How Nick Saban Will Stop the Spread Offense in 2009

The ending of the 2008 season was a significant let down for all Alabama fans. The fact that the only losses on the year came at the hands of teams running a "spread" offense has undoubtedly caused more than a few grumblings around the Saban house during the offseason. I know that it has my house and well, and I'm just an old armchair quarterback.

Which brings me to this thought: How is Coach Saban going to stop the Spread?

First, a little background on the "Spread Offense" as, to be honest, I didn't know that much about it. I found a great article by Mohammed Alo at. Basically, the Spread is about matchups. It is about getting the ball thrown, handed off, pitched, or snapped to speedy offensive playmakers in space to let them work their magic.

With the Spread Option, it's a numbers game similar to a basketball fast break, only with a read option. If the quarterback reads the option correctly, the offense is always right! The offense should always outnumber or match the defense.

How you draw up the plays, the blocking assignments, and the formations doesn't really matter. One of the key concepts of the spread is that you can generally run OR pass based on the alignment of the defense.

The Quarterback reads the defense, if the numbers favor the pass, the call is to pass. If the run is favored, you run.

In this scheme, the offense is always at an advantage. Another uniquely Urban Meyer twist is that you can run the same play from multiple alignments/formations making it that much more difficult for the defense to figure out what you are doing. So then, how DOES a defense stop it?

The following is what I believe are the keys to overcoming that advantage.

Quickness. A defense that reacts quickly and moves swiftly to the ball can to some extent mitigate the disadvantage of the offense having more talented players. The caution here is that you cannot over run the play or get caught in the misdirection which will most assuredly be used to negate your speed. Which brings up the second key.

Intelligence. You have to play smart. The offense is going to rack up some yardage. But yardage between the 20's isn't going to beat you.

(A little off subject but I remember back in the day when Bear roamed the sidelines, there were times I watched 11 men jog off the field and 11 fresh, rested first stringer's jogged on because the opponent had just moved the ball down into the red zone. Didn't matter that they'd just marched 80 yards against the second & third string, if they wanted to score, they were going to have to fight tooth and nail for that last 20 yards.)

If you play smart, mind your assignments and flow to the ball, you can minimize the effectiveness of the Spread.

Finally, to beat the "numbers" game, you need at least one dominant player on the defensive line. A player who demands that the offense commit two players to stopping him from disrupting the play. Effectively creating an 11 on 10 game.

There are those who would argue that players on offense are more talented than players on defense. I would disagree with that assessment. Sure, there is more glamor on offense, but for an elite college program, you must have elite players on BOTH sides of the football.

If the Spread is about matchups, and creating favorable mismatches, then stopping the spread is about match-ups and preventing unfavorable mismatches.

Now, how will Nick Saban stop the spread? Just take a look at the talent he has been recruiting on defense and you'll start to get the picture.