Alabama in Familiar, but Infrequent Regular Season Situation

A look back at how the Crimson Tide responded the last five times it played in the regular season following a loss.

There are only five times in the last decade that Alabama football has played a regular season coming off a loss. The last two times (2021 and 2019) have been against Mississippi State, and the Bulldogs will once again be the opponent this Saturday 6 p.m.

With No. 24 Mississippi State set to come to Bryant-Denny this weekend after Alabama lost on a last-second field goal to Tennessee last Saturday, it's a familiar scenario for the Crimson Tide. 

"We’ve been in this spot before," said left guard Javion Cohen. "That’s one thing that we all know. We all of course did not want to lose Saturday, but we’ve been in this spot before. There’s the 24-hour rule, so once the 24 hours are up, we’re on to the next week. It’s Mississippi State this week. We want to focus on getting back to the Alabama standard and playing as hard as we can."

Outside linebacker Will Anderson Jr. said Monday that he's confident the team can turn things around.

"After the game on Saturday, I heard a lot of guys say ‘we know this feeling, we know how to bounce back,'" Anderson said. "And a point of emphasis I made yesterday was ‘I heard a lot of guys after the game saying we know what this feel like, we know how to turn this around. But do we really know how to get through this? Do we know what it takes to fail? Are we willing to get over this hump?’ And I think today, at workouts this morning, the guys had a lot of energy, they were enthusiastic, and I think we’re going in the right direction.”

Alabama hasn't lost back-to-back games since 2013 when the regular season ended with a loss in the Iron Bowl on the Kick Six followed by a 45-31 loss to Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl. It hasn't lost consecutive regular season games since Nick Saban's first season as the Alabama head coach in 2007.

Here's a look back at the last five regular season games Alabama's played in after a loss and how the Crimson Tide bounced back all five times.

(Note: Alabama has lost more than five times in the regular season since 2012, but three of those came to Auburn at the end of the regular season in 2013, 2017 and 2019.)

Oct. 16, 2021- Statement in Starkville: Alabama 49, Mississippi State 9

(after 41-38 loss at Texas A&M)

Bryce Young leads the Alabama offense at Mississippi State in 2021 / Alabama Athletics

Fresh off a last-second defeat at Texas A&M where the defense had given up a season-high 41 points, Alabama was right back on the road in Starkville, Mississippi. The Crimson Tide's two road games earlier that season had been the loss to Texas A&M and a narrow two-point win at Florida. 

There was nothing close about Alabama's victory at Davis Wade Stadium that night as the Crimson Tide shut down the cowbells early. Bryce Young and John Metchie III opened up the scoring with a connection over the middle that Metchie took 46 yards to the end zone. Alabama got a little help from the defense with a pick-six from Jordan Battle to go up 14-3 in the first quarter and never looked back.

Running back Brian Robinson Jr. scored three total touchdowns, and Young had 348 yards and four touchdowns through the air en route to a dominant 49-9 victory. For the second consecutive season, the Alabama defense kept Mike Leach and Mississippi State's air-raid offense out of the end zone, only allowing the three field goals. 

"There’s a lot of culture in the program here that our fans, our former players, people in the organization, people in the university, expect us to compete at a certain level," Saban said after the game. "We call it the ‘Bama Standard, so I thought that's we did that. We did it for 60 minutes.”

Alabama went on to win the rest of its regular season games in 2021 and carried that momentum to an SEC championship game win over Georgia before eventually losing to the Bulldogs in the College Football Playoff national title game. 

Nov. 16, 2019- Tua's Last Snap: Alabama 38, Mississippi State 7

(after 46-41 loss to No. 2 LSU)

Jerry Jeudy at Mississippi State in 2019 / Gary Cosby Jr.-USA TODAY NETWORK

Even though this game ended up being a big win for the Crimson Tide, it was mighty costly. The 38-7 win over Mississippi State was the last appearance quarterback Tua Tagovailoa would ever make in an Alabama uniform. 

Coming one week after an epic battle with the eventual 2019 national champions LSU, the Crimson Tide went into Starkville a little banged up, but still with College Football Playoff aspirations. It appeared like Alabama was still on track, jumping out to a 35-7 lead in the first half. However, those aspirations quickly disappeared when Tagovalioa went down with a season-ending hip injury. 

