Alabama Football: Why the Crimson Tide, Not LSU, Will Run the Table

Defense wins championships.

Only once in the past seven years has a team won the national championship without an elite defense. Three of the last four champions have had defenses ranking in the top five nationally in either yards or points allowed per game, and Auburn’s Nick Fairley put on a dominating performance in the National Championship Game last year.

This is why Alabama will win the national championship. There are a minimum of three first-round draft picks on the defense alone—Courtney Upshaw, Dre Kirkpatrick and Mark Barron—and as many as three more could get in if they impress during workouts and at the combine.

The defense as a whole ranks first in the country in rushing yards allowed, pass efficiency defense, total yards allowed and points allowed per game. They’re also second in pass yards allowed per game and have forced 14 turnovers on the season.

No team has scored more than 14 points on the Tide this season and three times they held a team without a touchdown.

But if defense wins championships, offense wins individual games, and Alabama is sitting just fine in that category as well. They have the 11th best scoring offense in the country led by running back and Heisman hopeful Trent Richardson.

He is averaging 123 yards per game on the ground and is 11 yards shy of breaking the 1,000-yard mark already this season. They also have only turned the ball over eight times which ranks fifth nationally.

Obviously there is a major roadblock on the Tide’s quest for a perfect season today against LSU, but there is a reason Vegas odds makers have Alabama a five-point favorite in this game.

Despite the fact that the Tigers rank 12th in scoring offense, they only rank 81st in total yards per game, 79th in penalties per game and an abysmal 117th in red zone defense, allowing opponents to score 94 percent of the time.

The game today is also at home which should also improve Alabama’s chances of winning.

After that, the only tough test is against Auburn and that game should be an easy win considering how badly LSU beat them two weeks ago.

The SEC Championship Game would then be against either Georgia or South Carolina and neither of those teams have shown the necessary resilience to beat this talent Tide team.

That would get them into the national championship and the SEC has won the last five.

And of course, defense wins championships.

Their toughest test will likely be today but if Alabama gets through it like they should, a perfect season is well within their grasp.