DJ Dale addresses if Alabama's defense has played up to his standards this season

No. 2 Alabama survived a scare at Texas two weeks ago. Otherwise the Crimson Tide looks like its normal, dominant self under Nick Saban, right down to players remaining mostly unsatisfied with playing below the incredibly high standards the head coach has established.

Even players on a defense that currently ranks top-10 nationally in both scoring defense and total defense.

“I feel like overall we’ve played extremely hard and tough,” defensive lineman DJ Dale said. “We’ve met some of the goals we set for each game, but I feel like we have to play smarter. We made a lot of mistakes that I feel we shouldn’t make.”

If Alabama’s defense isn’t quite playing up to par, it’s hard to figure out exactly where it’s coming up short on paper.

Right now the Crimson Tide stack up as follows in the major defensive categories nationally: total defense, 7th (225.3 yards per game); passing defense, 8th (146.7 yards per game); scoring defense, 9th (8.7 points per game); rushing defense, 16th (78.7 yards per game); team passing efficiency defense, 17th (97.45 grade).

So what needs work?

“It’s been some discipline issues, but overall I feel like we’re getting better and we all understand what we have to do,” Dale said. “That’s what we’re working on.”

Alabama defense hoping to play to standards vs. Vanderbilt

The Crimson Tide will open conference play this weekend when it hosts the Vanderbilt Commodores in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Already with more wins than last season at 3-1, Vanderbilt has been quite competent under second-year coach Clark Lea. Enough to have Saban’s respect.

“There’s elements of option football in what they do and that’s not something that we see all the time,” Saban said. “So our players gotta have really disciplined eye control and when the point of attack moves, they’ve gotta be able to adapt correctly and everybody play responsibility football. That’s what it comes down to. They’re very capable of throwing the ball as well, so you’ve gotta play good pass defense and not give up explosive plays while you’re trying to do that.”

Vanderbilt ranks 21st national in scoring offense, averaging 42.0 points per game, powered mainly by the nation’s 29th-ranked rushing attack, which is producing 217.2 yards per game.

The two programs will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday with a broadcast on the SEC Network.