The Alabama defense is “starving” for an end zone.

Alabama is one of only 18 FBS teams that hasn’t scored a non-offensive goal this season. However, their defense has been great at forcing turnovers.

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama— Alabama has had the best defense in the SEC at stealing the ball. So far this season, the Crimson Tide have caused 18 turnovers, which is tied for sixth best in the country.

Three of those 18 mistakes happened in Alabama’s most recent game, a 34-0 win over Missouri that ended in a shutout. This weekend, No. 11 Alabama goes on the road to play No. 15 LSU. The defensive coach for Alabama, Kane Wommack, hopes that his team can keep building on that performance.

“Coming out of the Missouri game there were things that (show) we’re taking steps in the right direction,” Wommack said last week. “I believe that our players are putting a lot of effort into protecting the ball right now.” Which is great, because I think we’ve learned 10 things from the last three games. These things are getting better on game day because our coaches and players are stressing them in practice.

The team hasn’t had much trouble forcing mistakes, but they haven’t scored on any of those turnovers yet. Of the 134 FBS teams this season, Alabama is one of only 42 that hasn’t scored a defensive touchdown. Alabama is one of only 24 college football teams that hasn’t scored a goal on defense or special teams yet this season. Alabama is one of those 24 teams.

Against Tennessee last year, Alabama linebacker Jihaad Campbell scored a touchdown on a fumble return. He also said that the defense is “starving” to score again this year.

Campbell said after practice on Tuesday, “I’m not going to lie, we’re hungry.” “We try to get rid of the ball in any way possible, whether it’s through a strip, a forced fumble, an interception, or something else.” We need to score a touchdown on defense and get the ball out of the hands of the offense. Anything that helps us do that will be great. We are really, really hungry.

Last season, Alabama scored three scores that weren’t offensive: Chris Braswell’s pick-six against Mississippi State, Campbell’s scoop-and-score against Tennessee, and Caleb Downs’ punt return for a touchdown against Chattanooga.

The Alabama defense will have chances to play against Garrett Nussmeier on Saturday. The LSU QB has thrown 20 touchdowns and nine interceptions, which is the most in the SEC. Wommack said he reminded him of Brett Farve, an NFL star who won the Super Bowl, was named NFL MVP multiple times, and led the league in touchdowns. However, Farve also threw the most interceptions of any player in NFL history.

“I think he’s an aggressive player, right?” said about Nussmeier by Wommack. “You literally live and die by the sword sometimes.” Our team will definitely be trying to take the ball away from other players. We need to show an adequate number of looks and shots and switch things up. Observe the quarterback. Cover your man. As we’ve seen with some really good players, you should do all the different things you can to make things confusing.

“The thing that makes us a defense is taking the ball away from people. Saturday night is when that needs to show up.