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How Alabama's D-line became college football's most dominant unit

The images of Johnny Manziel dancing in the pocket and Trevor Knight evading the rush stick with you.

You close your eyes and watch Nick Marshall sprinting to his left before pulling up to pass.

You see Cardale Jones and Ezekiel Elliott running at will by the defense and on to the national championship.

The moments were few and far between in the grand scheme of things, but they came often enough in the past few years that they were impossible to forget. Alabama's defensive line, the impossibly big maulers and space-eaters we came to expect under coach Nick Saban, struggled in important games the last few seasons.