Crimson Tide secondary ready for second chance

TUSCALOOSA (TNS) — After getting torched in the Iron Bowl by Auburn, Alabama’s secondary must put that behind them as another tough test in Missouri awaits today in the SEC Championship Game.

The Crimson Tide’s secondary gave up 456 passing yards, including completions of 34, 35, 42 and 68 yards. It’s the most passing yards the Tide has allowed all season.

“We know we could have played a lot better and we understand the mistakes we made and we’re working hard this week to correct those,” Tide cornerback Cyrus Jones said. “We came out Saturday with the win, but we’re looking past that. We understand this is the most important game of the season and that’s what we’re focused on.”

One player in particular who gave up some of the big plays was Tide cornerback Eddie Jackson, who guarded Auburn receiver Sammie Coates on both of Coates’ touchdown catches in the first half. Jackson was pulled at the start of the second half and didn’t play for the rest of the game.

“Everybody is on him about just staying focused, not getting too down on his self about last week because we still have confidence in him as a secondary,” Jones said. “I know the coaches still have extreme confidence in him, so it’s just kind of up to us to keep his mind right and just everybody has to come out with the right mindset on Saturday.”

Saban said most of the mistakes were because of poor technique.

“Whether it was eye control, not maintaining position on the receiver, not keeping a guy cut off, not playing the right leverage on the guy when you have help,” Saban said. “I think these things are technical in nature, and obviously we want to execute a little better than that. That’s how we correct things in the film, and that’s what we’ll do.”

Tide cornerback Bradley Sylve, who replaced Jackson, knows all about giving up big plays. Sylve entered the season as the starter at cornerback opposite Jones. After struggling in the season opener against West Virginia, he hasn’t seen much meaningful playing time. But Sylve stuck with it, and it paid off in the Iron Bowl when he was inserted back into the lineup.

“Bradley is one of the guys that I admire,” Jones said. “That was a tough situation with him starting the first game, then not really playing at all until the Auburn game. So it’s pretty much, he played in the first game during the regular season and didn’t play until the last game.

“So I just admire how he stayed resilient throughout the season and he was just ready to make plays when his number was called again. I admire him for that.”

Jones has been in Jackson’s position before. Last season as a first-year cornerback, Jones gave up big plays and had to deal with offenses repeatedly going after him. Now, Jones is the closest thing the Tide has to a shutdown cornerback. He said he enjoys when coaches throw at him and that he gets bored when he doesn’t get any action on his side of the field.

“Cornerback is a tough position because you have to have a short memory,” Jones said. “I mean, the best corners — All-Americans, Pro Bowlers, everybody gets beat. It’s going to happen. You just have to have a short play memory and just be ready for the next play because, I mean, you get beat and you get down and they come back at you the play after that, it’s tough. So you just have to be ready for anything.”

As for Missouri’s receivers, Jones said they present a different type of test from Auburn’s wideouts. Receiver Bud Sasser leads Missouri with 904 yards and nine touchdowns.

Based on what Jones has seen on film, he said the Tigers won’t blow by you with blazing speed, but they’re also not the most physical wide receivers.

“They’re not real speedsters like Sammie Coates or those types of guys,” Jones said. “They’ve got good size. They have decent speed and they know how to use that body well. So I would call them tweeners. They aren’t really going to be the eye-popping speed guys, but they’ve got skills to make plays when the ball is in the air.”

Jones said that when defending Missouri’s wide receivers, the Tide defensive backs must be honest and not overreact to one particular thing.

“You just have to play your technique the way it’s supposed to be played,” Jones said. “You can’t over-play one thing. I think last week, we kind of knew Auburn’s guys were going to try to go deep because they were fast and this week we really just can’t overplay one thing because they can do a lot of everything.”