Ole Miss Matchup Moment of Truth for Alabama's Defense
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It’s not that the Alabama defense is bad. Far from it.
The Crimson Tide haven’t exactly been dominant so far, but they haven’t really had many opportunities to prove themselves, either.
In its one game against a legitimate offense, West Virginia, Alabama gave up almost 400 yards of offense, including 365 through the air. The secondary was a big question mark coming into the season, and early on it still looked weak.
Games against Florida Atlantic, Southern Miss and Florida (one of the SEC’s worst offenses) have been nice opportunities to get things sorted out, but none posed a significant threat.
That changes this week.
Ole Miss boasts one of the top offenses in the SEC that’s putting up nearly 500 yards per game so far this year, including 335.5 yards per game passing.
It will be the season’s next big test for the Alabama defense and will show how far this secondary and unit as a whole have come since that first game.
One thing Alabama has going for it right now is the defense’s overall health.
Jarrick Williams is expected to be back from a foot injury, while Eddie Jackson is competing for starting reps after a quad injury. Jackson is expected to compete with true freshman Tony Brown for the second cornerback spot, after Brown’s starting debut against Florida.
The Crimson Tide have been missing pieces here or there for various reason so far this year but should have their full cast ready to go on Saturday.
They've also done some shuffling personnel-wise in the back seven to further shore things up. Jackson replaced Bradley Sylve at cornerback. Trey DePriest is back at middle linebacker, and the secondary has done some shuffling around in nickel and dime to maximize athletic ability.
| Jack | Xzavier Dickson | Xzavier Dickson |
| Mike | Reuben Foster | Trey DePriest |
| Will | Reggie Ragland | Reggie Ragland |
| Sam | Denzel Devall | Denzel Devall |
| Cornerback | Cyrus Jones | Cyrus Jones |
| Cornerback | Bradley Sylve | Eddie Jackson/Tony Brown |
| Free safety | Nick Perry | Geno Smith |
| Strong safety | Landon Collins | Landon Collins |
| Star | Jarrick Williams | Jarrick Williams |
| Money | Geno Smith | Maurice Smith/Nick Perry |
Ole Miss will present plenty of problems of its own.
Bo Wallace is now in his third year at quarterback and throwing the ball as well as he ever has. He’s averaging 317.8 yards per game passing and has thrown for 11 touchdowns.
On the perimeter, Laquon Treadwell is as good as any receiver in the SEC, and this year he’s already caught 20 balls for 307 yards and a touchdown. The 6’2”, 229-pound receiver presents some size that Alabama struggled matching up with against West Virginia.
“He's a very quick receiver, explosive,” Alabama safety Landon Collins said of Treadwell. “You get the ball in his hands and he can do basically anything with it. We have a lot of respect for him, and we're definitely going to look to him and not turn our backs to him because he can be a game changer.”
Cody Core and Vince Sanders are two other explosive receivers, and tight end Evan Engram, at 6’3”, 227 pounds, could create matchup problems as well.
“I think that any time a team has a guy that has the versatility that [Engram] has, it always creates problems,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “The guy lines up in the backfield, and then he lines up out at wide receiver. Sometimes you've got to have a linebacker on him. I always think that tight end is one of the most difficult mismatch guys. And he's certainly a quality player and a really, really good receiver.”
A lot of the focus on this game has been Alabama’s explosive offense against Ole Miss’ stout defense, but on the other half of the game is where we’ll find out what this Crimson Tide defense is made of.
It hasn’t been tested much this season but will get plenty thrown at it this weekend.
Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats come from CFBStats.
Follow on Twitter @marctorrence.
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