Alabama's Wilson altering opposing looks

That was the day a reporter asked Alabama football coach Mike Shula to put himself in the shoes of an opposing defensive coordinator and imagine how difficult it would be to slow down the Crimson Tide's passing game.

"I think that's the first time in four years anybody's asked me about a defensive coordinator being scared of our offense," Shula quipped.

"I know one thing, we've had some different coverages in the last couple of weeks."

The coverages -- starting three weeks ago against Florida -- have tended more toward two-deep schemes to inhibit the passing of John Parker Wilson to top targets DJ Hall and Keith Brown.

The first quarter of the season, defenses consistently packed the area between the tackles, hoping to outnumber and stuff Alabama's running attack and make Wilson hurt them through the air.

The sophomore from Hoover did it enough to alter schemes. In fact, Wilson will enter the Tennessee game Saturday with a school-record seven consecutive 200-yard passing games in the first seven games of his career.

"That's one of the things that's most important in our offense is me being consistent," Wilson said, "putting us in position to win and not making too many mistakes."

Wilson needed overtime against Ole Miss last week to get his 206 passing yards, but he did it to extend the streak. No other quarterback in the SEC, not even conference leader Erik Ainge of Tennessee, has managed to hit the 200-yard mark in every game this season.

"He's as good as any I've had," said Tide offensive coordinator David Rader, who has tutored NFL quarterbacks such as T.J. Rubley, Gus Frerotte and Brodie Croyle. "He has as many tools as they have. He has all the makings.

"Sometimes, when John Parker is pointed straight ahead, there's none better in the league right now. Every now and then he jumps lanes."

Wilson's jump from the gate as a starter, and the superior play of Hall and Brown, have forced defenses to adjust and the tinkering has created other openings. Tailback Ken Darby ran through a lot of them last week as he juked and jabbed his way to a season-high 162 yards on 25 carries.

"We've had some more two-deep coverages that have given us the ability to run the ball better, and KD's taken advantage of that," Shula said.

"I got the ball more," Darby said. "We started running more in the second half. Nothing changed except we started running more in the second half."

Darby powered for 141 of his yards in the second half, gashing the Rebels for runs of 21, 37, 14, 16 and 8 yards, along with handfuls of smaller chunks.

"Us up front, we've been taking more pride in staying on our blocks longer," center Antoine Caldwell said. "Earlier, it was more us than him (at fault). Even when we're mucking things up, he's made it work."

Darby's 25 carries last week were his second-most this season, and his 19 second-half attempts represented a season high.

"You just have to keep giving it to him and let him get it going," Rader said. "We kept thinking each game was going to be that way. I'm sure glad it came about. We've got a stretch of games here where he really needs to get it into gear.

"We'll give it to him again Saturday. Maybe it'll take him a little while to get warmed up. Hopefully it doesn't. We're playing a whole lot different level of defense."

For the first time all season, Alabama had more rushing yards (228) against Ole Miss than it had passing yards (206). On only one more occasion had the pass-run differential been less than 73 yards. The run-pass balance against the Rebels produced 434 total yards, the most for the Crimson Tide against an SEC opponent since it erupted for 489 yards in a 37-14 win at South Carolina last year.

"It was big because we've been doing a great job passing the ball," Hall said. "If you've got the running game and the pass on the same level, it's hard to stop."

Wilson acknowledged that teams have been forced to respect the pass.

"I think they kind of have to now, the way we've been throwing the ball, the way we've been producing in the passing game," he said. "Last week KD stepped up, and it's tough when you have both parts of your offense going. It's tough to stop."