Nick Saban highlights phases defense needs to clean up

Nick Saban has a bone to pick with Alabama’s defense early on this season. While the Crimson Tide are 2-0, they were very nearly upset on the road against Texas last weekend. The Longhorns were able to hang around and Saban highlighted one of the reasons why on Wednesday.

During his press conference, Saban said missed tackles hurt them last week in Austin. He wants his defense to put more focus on better tackling so offensive playmakers in open space can’t take advantage of them.

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

“We had a few missed tackles as a defense last week which we want to get cleaned up,” said Saban. “People have got to run their feet on contact when you’re tackling a good back that’s got power and can run through a first hit. We all need to do a better job of that.”

Alabama did hold Texas to 19 points on their home field. They totaled 69 tackles with seven tackles for loss and three sacks. The Tide also held Bijan Robinson and the Longhorn backfield in check with just 79 rushing yards. However, they did get loose in the passing game with five Texas receivers finishing with 20 or more yards.

The Tide were able to sneak away with this one. On top of that, a game like this is meant to show a team where they’re at and what they can fix. Still, Nick Saban sees this as the issue it is and wants to get it corrected before it costs them come conference play.

Saban explains the difference between mental errors and ‘doing your job’

Last week against Texas, Alabama did something no other team had done during the Nick Saban era. This season’s team committed 15 penalties against the Longhorns. Although mental errors could have contributed to those mistakes, Saban said that’s not the only reason.

He said players also have to, in his words, do their job.

Saban acknowledged the mental mistakes his team made against the Longhorns and said they’re fixable. However, he pointed more toward execution and players doing what they’re supposed to do. That, he said, is the most important takeaway from that game.

“It’s not just mental errors. Mental errors are all correctable,” Saban said during his Wednesday press conference. “It’s also focusing on the fundamental way that you need to do your job. Whether it’s hand placement when you’re blocking somebody, whether it’s hand placement as a defensive lineman when you’re striking a blocker, all those things help you have a chance to be successful on that particular play. Footwork, covering somebody, how you run routes, how you release, how you come out of the route at the top of the route.

“All those things, when you say ‘play smart,’ that means you’ve got to do it correctly. … So, that’s not a mental error, aight? That’s just a lack of fundamental execution and sort of buying into the fact that if I do this right, that’s going to give me the best chance to be successful. That’s just something that I thought we did fairly well in the first game, but we did not do nearly as well last week on the road. So, that’s something that we’ve got to develop consistency in.”