Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer acknowledged the obvious on Saturday following the Crimson Tide's first of two fall scrimmages, noting that with each impressive play in an intra-squad scrimmage, there's an accompanying bad one. By way of example, he pointed out that running back Jam Miller gashed the defense on the scrimmage's opening drive, and that he'd like to have seen better defensive gap integrity.
But while the brightside-downside nature of scrimmaging has universal application, every team has its own areas on which improvement is most needed. And therefore, scrimmages can either signal progress in a specific aspect of a team's play, or expose the lack of it.
From that perspective, Alabama got the best possible outcome on Saturday: no interceptions, and sound pass protection.
Ball security and pass protection were largely the scourges of a four-loss season for the Crimson Tide last year, and if UA is to improve on its record and reach the College Football Playoff's 12-team field in December, big strides in both areas aren't optional.
The scrimmage was closed to media, but afterward, DeBoer had this to say about quarterback play: "They've done a great job taking care of the football. No picks today. The completion percentage over the course of camp for all three has been in that range that we want. We'd like to have them at 65%. They've been consistent, and they're taking care of the football."
DeBoer added that he can only recall three interceptions in seven-on-seven or team drills through the entirely of fall camp to this point, and that can't be anything but music to the ears of Alabama fans. Former UA quarterback Jalen Milroe's biggest issue last season was turnovers. He threw seven of his 11 interceptions in UA's four losses, including some especially costly ones. He also was sacked 11 times in those losses as the UA offensive line struggled in pass protection, particularly at the right tackle position.
And when DeBoer was asked about the effectiveness of Alabama's pass rush in the scrimmage, he flipped the question into praise for protection. In scrimmage work, quarterback's aren't tackled to the ground to protect them from injuries, which makes pass rush evaluation somewhat tricky. Nevertheless, DeBoer made it clear that Alabama's pass rush didn't penetrate much.
"I think the offense does a good job of doing things to slow down the pass rush, to counter it. We know there are some guys who can get home, and you can't leave them one on one. There are some good schemes that will keep that in check to keep our quarterback upright," he said. "That's one of the staples, one of the most important things to our offensive success is being able to have that quarterback — not sit back and be completely comfortable — but you've got to keep them upright. You've got to have them out there. So I think the offensive line did a better job when there were one-on-ones."
So the UA defense didn't generate interceptions, and didn't get to the quarterback.
If you're DeBoer, you'll gladly take that as the inverse downside to reliable ball security and reliable pass protection on offense. UA's defense excelled at creating turnovers last season, and with a great deal of returning experience, it can likely be counted on to generate turnovers in 2025 once again. A no-turnover scrimmage for the UA defense isn't the red flag that a four-turnover scrimmage for the offense would be. Similarly, while the Alabama pass rush needs to be more productive this season than it was a year ago, it's more important for Alabama to keep clean pockets around presumed starting quarterback Ty Simpson.
Sure, every good thing about a scrimmage has a counterbalancing negative.
But for Alabama, the most crucial areas for improvement fell into place nicely.
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