Nick Saban evaluates how defensive touchdown helped offense

When an offense isn’t clicking on all cylinders, it helps to have your defense and special teams come through with big plays. That’s exactly what happened for Alabama during Saturday’s 40-17 win over Mississippi State.

During the first quarter of Saturday’s game, Alabama was leading 7-0 when edge Chris Braswell dropped into coverage. Braswell picked off Bulldogs quarterback Will Rogers on a screen play and returned it 28 yards for a touchdown. It was a huge early play in the game as Mississippi State went from driving to try to tie the score to down 14-0.

Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban spoke afterwards about how important the play was.

“If you’re going to score on defense, you’ve gotta get turnovers. And Bras did a great job on that one,” Saban said. “We ran a pressure into the boundary. He was playing defensive end, he dropped to the field. I think it probably confused the quarterback a little bit. And he did a great job. Big play in the game.”

Alabama also controlled the field position for most of the game, thanks in part to punter James Burnip. The junior averaged better than 53 yards per punt, including a 67-yarder.

As the offense and quarterback Jalen Milroe continue to try to make progress, it’s important that Alabama continues to play well on defense and special teams.

“We had great field position early in the game. James had a 60-something yard punt or whatever, which was helpful,” Saban said. “I think scoring on defense is always something that players dream about, think about, always want to do. So it was good to see. Hopefully we can keep getting turnovers and not turning the ball over. We had a couple of balls on the ground tonight that we didn’t lose. So ball security is really important.”

Nick Saban believes Jalen Milroe will continue gaining confidence

Alabama is still working to become a complete team. In order for that to happen, it needs quarterback Jalen Milroe to continue to get better.

Saban said after Saturday’s win over Mississippi State that Milroe should continue to gain confidence as the season goes along.

“Well, I think he’s building more confidence every day,” Saban said postgame. “I think he’s played better in each game. And I think he’ll continue to do that as he gets more experienced. You know, I think we’re all a little smarter as we get older, because we have more experience. 

“So I think as he gains more experience, he’s going to gain more confidence. He’s very committed and prepares the right way and does the things that he needs to do to be able to play well in a game. I think as he gets more comfortable understanding defense, he’ll be able to make quicker decisions and he’s gonna be fine.”