Alabama Football: 3 takeaways from Tua-less win over Arkansas

2. Alabama’s defense is still good enough to carry the load

Alabama’s defense has been much maligned all season long. To be fair, this is far from a vintage Nick Saban defense, but the young Tide unit continues to grow each week and still has plenty of talent to carry the load when the offense might not be rolling full speed.

It’s easy to blame the Arkansas offense for the issues it had, but that would be short changing the Crimson Tide’s defense that created a lot of havoc plays all night and forced the four first half turnovers that doomed the Hogs.

Edge-rusher Terrell Lewis was constantly in the backfield, forcing five quarterback hurries during the first half, the last of which led directly to the pick-six by Diggs near the end of the half that ended any shot Arkansas had of making it a closer game.

Patrick Surtain and Anfernee Jennings also ended up with interceptions, and freshman linebacker Christian Harris recovered a fumble and nearly housed it, but his return ultimately set up the first touchdown of the night for the Tide’s offense.

Alabama’s defense has been better than credited for all season, entering Saturday night’s game ranked seventh in SP+ defense, and 13th in yards-per-play defense. With five freshmen playing major roles on the defense, there was bound to be growing pains, but each of the freshmen continue to grow as the season progresses.

This isn’t a vintage Alabama unit, but the Tide defense still has sharp enough teeth to shoulder the load from time-to-time.