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The Tuscaloosa News
Alabama football pass rush must finally find groove vs. weak Oklahoma line | Goodbread
- Story byThe Tuscaloosa News
- Alabama football pass rush must finally find groove vs. weak Oklahoma line | Goodbread
The Alabama football pass rush hasn't been its usual dynamic self this season.
The Crimson Tide ranks 13th in the SEC in sacks at just 2.1 per game, and without the All-American-caliber edge presence that commonly anchors the UA defense, the front has failed to generate consistent pressure on quarterbacks without blitzing.
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The tonic for that just might be awaiting the Crimson Tide this Saturday.
Oklahoma picked a downright awful year to field a downright awful offensive line. For its first-year forage in the SEC, where dominant pass rushers grow on trees, the Sooners arrived ill-equipped with an offensive line that lost all five starters from 2023. The transfer portal was supposed to have come to the rescue, but as it turns out, four transfer patches from four different schools couldn't be stitched together to form instant cohesiveness up front.
Who knew? Who didn't?
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In terms perhaps more relatable for Alabama fans, the Sooners line has played all year about like Alabama's did in September of 2023: abominably bad. Also beset by injuries, OU has used seven different starting OL combinations across 10 games, none yielding answers to pass protection woes that have led to 41 sacks allowed, more than any line in the entire FBS (133 teams). South Carolina and Ole Miss each rang up nine sacks of OU quarterbacks in back-to-back weeks.
We're talking speed-bump quality pass pro here.
Five losses and a fired offensive coordinator later, the Sooners are preparing to host an Alabama team on Saturday (6:30 p.m. CT, ABC) that might or might not prove capable of taking advantage. It's been years since Alabama's defense last lacked a dominant pass rush presence on the edge, but Dallas Turner 's jump to the NFL last year left the 2024 Crimson Tide with a pressure-by-committee pass rush.
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And the committee hasn't always been present for roll call.
Inside linebacker Jihaad Campbell has blitzed his way to a team-high five sacks, and outside linebacker Que Robinson, out for the season with an injury, remains second on the team with just four.
"When you have the personnel to just simply rush somebody off the edge every single time, right, that might be one way (to pressure the QB). I think at times, we can do that," UA defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said. "I think our success in generating pass rush through creating multiple looks up front. And so we'll continue to do those things and mix some of the pressures that we're giving and mix some of the looks."
Wommack also mentioned the importance of identifying a particular weak link on an offensive line that can be exploited one-on-one. That shouldn't be any problem this week, but the question is whether Alabama has the personnel to expose OU's worst flaw.
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If so, Alabama should get out of Norman with a much-needed victory.
If not, the Crimson Tide might instead be the tonic the Sooners need.
Tuscaloosa News sport columnist Chase Goodbread.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama football pass rush must find groove vs. weak Oklahoma line
