Nick Saban gives insightful answer on playing defensive back, pass interference calls

Alabama‘s narrow 20-19 win over Texas was the most penalized game for the Crimson Tide during Saban’s tenure, as they had 15 penalties for 100 yards. Pass interference was one of the more frequent calls of the day, and Saban was asked about what he saw on film from his cornerbacks regarding pass interference and them giving up some explosive plays.

“One guy got beat deep, just like everybody I see the same thing you see, so the guy outran him, he didn’t play great technique, didn’t keep the guy cut off so he could control his speed, gave up a big play,” Saban said.

Saban went in depth about the pass inference penalty, and how as a defensive back it is difficult to defend passes without contact, especially on back shoulder throws that are now a lot more common in the game.

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“Pass interference is tough man, it’s a tough call because back shoulder throws make the defensive player have to look through the guy when he turns his shoulders back,” Saban explained. “And when you look through the guy and you create contact they sometimes call pass interference, sometimes I think the guy played it well and it’s pass interference, there’s other times when I think it could’ve been pass interference that it doesn’t get called.”

Saban elaborated on the difficulty of the current nature of officials calling pass interference, speaking on the 50-50 nature of the call versus some clear cut examples of defensive holding that occurred in Saturday’s game.

“So it’s one of the most difficult judgment calls probably in football, I’m not criticizing anybody, I’m just saying it’s very difficult. But I don’t think the guys really played it any different than what we want to play it, now we got a holding call in the red zone, it was holding, I mean a guy was holding a guy, that’s off the line of scrimmage not on the throw,” Saban said.

Saban did not even mention pass interference regarding deep passes, that in the current game are often seen as a coin flip between an explosive play and a big penalty and an automatic first down if drawn by the wide receiver. But he did circle back to the difficulty of defending and calling penalties on back shoulder throws.

“Playing the ball is important, but you gotta play the back shoulder throw too, so when you turn into the guy sometimes there’s contact create and that’s one of the things that is really difficult to make judgment on,” Saban said.

Saban has experience playing and coaching defensive backs for a long time, and it sounds like he doesn’t plan on changing how he coaches the technique of his defensive backs despite how the game has changed regarding pass interference. It’s a penalty in the game that’s one of the most difficult to make a decision on in real time for a referee, and Saban seems to understand that and, in a way, come to terms with it.