Alabama remains college football’s best team until further notice. The arrival of Tua Tagovailoa and Bama’s intricate tailoring of a passing game to suit him has made the Tide scarier than ever, giving them their best offense under Nick Saban.

So this year, you’ve heard less about the Tide defense than usual. They are not their usual No. 1 in S&P+ this year, rather No. 8 instead, to go with No. 7 in yards allowed per play.

They’re still great. They still suffocate almost every offense they see. But they’re more of a fringe top-five D than the clear best in the land, and that’s sort of rare.

Coordinator Tosh Lupoi hasn’t already gotten a head coaching job like predecessors Kirby Smart and Jeremy Pruitt, when they were coaching in the Playoff the last few years. When people cower in fear at the word Bama in 2018, offense comes to mind first.

Bama’s (relative) problems on defense have to do with big plays. At the second and third levels, the Tide have some leaks. They are 45th in the country in Marginal Explosiveness allowed — 46th against the run, 35th against the pass. They’re 49th in 20-plus-yard plays allowed (54 of them). That’s a problem ahead of an Orange Bowl matchup with Oklahoma, which gets more of those plays than anyone else. (We can attribute a lot of this to the Tide having swapped in a whole new secondary this year.)

But make no mistake: Bama’s defense is still elite.

The ring leader is nose guard Quinnen Williams. The Outland Trophy winner is what that award says he is: the best interior lineman in college football.

A dominant nose isn’t supposed to have huge numbers. He’s supposed to draw double teams, take up space, free his teammates, and divert the offense from where it wants to go. We’re supposed to say he’s the most important player no one’s talking about.

Usual rules don’t apply to Williams. He has 25 run stuffs, ninth-most in the country, fourth in the Power 5, and first among tackles. The 295-pounder has eight sacks; no one in or near the 300-pound club has more, and only Notre Dame’s Jerry Tillery has as many.

Williams has done all of this against SEC blue chippers. Most of the players competing with him statistically are in Group of 5 leagues.

There’s more. What many viewers don’t often realize is that inside pressure is the most disruptive to an offense. Edge pressure is sexy, but interior pressure frustrates offenses more consistently.

A great first step is important. But he also has elite hands. Sure, he’s got an advantage over a center if he beats the guy to the punch. But just look at how quickly his hands are on LSU’s center, and then notice how Williams (No. 92) shoves him into the backfield.

Raw power.

Here, he’s not even fully set when the ball’s snapped, because LSU’s running at hurry-up tempo. Look at the force he brings to the left guard: attack ... shed ... tackle, just in time to prevent an LSU first down in short yardage.

He’s able to use his slippery body (as much as an interior lineman possibly can, at least) and his hands to beat blocks. Star Bama offensive lineman Jonah Williams calls Quinnen a “300-pound bar of soap.” The big man can get skinny for just a second, and that’s all he needs:

He makes the decision about where he wants to go, and then he makes it happen.

If you double team him? One blocker might sprawl backward, and the other might end up with his ass pointed toward the line of scrimmage as Williams wrangles the QB:

On this next play, Williams is blocked until he simply chooses not to be. He anticipates quarterback Joe Burrow’s scramble, and would have this taken care of this himself if a linebacker hadn’t come to help out:

They don’t give assists for interceptions. They should:

Sometimes, a player’s so good, you just chuckle:

The Tide are No. 1 in Sack Rate, getting them on 11.5 percent of opposing QBs’ drop-backs. That translates to 3.2 sacks per game for a net of 19 yards.

Most come from three guys: Williams (8), end Isaiah Buggs (9.5), and linebacker Christian Miller (7.5). But the pressure comes from everywhere.

Williams does the more customary nose tackle stuff as well, freeing up teammates to get numbers of their own. Here, he crosses the center’s face, and because he isn’t effectively blocked, the running back has to chip him. That helps out Buggs (No. 49):

Of course, Buggs is more than capable of getting the job done by himself:

And Miller? Well ...

Sometimes, you just have to hope these guys block each other:

Exhibit A of the closest thing Bama has to a problem:

Exhibit B, which shows both the possible benefit and the risk of trying deep shots against Bama. See the open receiver down the seam amid a trick play? Hope you get the ball out quick:

You know Oklahoma will try to take the top off the Tide with Kyler Murray.

The more interesting subplot is if the Sooners’ road-grading offensive line can do something similar to what Georgia’s did for part of the SEC Championship: whip the Tide at the point of attack. For the entire first half of the SEC Championship, that Bama line was getting pushed around.

Of course, football games tend to have two halves.

Oklahoma has an elite running (and passing) game, and it’s possible the Sooners will scheme up a way to do similar damage. If you’re overly worried for an OU line that has two All-Americans, won the Joe Moore Award, and held up more than fine against Georgia in last year’s Rose Bowl, you shouldn’t be.

His group taking on the OU line is as much a power-on-power matchup as there can be. Murray and Tagovailoa will be the matchup that gets most of the attention, but the one between Williams’ unit and the Sooners’ O line could be what decides it.