The Alabama football team's season has been quickly turned on its side, and the Crimson Tide couldn't have had a more drastic turn of events in the past two weeks. In week five, Alabama hosted #2 Georgia, and the Crimson Tide downed the SEC favorite. They claimed the #1 spot in the country with the victory. How did they follow that up? With a loss against Vanderbilt – one of the worst teams in the SEC.

After beating Georgia, the Alabama football team looked like the favorite in the SEC, but now… not so much. The Crimson Tide's loss against Vanderbilt is about as bad as it gets, and the biggest reason why they lost the game is their defense.

The Alabama defense has major problems. They got torched by the Vanderbilt offense as the Commodores finished the game with 40 points, and that is not a good sign for the Crimson Tide as they have some much better offenses still on their schedule.

Former Alabama running back Mark Ingram was watching when the Crimson Tide went down against Vanderbilt, and he is aware that this defense is a major issue.

“Bama’s defense is in crisis mode right now,” Mark Ingram said during an episode of The Triple Option. “The last six quarters, 67 points, 784 yards, opponents are converting third downs at a 54% rate. They’ve allowed ten 20-yard plays.”

The second half against Georgia wasn't a fluke

Now that the Alabama football team lost to Vanderbilt and they gave up 40 points in the defeat, people are wondering what would happen if the Crimson Tide played Georgia again. Remember, Alabama got out to a 28-0 lead in that game against the Bulldogs, but they were dominated in the second half. The Crimson Tide found a way to get the win, but if Carson Beck didn't have his worst half ever in the first half, Georgia might've won that one easily.

One thing now seems clear: The second half of the Georgia game wasn't a fluke. This Alabama defense has issues.

“You thought that the second half of the Georgia thing might have just been Georgia, but no, that’s truly who the defense is right now,” Mark Ingram said.

Alabama has a very talented offense, but this defense has a lot of issues to fix. You know what they say, defense wins championships.

Alabama needs to get a bounce back week this Saturday as they will be taking on South Carolina at home. The two teams will kick off from Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa at noon ET on Saturday, and the game will be airing on ABC. The Crimson Tide are favored by 21 points.