than you, your offensive coordinator and the running back thought was possible.

Does the TIDE in Crimson Tide mean "THIS IS DEFENSIVE EXCELLENCE?"

You bet it does.