Five Takeaways from Alabama's Embarrassing Loss to Oklahoma

The Crimson Tide effectively eliminated itself from CFP contention with its third conference road loss this season.

Oklahoma Sooners defensive lineman Trace Ford (30) chases after Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe (4) during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Alabama Crimson Tide at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. Oklahoma won 24-3. / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

NORMAN, Okla.–– Playing on the road in SEC play has not been kind to Kalen DeBoer in his first season as the Alabama football head coach. With Saturday night's 24-3 loss to Oklahoma, who only had one SEC win on the season coming into the matchup, the Crimson Tide lost its third conference road game in four attempts.

Alabama had everything on the line–– a spot in the SEC championship game and College Football Playoff, yet the Crimson Tide came out flat again on the road.

"We’ve just gotta play better," DeBoer said after the game. "We’ve gotta be better in all ways. There’s some simple things, uncharacteristic things, I think, that happened early in the game where we didn’t get the momentum on our side."

Here are five takeaways from Alabama's disappointing road loss to Oklahoma:

1. Alabama didn't play with enough urgency to keep prime spot in CFP race

Let's go ahead and get the obvious one out of the way. Despite all the other craziness that went on across the college football world on Saturday, with a third loss, the Crimson Tide is no longer a viable candidate for the 12-team playoff.

The third SEC loss officially eliminates Alabama from competing for the SEC title, and all but eliminates the Crimson Tide from one of the seven at-large playoff spots. And this falls squarely on the shoulders of the coaching staff.

DeBoer said he thought the team worked "extremely hard all week" putting a plan together and was excited to play on the road. If that's true, something didn't translate onto the field against the Sooners. Alabama looked unprepared on both offense and defense for what Oklahoma had planned, failing to score an offensive touchdown in a game for the first time in over a decade.

If Alabama had won out, the Crimson Tide would likely have been the No. 2 overall seed in this year's CFP. Continued chaos across college football could open back up a slim pathway for the Crimson Tide back into the playoffs, but this team has proven that it doesn't deserve to control its own fate.

2. Third-down troubles

In previous losses, third-down defense was a big struggle for the Crimson Tide. Alabama started out well on Saturday night, stopping the Sooners on their first three third-down attempts. But then Oklahoma reeled off six of its next seven third downs, one of which was a touchdown, which proved to be a big momentum swing in the game.

On the flip side, when Alabama's had success on offense, it's been when it avoided third-and-long situations. Against Oklahoma, the Crimson Tide found itself in situations of third-and-16, 10, 10, 13, 8, 12, 8, 8, 13 and 10. The offense was constantly put in position to fail with negative runs or runs for a small game that put the Tide behind the chains when third down rolled around.

The Crimson Tide finished 7-of-14 on third downs, which isn't a horrible percentage overall, but two of the seven conversions came in the first quarter on Alabama's lone scoring drive, and three happened when the game was already out of hand.

Poor execution on both sides of the ball on third downs contributed greatly to Alabama's third loss.

3. Turnovers too costly

Alabama had played turnover-free football and had been dominating the the turnover margin in its last three games, but that wasn't the case against the Sooners. The Alabama defense snagged the first turnover of the game on a forced fumble by Bray Hubbard, recovered by Jihaad Campbell.

The defense was making things way too easy for the Oklahoma offense and Sooner quarterback Jackson Arnold. The Sooners have had QB struggles all season, but Alabama didn't even make him throw the ball. He had just 11 passing attempts on the way to a career rushing night with 25 carries for 131 yards. This limited Alabama's opportunities at turnovers because there were fewer chances at interceptions or even pressuring the quarterback for a sack.

"They didn't really throw the ball, so I think us just getting hands on and getting very violent and physical in our tackling could've been better," Campbell said after the game. "But we didn't do that tonight."

Campbell's fumble recovery would be the lone turnover forced by Alabama all day while Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe would go on to throw three interceptions, including a pick-six midway through the third quarter that all but cemented the win for the Sooners with the way Alabama was playing. It was the first time Alabama lost the turnover battle in a game since the Vanderbilt loss.

"Turnovers were gonna be a key," DeBoer said. "We said that coming in. We knew taking the ball off them, like we did early, was gonna be big. And in the end, it flipped the other way and we turned the ball over."

4. Jalen Milroe struggles again on road

Milroe has thrown six total interceptions and two pick-sixes in the Crimson Tide's three road losses. It seemed like he had exercised his road demons with his four-touchdown performance at LSU, but Saturday night seemed to bring up some of Milroe's worse traits from the Vanderbilt and Tennessee games.

The Alabama quarterback finished 11-of-26 (42 percent) for 164 yards and three interceptions, a career high. He had 15 total rushing attempts for seven yards, an average of 0.5 yards per rush. To be fair to Milroe, he wasn't getting a lot of help from his teammates. The offensive line, particularly on the right side with Elijah Pritchett, was constantly giving up pressures against Milroe, and several receivers dropped passes throughout the night.

DeBoer felt like Milroe was putting the ball where it needed to go, he just needed some help from his teammates.

"The screen pass, they jump it," DeBoer said. "You have to assume that those blocks are going to happen and you're reading a different defender. But then there's the pick six that goes the other way. I don't know if he just didn't see him or predetermined things, but there's still a lot of game left, and I felt like a lot of things he was doing, he was fighting and battling and doing a lot of things well for our football team. We just all needed to be a little better. So, I thought he kept battling. I looked at his eyes, and I think he's come a long ways all season long and just the way he wants to go out there and keep leading the team and guys kept fighting for them."

Milroe's worst games this season have come on the road. Overall, he played fine at Vanderbilt, but his pick-six and fumble proved costly. At Tennessee and Oklahoma, he did not play well from start to finish. Milroe finished with a QBR of 15.4 against the Sooners. His previous season low before that was 61.3 in the loss at Tennessee.

5. Losing Deontae Lawson came at wrong time for Alabama defense

Alabama was already growing thin at several spots on defense when redshirt junior linebacker Deontae Lawson exited the game in the second quarter with an undisclosed lower extremity injury and did not return.

Lawson is the player on defense for Alabama who wears the coach-to-player helmet communication system as the quarterback of the defense in the middle of the field. The Crimson Tide defense was struggling to stop Arnold and the Oklahoma ground game, and Lawson leaving didn't help.

"Any time you lose a great player like Deontae, it’s gonna affect you," DeBoer said. "His leadership, he is the guy that makes a lot of the calls on the football field. Just seems like he’s always in control. We have trust and belief in the guys that come in with JJ [Justin Jefferson.] Those guys take a lot of reps, and he’s played a lot this year, too. But Deontae, any of your captains, your top players, it’s gonna hurt you and it’s gonna hurt you just demeanor emotionally but also just the execution on the field."

Lawson's status is unclear moving forward. DeBoer said after the game that he'd have to be further evaluated this week.

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