On a mild day in Tuscaloosa, the Crimson Tide took to the practice fields for the first practice of Texas A&M week after a bye week. Here are the observations we found, with video at the bottom.
– Texas A&M may be coping with the loss of first round pick Damontre Moore on the defensive line, but the Tide is still going to large measures to prepare for its current defensive lineman. Alabama has scout team outside linebackers on duty to replicate Aggies defensive lineman Julien Obioha. Obioha, 6-foot-4 and 255 pounds, has excellent speed for his position and Alabama is clearly trying to replicate that as accurately as possible by using speedy linebackers over backups on the defensive line.
– On Alabama’s defensive line, the season-ending knee injury to Dalvin Tomlinson has made room for Darren Lake, Dakota Ball and Jonathan Allen, among others, to see more reps in practice. How Alabama will replace Tomlinson in-game has yet to be seen, but it will be easier said than done since Tomlinson was one of only seven players to account for four or more tackles against Virginia Tech.
– Zone coverage was a point of emphasis for the defensive backs, especially the safeties and nickelbacks. Nickelbacks were seen working on buzz zones (zones that cover the outside of the field, between the hashmarks and the numbers, roughly 5-10 yards in front of the line of scrimmage) and breakig on either screen or flat passes in front of them, or in or seam routes inside of them. Safeties were working on deep zones and worked on breaking on routes inside or outside of them.
Tempo was a big point-of-emphasis, as most of the passes for defensive backs to intercept in drills were thrown before the back even got to their assigned zone.
