Alabama Football: Who has best shot to dethrone the Crimson Tide?
After a season-opening loss in South Bend, many wrote the Wolverines off and fired off columns about the beginning of the end for Jim Harbaugh in Ann Arbor. Rumors of the Maize and Blue’s demise were greatly exaggerated as Michigan has reeled off seven straight wins and figure to control their playoff destiny as we enter November.
Outside of a near miss at Northwestern, the Wolverines have been as dominant as anyone in the country this side of Alabama. No team other than the Wildcats has played them within two touchdowns, and Michigan’s latest dominant victories over Wisconsin and Michigan State have been their most impressive of the season.
It has been the play of the Michigan defense that has led them to such heights, with an overwhelming defensive front and even better secondary. If Michigan can navigate their way through Penn State at home this weekend, all roads appear to be leading to a showdown in Columbus against hated rival Ohio State with a spot in the Big Ten Championship game, and potentially the College Football Playoff, on the line.
How they could win
It remains to be seen how the explosive Alabama offense will handle a defense of Michigan’s caliber. We’ll get a better idea this weekend when the Tide battle LSU in Baton Rouge. Even then, the LSU defense is merely very good while the Wolverines unit has been great.
The Wolverines are stout enough up front, particularly if they can get Rashan Gary healthy, to take away the Alabama ground attack, forcing Tua and the Tide offense into obvious passing situations. Tua has been great in those situations, but the Wolverines have been the nation’s best pass defense so far this season.
Michigan’s offense hasn’t been great, but what they do well is take the air out of the football and keep opposing offenses on the sideline. Karan Higdon has been one of the nation’s best running backs and the Wolverines have been excellent on third downs this season. If they can get off the field enough defensively, they could ultimately wear down Alabama’s defensive front with constant body blows.
Why they won’t
In a lot of ways, this Michigan teams is similar to your typical Nick Saban team, pre Tua. Suffocating defense, ground-and-pound running game, and game-manager quarterback. All that sounds strikingly familiar.
The problem for Harbaugh and company is that those kinds of offenses, the power running teams with below average passing offenses, haven’t been able to break through much against Nick Saban defenses. In fact, Saban and company have feasted for a decade on one-dimensional offenses like Michigan’s. It’s possible that with Shea Patterson, the Wolverines could break out through the air at some point, but he hasn’t shown that thus far in Ann Arbor.
Also, as good as Michigan’s pass defense has been, they haven’t yet faced a passing offense that ranks in the Top 25 in passing yards per game, so Alabama would represent a different animal altogether.