As I’ve been watching college football today, it’s abundantly clear to me that it doesn’t matter how good your offense is if you defense stinks.

You have all of these great offensive minds that coach all over the country, who are able to recruit special players to fit their systems but seem to forget the other side of the ball.

I don’t know whether those coaches don’t care about recruiting defensive players or if they have bad defensive coordinators but they are letting winnable games slip away.

Texas A&M is a perfect example.  They have a wonderful team on the offensive side of the ball but have little to no defense.

It’s not like Alabama has been the first team this season to expose this weakness either.  They really struggled against a mediocre Rice team and gave up 28 points and a ton of yards against Sam Houston St.  That should never happen when you are supposed to be a top 10 team in the country.  You should own inferior competition week in and week out.

You should never give them any kind of hope by giving up bad touchdowns.  As much as I would love Alabama to get beat today it isn’t going to happen against the likes of Texas A&M.

A&M isn’t the only good program with a less than impressive defense though.  Nebraska really struggled Against UCLA today, as they gave up over 500 yards of offense in an embarrassing 20 point loss at home.  The Bruins destroyed the Cornhuskers in the third quarter, scoring four touchdowns in an eight minute stretch.  The Nebraska defense has to be better than that if you expect to compete in the Big Ten.

Number 11 Michigan also struggled defensively in a comeback win against Akron.  They gave up more than 300 yards through the air as the Zips just missed pulling the upset.

Even a dominant team like Alabama needs to rethink some things if they expect to make another run at a National Title.  You can’t let a wide receiver get behind you in the fourth quarter when you are up two scores.  That Kind of mistake can be very costly.  I understand that Manziel and the Aggies have a great offense, but giving up 600 yards is just unacceptable.

I know defense isn’t a sexy part of the game but if you want to have a great team you need them to be successful.