The attack on Alabama is now as terrifying as its defense

The engine that has propelled college football's pre-eminence over the past decade has generally been a multi-faceted, pressure-driven, blue-chip defense. In Tuscaloosa, where Nick Saban has been leading the Alabama Crimson Tide since 2007, this engine has only gained momentum in recent years. Winner of 87.2% of his games and five national titles since the diminutive, Alabama is the only program to qualify for the college football playoffs in each of the first four years.

Much of this sovereignty is attributable to the great historic fortresses that Alabama closes with its terminal area. There have been six cases since 2007 of a team holding opponents to five touchdowns or less during a full season. Alabama has four. Some have even claimed that the stock of men aged 18 to 22 on the team could be competitive on Sunday. Despite unsubstantiated claims, Tide has sent more talent to the NFL than any other team in the past decade. Since Saban's arrival, 41 Crimson Tide members have been selected in the first two rounds of the NFL draft. More than 60% of this pool came from the defensive side of the ball. The 11 defensive starters of Alabama Opening of the 2016 season have been selected in the last two versions.

However, four matches of the 2018 season, all we can talk about is the Crimson Tide offense – and for good reason. It seems that Saban finally has an offense as ostentatious and dynamic as his defense, a development appalling for the rest of the country.

Led by quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and led by Mike Locksley, the first-year offensive coordinator, Tide's offensive hits the competition like a tsunami. Alabama outshot its four opponents by an average margin of 41 points. The Tide played 16 football quarterbacks and failed in just two to put more points on the scoreboard than his opponent. In both cases, it was the fourth quarter of the loss. <A class = "espn-footnote-link" footnote-id = "1" href = "# fn-1" data-footnote-content = "

A 7-7 draw in the fourth quarter against Louisville when Alabama led 44-7 in fourth place, and the last period of his loss to Texas A & M, when he scored a touchdown with 45-16.

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Locksley's attack was so devastating that Saban, an inquisitive, well-established man who ignored points of style, urged the press to "look at some things we had not done so well" after the victory of 22 points on No. 22 Texas A & M One can only be satisfied with one unit with an average of 53.8 points and 539.5 yards, after all.

Alabama's offensive efficiency – a metric from 0 to 100 that controls the quality of the opponent and the "loss of time" – is 98.02. This is the highest score of any team measured by ESPN Stats & Information since Saban's arrival. Its defensive efficiency of 94.24 ranks fourth since 2007, behind the current Georgia team and two other versions of Bama. According to the College Football Reference simple ranking system, Alabama has 49.71 points more than the average team of the Subdivision Football Bowl this season. However, in Saban jargon, "our team has to do a lot of things to improve."

Tagovailoa interfered in Alabama last season when, as a rookie, he was integrated into the national championship game after half-time and led the Tide to a victory over Georgia in overtime. Now the favorite for the Heisman Trophy, Tagovailoa played as a video game character in his second year with 1,033 passing yards, 14 total touchdowns and zero interception. He can put a ball on the chest of a full sprint receiver 40 yards of field and Houdini bypassing the pretenders tackling him in the pocket – run and improvise. ESPN has calculated the total quarterback score, which seeks to evaluate the quarterback game on a scale of 0 to 100 while adapting to the strength of the opposing defenses encountered since 2004. The left-handed Hawaiian is in line to produce the best single-digit season ever – by almost four points.

For years, Alabama's offensive plan appeared to be a 1980s relic: throw the ball in the first downs, try a short-to-moderate pass, and move the chains or kick to play the field game. It was a Ritz Cracker attack that, at times, seemed premeditated to completely suck the entertainment. It worked: Alabama had 11 backs and 13 offensive linemen in the last 12 years.

However, this bland pace does not manifest itself under Locksley. Considering that the second half of Alabama matches was largely a formality, the Tide outshot their opponents 148-20 in the first 30 minutes. Alabama takes flight on 53.9% of matches, ranking it 38th in the country. This score is 13.9 percentage points higher than the average of last season, which ranked 110th overall. At the first and second setbacks, Alabama's success rate was 40.5%, compared with 34.5% the previous season. Compared to previous seasons under Saban, this year is an obvious aberration, as the Indiana Pacers suddenly learn the value of three-point shooting.

"(Locksley) is doing a really good job mixing the race, the pass, the screens," Hale Hentges said. "And it makes a very natural flow to all our parts and that's what allowed us to succeed. … He is an offensive genius.

What was once almost always the second, Mark Ingram, was replaced by disturbed sequences of Tagovailoa, avoiding a passing race to launch a rocket at the back of the end zone for a touchdown.

Alabama has already tried 17 passes that have run at least 20 yards, online to finish the regular season with 51, according to data provided by TruMedia. Last season, the team recorded 50 games in 14 games. Only Hawaii (with 27) has counted more passes over 20 yards this season than those from Alabama 25. In turn, the Tide ranks third in the points expected on passes (79,34) and second of the adjusted expected points (98.2). , according to data provided by TruMedia.

"We feel like a group, collectively, when we go out, we are unstoppable," said receiver Henry Ruggs III.

Unstoppable is not far. Alabama scored a touchdown on 48.1% of its readers, the highest rating of any SEC team. The Locksley unit has only gone three times and eight times, in line to produce the lowest percentage of 15.4 percent by an Alabama attack since the arrival of Saban by almost three points, according to data provided by ESPN Stats & Information.

The assault on points did not go unnoticed by experts like Kirk Herbstreit and Tim Tebow, who knows something about leading an explosive offense to the SEC. Both said that this year's Alabama offense had the most important qualities in the program's history. Alabama more just chokes his opponent with the defense; in 2018, his offense bears the account.