How often have you heard a coach or quarterback say, “We’re going to take what the defense gives us”? Alabama Coach Nick Saban has a little addition to that adage: “Keep taking what they give you, and eventually they’ll give you the game.”
Alabama and Nick Saban, of course, also are on the other side of that coin. The Crimson Tide defense has to give something to the opposing offense. It is a reasonable goal of every defense to try to take away what the opposing offense most would like to do.
The problem for many teams – probably most teams – is they don’t have the defensive personnel to take away one week what a power running team wants to do and the next week take away what a spread passing team wants to do.