Alabama's Playoff Hopes Rest with Its Ever-Improving Defense
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — There was a moment Saturday night when it felt like the University of Alabama’s season may have been hanging in the balance, and it had nothing to do with the scoreboard.
It was early in the second quarter when senior linebacker Reggie Ragland was on the ground grabbing at his left shoulder, which hadn’t been the one bothering him. Suffering a painful stinger, he briefly came out, only to return for the next series and drill Jeremy Sprinkle after the tight end made a first-down reception in the flat for no gain.
The message was clear: It’s going to take a whole lot to slow down or stop the No. 8 Crimson Tide (5-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference), especially with its defense prompting descriptions like tenacious, relentless and dominating.
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“We have a strong physical team, and any time we face a team like that, we have to play grown-man physical football,” Ragland said after Alabama celebrated homecoming with a 27-14 victory over Arkansas at Bryant-Denny Stadium. “Our team did that.”
With the midway point of the regular season having arrived, Alabama has found different ways to be successful so far, but any discussion about its chances of making a run at the SEC title clearly begins and ends with the defense.
Coming off the impressive 38-10 victory at the Georgia Bulldogs, it didn’t have a letdown.
Although Arkansas running back Alex Collins came in with 656 rushing yards and averaged 131.2 per game, his longest carry was just five yards en route to 12 carries for 26 yards.
Senior quarterback Brandon Allen had a little more success, but not much, and 54 of his 176 passing yards came on one play after the outcome was no longer in doubt and Alabama had started inserting reserves.
“Offensively, the story of the day was that we just couldn’t do anything with any consistency,” Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema said. “We couldn’t run it, couldn’t throw it and couldn’t convert the first downs the way we needed to.
“One thing about Alabama, their defense is unique to them.”
While the Crimson Tide’s defensive depth may be unparalleled, especially on the line, and the young secondary is getting better with each game, doing whatever it takes to have everyone playing well together is Ragland’s primary job—and it’s a responsibility he’s more than embraced.
That’s what Ragland means to the defense and what the defense means to the Crimson Tide’s outlook.
“This is when you find out who you are and how bad you do what you want to do,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said.
“Reggie played a really good game tonight; he had a lot of tackles, knocked down a couple of balls and was really a good leader out there. Reggie’s played well for us all year, and this was probably one of his best games.”
Although Ragland said he thought he did “all right—I’m my worst critic,” he was credited with a team-high eight tackles, a forced fumble, a pass broken up and two quarterback hurries. Overall, the defense tallied three sacks, four tackles for a loss, two turnovers, six passes broken up and nine quarterback hurries.
“I thought we had a really good game,” senior defensive lineman Jarran Reed said. “I thought we executed well again, and we played well as a defensive unit.”
Most of the first half was all Crimson Tide, who drove 80 yards on their first possession and 60 yards on their second, but they only had three points to show for them.
With senior quarterback Jacob Coker taking a hard hit as he threw a deep attempt to tight end O.J. Howard, the pass was picked off by Josh Liddell, and two possessions later an attempt to wide receiver Richard Mullaney was deflected and caught by Santos Ramirez.
It was Alabama’s ninth turnover in SEC play, compared to just four takeaways at that point (all against Georgia in the rain).
The first time the Razorbacks (2-4, 1-2 SEC) had the ball in Crimson Tide territory, at the 12-yard line after Ramirez’s return and an unsportsmanlike penalty on left tackle Cam Robinson, they scored on a play-action crossing route by Drew Morgan for a four-yard touchdown.
Despite having just 77 yards of total offense, Arkansas led 7-3 at halftime.
However, the prevailing feeling at Bryant-Denny Stadium was that if Alabama could get one break, one big play to give it the momentum, the result would be like watching a crack on a windshield get quickly out of control.
That’s exactly what happened.
For the second straight week, there was about a four-minute flourish in which Alabama not only broke the game open but essentially blew the doors off. It began on first down at the Alabama 19 when Coker connected on a deep ball to freshman Calvin Ridley for an 81-yard touchdown.
It not only sent Bryant-Denny Stadium into a frenzy but also caused Arkansas to make a desperate decision that backfired. After going three-and-out, punter Toby Baker took off on 4th-and-5 only to get stopped short of the first down by freshman Shawn Burgess-Becker.
Alabama quickly drove and scored on a three-yard touchdown catch by Mullaney, followed by a 35-yard field goal by Adam Griffith that was set up by an Eddie Jackson interception and running back Derrick Henry’s one-yard touchdown plunge.
Until the late score the Razorbacks’ longest drive was just 26 yards.
“All in all, I thought our defense played extremely well,” Saban said, and no one was going to argue the point.
Unlike last year when Alabama continually attacked Allen with five or six players, this time it went with more of a base approach, and the Razorbacks were still overmatched. It’ll have to go more nickel and dime next week at Texas A&M, where the Aggies will have had the advantage of resting on a bye Saturday.
“You have to be in shape to run all over the place,” Ragland said about stopping the Razorbacks. “Next week I really have to be in shape.”
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.
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