By outreach@cw.ua.edu (Tyler Waldrep)
Alabama defensive lineman Jonathan Allen dropped his head early in the third quarter when USC quarterback Max Browne’s passed slipped through his fingers. At the time, the Crimson Tide led by 18 points.
After the game Allen said he would’ve loved to hold on to that pass but he was happy with
No.1 Alabama’s 52-6 victory over No.20 USC.
“It’s one of those things you’re never ready for, but I was just happy to bat the ball down,” Allen said. “But defensively we had a gameplan coming in and I feel like we did a heck of a job executing and that’s the most important thing.”
Despite the lopsided score Allen and Alabama coach Nick Saban were quick to remind people that this team has a long way to go.
“So I can make a long list of things that we could do better,” Saban said. “And, at this point of the season, that’s where the focus should be. So you can win the first game and lose the next 11, and that’s not our plan. So we need to improve.:
One area on defense that Saban said needed to change was the number of players that rotate in on the defensive front seven. The Alabama coach said he had 15 to 17 guys that played a role along the front last year, but this team isn’t there yet.
“The little guys out there, they can run 100 yards and be tanked on the sidelines and two minutes later come back up and say, ‘coach, I’m ready to go,’ and run just as fast as they were before,” he said. “But when the big guys run out of gas, that tank is not getting refilled until tomorrow.”
Those big guys were asked to keep it close early as the offense finished the first quarter with a single first down and only 12 yards of total offense. The defense’s lack of rest in the first quarter, didn’t keep the game’s sack leader- Allen with two- and the rest of the defense from recording all three sacks in the first 17 minutes of play.
USC 46-yard drive for a field goal quickly became the exception and not the rule as it took the Trojans the remainder of the first half to move the ball an additional 46 yards.
“Our game plan is always to dominate the line of scrimmage and make them one dimensional and after we make them one dimensional you can definitely get pressure on the quarterbacks,” Allen said. “So that was our gameplan and I feel like we did a good job doing that.”
Source:: The Crimson White Sports
