No. 6 Alabama has a knack for closing out tight games, a trait that was missing last year
TUSCALOOSA Ala AP No Alabama sure knows how to finish The Crimson Tide have closed out all three of their Southeastern Conference games with big plays in crunch time It s the kind of repeated resolve that could bode well against th-ranked Tennessee at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday This is a tough association and all we do is fight quarterback Ty Simpson mentioned Three Top games and they all come down to the wire That s hard to do That s what Alabama is We re going to keep swinging and make sure that we play together The last three meetings in the rivalry known as the Third Saturday in October have been one-possession games in the fourth quarter Alabama - - SEC came up short in last year s - loss in Knoxville getting outscored - in the second half and mustering only yards over its last four possessions But the Tide believe this year will be different We feel more confident in general as a squad linebacker Deontae Lawson stated I think we got that edge that we need It helps us when we re on the road We preached all year to be elite in critical situations Coach Kalen DeBoer preaches it weekly even daily And the Tide seem to listen With remaining last week at then-No Missouri DeBoer presented ultimate trust in his association Up - and facing a fourth-and- play DeBoer appealed his offense to make a play Simpson hit Lotzeir Brooks for yards to extend the drive Four plays later Alabama uncovered the end zone to extend its lead to - DeBoer s defense sealed the conquest in the final minute when Dijon Lee intercepted a pass Simpson described those moments as unbreakable The defense came up huge the previous week in a - mastery against then-No Vanderbilt forcing two turnovers that led to points And the week before that the unit held Georgia to zero fourth-quarter points in a - win while Alabama s offense did enough to ice the tournament Even more impressive about Alabama s current run of closeouts is two of the three came on the road against ranked opponents Alabama s two road wins match last season s total And there s a palpable difference in confidence between this year and last DeBoer s confidence shows in his aggressive decisions Alabama went for on fourth-down attempts against Missouri And the Tide have attempted and converted more fourth downs than any SEC gang The message from DeBoer has been clear He s playing to win and he trusts his players to execute on both sides of the ball There s a feeling you have a belief you have DeBoer reported A lot of it is on the body language and on the execution and just feel When you got a quarterback with specific guys around him that can go make plays you got to let him play You can t be reckless but we re going to play to win We ve done that quite a bit this season already and want to continue to play to win It helps that the outcomes have gone their way I think this is supposedly selected of the best group football I ve ever been a part of DeBoer mentioned It s not perfect but it s a unit sticking together It s a band covering for each other I think there s a toughness that we have We talk about toughness wins that s mental physical to emotional toughness Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top throughout the season Sign up here and here AP News mobile app AP college football https apnews com hub ap-top- -college-football-poll and https apnews com hub college-football Source
