Alabama football’s defense had problems against the Vanderbilt offense all game.
As a result, the Commodores upset then-No. 1 Alabama 40-35 on Saturday in Nashville. Six of those 40 points were from a pick six.
Vanderbilt converted 12 of 18 third-down attempts against a Crimson Tide defense that was ranked second in the country in defending third downs.
It wasn’t for a lack of trying to adjust. Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said Monday some plays from Vanderbilt in the first half weren’t previously on film.
“Some things they were doing out of on-ball tight end pictures, off-ball tight end pictures,” Wommack said.
So Alabama tried to adapt based on what Vanderbilt had introduced.
“We made some adjustments with our front and some things we were doing with our defensive ends, in terms of assignment responsibility,” Wommack said. “That helped us out on first and second down. Got them to a number of third-down situations, where we didn’t execute and get off the field.”
Wommack praised Vanderbilt for withholding certain plays until later in the game.
“So they would throw new wrinkles in consistently throughout the game, which kept us in a constant pursuit of adjusting to what they were doing,” Wommack said. “I thought they had a really good game plan in that regard.”
Failing to get off the field on third down also hurt Alabama in the chess match. That only allowed more opportunities for Vanderbilt to introduce more wrinkles.
“You could point to probably 8-10 different third-down situations where if we just get off the field right there, we’re having a very different conversation about how we played,” Wommack said.
Vanderbilt gained 26 first downs and had more than 42 minutes of possession on offense. That resulted in 418 yards for the Vanderbilt offense with no takeaways.
“When we don’t get any of our keys to victory done and we don’t play with ‘Bama fundamentals, that ultimately falls on me as the defensive coordinator,” Wommack said. “It’s my responsibility to make sure we get our players to play at the highest level possible, and to become the best versions of themselves on gameday, and we did not get that done on Saturday.”
