FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.– They say a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, but a faceful of a Georgia linebacker’s fingers helped Alabama’s Jonah Williams tap into a rarely-seen side of the All-American left tackle.

Two plays after the linebacker’s 15-yard penalty for illegal hands to the face, Williams, still fuming, escorted a different Bulldogs linebacker 15 yards downfield, landed on him, and wildly pumped his fists as running back Josh Jacobs nearly scored.

“I had my helmet shoved off my head and a finger in my eye and I couldn’t see anything,” Williams said. “Anytime you have a hand in your face, as a man you feel a little angry. … A lot of times you don’t want (to play with) emotion, but in that case it was good.”

Williams, who has started 42 consecutive games for the Crimson Tide, is mostly renowned not for nastiness or fiery play, but rather for his cerebral and analytical approach to the game.

After Alabama’s win against The Citadel, Williams said he views each game as more of a surgery than a fist fight. He explained one of the team’s methods for measuring offensive efficiency: First-and-10 plays must gain four yards, second-down plays must gain half of the remaining yardage, and third- and fourth-down plays of course must convert the first down.

At Orange Bowl Media Day on Thursday, Williams again flashed his mathematical mindset while explaining another metric.

“That takes into account penalties, interceptions, fumbles, dropped balls and sacks,” Williams said. “You add up all of those and then divide that by the total number of plays, and you want a percentage of 12 percent or lower to be considered efficient. Those are considered errors and if you have a lot of those types of errors, then overall you’re not going to be very efficient.”

In the SEC Championship Game against Georgia, Alabama’s error percentage was a season-high 19 percent. In its Iron Bowl win the previous week, it was a season-low 5 percent.

Freshman offensive lineman Tommy Brown said he can still learn a great deal from Williams even though he usually keeps to himself.

“Watching Jonah every day, I just try to emulate what he does day in and day out,” Brown said. “We all know how good Jonah is, and I’m sure he knows it too, but he still goes to work every day and works just as hard as anyone else.

“If he takes an inch of a step wrong, he’s mad. He doesn’t accept anything less than perfection, just like Coach Saban.”

That pursuit of the unreachable standard has propelled Williams near the top of the totem pole of offensive linemen under Nick Saban – as well as to the top of NFL draft boards. He was hailed as a future top-10 selection as early as his freshman season, but offensive line coach Brent Key has seen continued improvement over the three years he has coached him.

“This year I think he’s playing with a lot more power,” Key said. “He’s playing with power, getting movement, and he’s really developed an edge to him in finishing blocks. He takes a lot of pride in finishing blocks and getting extra blocks downfield.”

Case in point: Flattening the Georgia linebacker.

Closely scouring game film for imperfections has also honed Williams’ knowledge of other facets of the game. Couple that with the fourth-most starts of all Alabama O-linemen under Nick Saban and the result is one of the best offensive tackle prospects in several years.

“He knows the moves the defenders are going to do before they do them – that’s how much he studies the game,” Key said. “And then his big-picture knowledge of the game has improved a lot, like knowing the coverage (the defense is) playing and how that dictates what’s going to happen in the front. He’s the total package when it comes to an offensive tackle.”