Venables tells what Oklahoma has to do to stop ‘dangerous’ Alabama passing attack

Alabama football has one of the most efficient passing attacks in all of college football at its disposal with Ty Simpson at quarterback and a variety of weapons at his disposal.

Simpson has thrown for 2,461 yards and 21 touchdowns this season. Alabama has benefitted from the quarterback’s ability to put the ball in the hands of the Tide’s playmakers with five Alabama players currently having more than 200 receiving yards this season.

Brent Venables and Oklahoma are currently orchestrating a plan to slow down this efficient passing attack. Venables gave his thoughts on Alabama’s ability to pass teh football earlier this week.

“They’ve got explosive playmakers from one side of the field to the other,” Venables said. “They do a great job. The tight ends are included in that. They make a ton of plays as well, both in the underneath game and the vertical game, but they’ve got length and tremendous catch radius. I think that goes without saying. Their ability to catch the runners underneath is what makes them really dangerous as well. They get them involved in the screen game, but they’re hard to contain.”

The defensive-minded head coach feels his secondary has to play with the ‘right kind’ of leverage to defend the Tide’s wide receivers and tight ends.

“You got to put body on body and play with the right kind of leverage,” Venables told reporters. “If you don’t have the right kind of leverage based on where your help is, they’ll make you pay. The quarterback is, as I said, very accurate, but they know how to run routes. They’re very detailed in how they play the game.”

Venables will have his opportunity to slow down Alabama’s passing attack on Saturday.