What more could No. 3 Alabama’s defense do? How about forcing turnovers

Alabama defense gets opportunistic

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 3 Alabama’s defense scored on a fumble return, had a batted ball for an interception and doubled its forced turnovers on the season.

It’s the kind of opportunistic performance the Crimson Tide has been known for under coach Nick Saban, but hadn’t quite managed in the first four games. That doesn’t mean Saban was satisfied when the defense forced four turnovers in Saturday’s 38-20 win at Kentucky.

“He’s never satisfied. Ever,” said linebacker Rolando McClain, who had a hand in three of the takeaways. “He always feel like we can do better. That’s the motto we’ve taken: We can always do better. Turnovers wasn’t something we’ve been getting. We got four this game, but in our mind we should have gotten six or we should have gotten eight. That’s the way we take it.”

The Tide (5-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) had done everything but force lots of turnovers, getting just four in the first four games. The defense had contained dangerous quarterbacks Tyrod Taylor of Virginia Tech and Arkansas’ Ryan Mallett and been consistently stuffing the run.

Alabama ranks second nationally in total and rushing defense, 13th in scoring defense and 15th in pass defense. No. 20 Mississippi coach Houston Nutt, whose team hosts the Tide on Saturday, figures ‘Bama gets that much more dangerous when you add turnovers to the equation.

“Defensively is where they’ve just been manhandling everybody,” Nutt said. “Very few people have gotten very many points on them, and they get turnovers. That’s the thing you can’t have. Kentucky’s there, they’re fighting with them toe to toe 7-6, and all of the sudden the gates open up when you turn it over.”

Alabama forced 49 turnovers in Saban’s first two seasons and the defense is still averaging 1.78 in his 32 games.

That’s cause for concern for Nutt. Ole Miss quarterback Jevan Snead is coming off a three-interception game against Vanderbilt, though he has only five on the season.

Nutt said he might work with Snead on throwing the ball out of bounds or dumping it off to the running backs.

“We can’t force the ball especially against the team we’re getting ready to play,” he said. “That’s what they want you to do. They expect to get turnovers. They do a great job of getting the football and we just can’t do it. We can’t give up the ball to Alabama.”

As McClain indicated, Saban found plenty of issues for the Tide defense against Kentucky. The defense had allowed only 28 points in the previous three games.

The Wildcats ran for 133 yards, 8 more than Alabama had allowed against Florida International, North Texas and Arkansas combined. Kentucky’s 301 yards was also a season high against the Tide defense.

“Defensively, we didn’t stop the run as well as we’d like to,” Saban said. “We’ve got to get back to striking people up front and getting off blocks and playing gap discipline and tackling better.”

Then again, there was some good stuff. McClain poked the ball out of Derrick Locke’s hands and Courtney Upshaw scooped it up for a 45-yard interception return for a touchdown.

McClain also batted a ball into the air that was intercepted by Eryk Anders, and even kept an interception for himself. McClain returned it 21 yards to set up another touchdown in the third quarter.

“When we’re going against a team and we see individuals that don’t have good ball security, we pinpoint that and we try to take advantage of it during a play,” Tide cornerback Javier Arenas said. “That was the main reason why. I think it will carry on. If we see another guy that carries the ball real loose, we’re going to go after it.”

Alabama still ranks only eighth in the SEC in turnover margin, and 56th nationally. Forcing turnovers is always a big emphasis in practice.

“We’ve got a turnover drill each week at practice,” Arenas said. “We keep track of how many turnovers we get in practice. We follow it, we calculate it and we thrive on it. We know it’s a difference maker in a game.

“It was an emphasis, and I think it paid off.”

AP Sports Writer Chris Talbott in Oxford, Miss., contributed to this report.