Alabama Football: Defense doing their best offense impression

There are 11 days till college football season, and today is all about the Alabama’s defense and their nose for the end zone.

Alabama football is built on defense. But when you say a team is built on defense, you’re usually referring to them shutting out the opposing team’s offense. And while Alabama did shut down opposing offenses, they also outscored them on their own at times.

Alabama allowed 13 points per game last season, which was the best in the nation. But their defense and special teams also scored 6.5 points per game, which may not sound impressive, but the next best team in the SEC’s defense and special teams scored 3.4 points per game. And that leads us to no. 11 on the Southbound and Down College Football Countdown.

Alabama scored 11 defensive touchdowns in 2016, most in the nation

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Alabama’s 11 defensive touchdowns were the most in college football by a wide margin. Ohio State was second in the country with seven defensive touchdowns, while Florida was second in the SEC with five. And that’s not even including the four punt return touchdowns that Alabama scored.

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The Crimson Tide scored a non-offensive touchdown in each of their first eight games of the 2016 season. In fact, Alabama would’ve gone 4-4 in their first eight games had they not scored one offensive touchdown.

Opponents’ offenses narrowly outscored Alabama’s defense 119-84 in those eight contests. To put that into perspective, Alabama actually outscored their opponents 351-119 in those first eight  games.

The Alabama football program runs like a well-oiled machine. While they did lose six starters from last year’s defense, including Eddie Jackson and Jonathan Allen, who scored 5 of those 11 defensive touchdowns, the Crimson Tide’s defense will likely be dominant again in 2017.

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They might not be 11-defensive-touchdowns-dominant, but expect the Crimson Tide to have the best defense in the SEC again this season.