Alabama football’s pass rush was expected to be one of the nation’s most feared for the 2023 season. The Crimson Tide lost Will Anderson to the NFL, but still have Dallas Turner and Chris Braswell in an increased role.

Against Middle Tennessee State in the opener, the group looked solid. Against Texas, Alabama didn’t sack quarterback Quinn Ewers, who finished with 349 yards passing and three touchdowns.

On Monday, Nick Saban explained how the unit could improve after the 34-24 loss to the Longhorns.

“We didn’t have a lot of success, the kind of success that we’d like to have on third down,” Saban said. “And I think that’s something that we need to improve. We didn’t do a great job of covering them. Sometimes you get coverage sacks, so we didn’t cover them long enough that the quarterback couldn’t get the ball out of his hand quickly. We didn’t affect the quarterback in the game and we all need to improve on that.”

Texas did a solid job blocking Turner and Braswell Saturday. Turner only had one quarterback hurry, while Braswell had none.

Alabama hurried Ewers just three times throughout the game. On Monday, Turner said he and the group expects the focus on them to continue.

“Of course, me and Chris Braswell, a lot of other guys on the D-line,” he said of opposing teams’ focal points. “It’s gonna be a lot of max protect, seven in protection…Running back chips and stuff like that. Just different schemes to try and slow us down.”

Turner was asked about what the Crimson Tide defense can do better against South Florida on the road Saturday. He stayed fairly generic with his answer.

“Just put more pressure on the quarterback,” Turner said. “There’s schemes that we can put, pressure that we can put, all types of stuff.”

All isn’t lost for Alabama, something that Saban pointed out during his press conference and Crimson Tide players reiterated. UA goes to USF this week and has the chance to work out some of its issues before starting SEC play against Ole Miss.

Turner said Monday that Alabama is still building its identity as a defense.

“It’s still early in the season,” he said. “We still have a lot more time to create that identity we want to create as a team.”

He also said that success throughout the rest of the season will depend on the Crimson Tide doing basic things correctly.

“We know we have a good team and we know the standard that we’re supposed to play to,” Turner said. “So we just have to play to that standard in practice, walkthroughs, meetings, everything.”

Alabama and USF will play at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Tampa. The game will be aired on ABC.

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