Tagovalioa and Najee Harris were on a roll, building up the 28-point lead for the Crimson Tide. The Alabama coaching staff decided to send out the first-string quarterback for one final series before the half so he could run the two-minute offense. On that series, his hip was crushed by two Mississippi State defenders. 

With Tagovalioa out, Alabama only scored three points in the second half, but it was more than enough as the Alabama defense limited Mississippi State to the one touchdown in the 38-7 win. 

Alabama won its cupcake game the new week against Western Carolina, but without Tagovailoa at Auburn, it lost the Iron Bowl 48-45, officially knocking them out of the playoff for the first time since its inception in 2014. The Crimson Tide went on to win the Citrus Bowl 35-16 over No. 14 Michigan. 

Sept. 26, 2015- Shutout Secured, Quarterback Situation Settled- Alabama 34, ULM 0

(after 43-37 loss to No. 15 Ole Miss)

Damien Harris rushes against Louisiana-Monroe in 2015 / Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

Through three games in 2015, Alabama had been bouncing back and forth at quarterback between Jake Coker and Cooper Bateman. It was costly for the Crimson Tide in Week 3 with a 43-37 loss to Ole Miss. 

By the time the Week 4 rolled around, Saban had a decision to make. He went with Coker, and it ended up being the right one. In Louisiana-Monroe's first appearance at Bryant-Denny Stadium since shocking Alabama in Saban's first season, the Warhawks were no match for Alabama that September Saturday in 2015. 

Coker threw for 158 yards and three touchdowns, and the defense pitched its lone shutout of the season. Alabama's backfield that day featured four future NFL running backs (Kenyan Drake, Derrick Henry, Damien Harris and Derrick Gore.)

The win over the Warhawks was the start of a 26-game win streak for the Crimson Tide that carried over into the next season. As the underdog, Alabama famously handled No. 8 Georgia on the road 38-10 the next week on the way to the 2015 SEC and national championship.

Oct. 11, 2014- Alabama Survives Arkansas- Alabama 14, Arkansas 13

(after 23-17 loss at No. 11 Ole Miss)

Beth Hall-USA TODAY Sports

On a wet, rainy day in Fayetteville, the Crimson Tide did just enough to bounce back from a disappointing loss at Ole Miss the week before. 

With the wet conditions, Alabama had trouble keeping the ball secure and fumbled on two punt returns. However, the Hogs also fumbled twice, and Alabama capitalized on the second with a 22-yard touchdown catch by TJ Yeldon from Blake Sims. Trailing in the fourth quarter, Sims found DeAndrew White in the end zone to give Alabama a 14-13 lead, which would hold as the final score. 

"Obviously, our team was very disappointed and responded well, I think, to what happened a week ago," Saban said after the win. "It's tough on the road in this league, and our division is really, really difficult. There's no easy games."

Alabama closed out the 2014 regular season on a winning streak but lost to eventual national champion Ohio State in the semifinals of the inaugural College Football Playoff. 

Nov. 17, 2012-  Regrouped and Refocused- Alabama 49, Western Carolina 0

(after 29-24 loss to No. 15 Texas A&M)

Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

If Alabama was still dazed from the Johnny Manziel mania that had swept through Bryant-Denny Stadium the week prior, it didn't show against Western Carolina. 

The Crimson Tide showed why it was the defending national champions with a resound 49-0 win over the Catamounts. With a lesser quality of opponent, Alabama had no issues refocusing and rebounding after the loss. 

Starting quarterback AJ McCarron only attempted six passes, but he was perfect on all six, and that's all that was needed. Alabama racked up 300 yards and five touchdowns on the ground against an overmatched Western Carolina team. 

The win over Western Carolina was the first of consecutive 49-0 wins for Alabama. The second was over Auburn in an Iron Bowl victory that would force Tigers' head coach Gene Chizik out of a job just two years after winning Auburn a national championship. The Crimson Tide beat Notre Dame 42-14 a few weeks later to secure Saban's third national championship at Alabama in four years. 

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