Six, seven or eight seconds of defending a receiver will make even the best defensive backs occasionally look silly in coverage.
Against Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel on Saturday afternoon in College Station, Texas, covering receivers for nearly eight seconds may be the minimum for the Crimson Tide’s defensive backs.
Tide coach Nick Saban stresses that while Manziel is a talented runner, “athletically, he extends a lot of plays, but he extends a lot of plays to pass.”
Saban also noted the Aggies’ wide receivers do a good job of playing “scramble rules” by adjusting their routes when Manziel breaks out of the pocket.
“That’s what coach Saban talks about: Never take your eyes off your man,” safety HaHa Clinton-Dix said. “The minute you do, he’ll pop out-of-the-ground, and you know Johnny Football will throw the ball 40, 50 yards and complete a pass.”
Saban’s take: “I told our players, ‘There’s a lot of NFL games on Sundays. You want to watch the quarterback, go watch those games. But if you start watching this guy in our game, you’re going to get busted. It happened in our game last year.”
Clinton-Dix and his secondary mates experienced first hand how dangerous Manziel is if he breaks containment or if a receiver is able to pop open.
“He’s out there, he takes off running and you think, ‘Oh, maybe I can go get him.’” Clinton-Dix said. “Next thing you know he’s throwing the ball to your guy. It’s very important we stay locked in on our assignments.”
The experienced players have heard Saban and defensive coordinator Kirby Smart’s message enough times to fully grasp the meaning. But the Tide also will rely on young defensive players to contribute.
“Coach Saban does a good job of making sure that (young players) pay attention to what he wants them to pay attention to,” defensive back Vinnie Sunseri said. “He makes sure that you know exactly what’s on every single play. And if you know what to do on every single play, then you know who you have whenever the play breaks down and he starts to scramble around.”
The defensive linemen have their own instructions.
“Our strategy is to keep Johnny Manziel in the pocket as much as possible and try and keep good pass-rush lanes, try and keep him as a traditional quarterback,” defensive end Jeoffrey Pagan said. “When he gets outside the pocket, that’s where he makes the most plays. … It’s all about really our rush lanes and us staying in the right position.”
That the Aggies accomplish so much in the scramble mode while playing in a no-huddle, fast-paced offense also puts Alabama in a bind.
The Tide (1-0, 0-0 SEC) were helpless against it in the first quarter of last season’s loss to Texas A&M (2-0, 0-0) before catching on and nearly rallying from a 20-0 deficit.
“There’s obviously some things you can’t do, and you have to realize that you can’t do these things,” Saban said. “I think we’ve all adapted to it more and more because we play against these teams more. When you play against it once or twice a year, I think it’s a tough adaptation for the players. But we played against it eight or nine times last year. We’ll probably play against it at least that much this year, so it’s becoming more the norm rather than the exception.”
Saban caused a stir in October when he wondered aloud about player safety because of the offensive strategy: “Is this what we want football to be?”
Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin isn’t about to downshift.
“We’re going to go as fast as we possibly can,” Sumlin said. “I haven’t seen anything to support the player-safety argument. Anything that’s within in the rules, that’s the way football is. That’s any sport. Whether it’s baseball and you’re stealing bases or whether it’s basketball and you’re a fast break, full-court press team, that’s within the rules.
“Just because you don’t want to play that style doesn’t mean that that’s not the way the game should be played.”
Texas A&M wide receiver Malcome Kennedy said coaches have stressed tempo even more for this game.
“The offense is going to move very fast,” said Kennedy, who scored what proved to be the decisive touchdown last season. “Coach has already said that we’re focusing on tempo this week. Us being able to run and pass, and we know it got on their nerves last year.”
Texas A&M’s success on third downs kept the offense sprinting along last season — and Alabama’s defense on its heels. The Aggies had three first downs and two touchdowns on its five third-down plays in the first quarter of that 29-24 win. They converted on 11 of 18 tries.
Saban said the Aggies’ offensive prowess isn’t just about speed.
“To me, it’s not the scheme,” he said. “It’s not the going fast, it’s their ability to do those things and execute extremely well in terms of what they do. And their players have a lot of confidence in it, and they do a really good job of it.”
Saban said there’s no stopping Manziel from making plays. You just try not to let it happen because of defensive mistakes.
“That’s where the discipline part comes in,” he said.
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