With a brutal 24-3 loss to the Oklahoma Sooners Saturday night in Norman, the 2024 Crimson Tide became the first Alabama football team in 14 years to lose three games in the regular season.
Nick Saban’s 2010 team lost its focus and killer instinct after a 14-0 national championship run the previous year. That 2010 team finished 10-3 overall and 9-3 in the regular season.
Kalen DeBoer’s first Alabama team will have at least three losses after one of the ugliest performances by a Crimson Tide team in years. Oklahoma’s defense made the Alabama run game all but nonexistent, holding the Tide to just 70 yards on 30 carries.
Quarterback Jalen Milroe, who seemed to be playing his way back into a finalist for the Heisman Trophy after a rough midseason stretch, had the worst game of his Alabama career (not that his teammates were much help). Milroe was 11-of-26 for 164 yards passing and, keeping with the theme of OU’s smothering run defense, was held to only seven rushing yards on 16 attempts.
Alabama’s three-touchdown loss was the program’s most lopsided defeat since the Tide were routed 44-16 by the Clemson Tigers in the College Football Playoff Championship in January 2019.
It was also the first time an Alabama team was kept out of the end-zone since their 9-6 overtime loss to the LSU Tigers in the 2011 “Game of the Century” at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
First-year Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer faced questions in the aftermath of such a devastating loss in a game where Alabama had been a 14-point favorite entering the night and had control of its own destiny in the race for the 12-team College Football Playoff.
Here’s everything DeBoer said in his postgame press conference with reporters.
Kalen DeBoer ‘extremely disappointed’ in Alabama football’s performance vs Oklahoma
DeBoer’s opening statement after Alabama’s loss:
“Extremely disappointed. Frustrated. We worked extremely hard, I thought, all week putting a plan together. Guys had good energy and were excited to come here on the road. We’ve just got to play better. We’ve got to be better. There’s some simple things, uncharacteristic things that happened early in the game where we didn’t get the momentum on our side. And then really, it comes down to the end of the first half — them scoring a touchdown and then the turnovers really changing the momentum of the game.
“Turnovers were going to be a key. We said that coming in. We knew taking the ball off them like we did early was going to be big. In the end, it flipped the other way and we turned the ball over. Credit to (Oklahoma). They did a nice job with their game, their run game, staying on the field early. In the first half especially, I thought there were some things that continued to tweak and adjust and do a better job of against it. But obviously the game got away from us in the middle of the third quarter there.”
DeBoer on the explanation he received from officials on why Ryan Williams’ touchdown was called back
“They said it was illegal touching, so someone would have had to have been covered up. Ineligible.”
DeBoer on how Deontae Lawson injury impacted Alabama’s defense
“Any time you lose a great player like Deontae, it’s going to affect you. 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 came in, with (Justin Jefferson) and those guys taking a lot of reps. Those guys have played a lot this year, too. But yeah, anytime you lose any of your top players and your captains, it’s going to hurt you. Just your demeanor emotionally, but also just the execution on the field.”
What Kalen DeBoer said to Jalen Milroe after costly pick six
“I think stepping back, I just felt like early in the game there was different things. I mean, drops, just flat-out drops. Balls we lost in the lights. Just different, uncharacteristic things, weird things that happened. I thought he was actually putting the ball where he needed to. We just needed to help him out a little bit. The screen pass, they jump it and you have to assume those blocks are going to happen and you’re reading a different defender.
“Then there’s the pick six that goes the other way. I don’t know if he just didn’t see him or (if it was) a predetermined thing, but there was still a lot of game left and I felt 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. I thought he kept battling. I looked in his eyes and I think he’s come a long ways all season long in just the way he wants to go out there and keep leading the team. The guys kept fighting for him and that’s pretty much what I shared with him: just have no regrets. Go out there and keep swinging.”
DeBoer on players that aren’t used to losing three games and how to keep things together with Iron Bowl showdown next
“That’s the commitment that we make to each other when we come in here. When you sign up to play for Alabama, you make that commitment to each other and the brotherhood. There’s nothing in that room right now that says that there’s anyone saying it’s someone else that needs to be better. It’s win and lose as a team. We made that commitment also not just for each other, but that we’re going to finish. We’re going to finish everything we do. That is a big game next week, so we’ve got to regroup and stick together. The right things were said in there by the guys, as much as they’re hurting. Just keep playing and have pride in who we are and finish the job.”
Kalen DeBoer on Deontae Lawson’s injury status going forward
Lawson left the game with a leg injury early in the second quarter.
“It’s going to be a lower extremity injury. We’ll continue to evaluate further here when we get back.”
DeBoer on what led to Alabama’s run game struggles against Oklahoma’s defense
“I have a lot of confidence in what we can do running the football, but I also think you’ve got to credit a little bit to who (Oklahoma is) and what they do defensively. We knew it would be a physical game. Just some times where we’ve got to stay unblocked and maintain blocks. In the second half, again, the game gets away from you. Some of the things that we just maybe weren’t quite as clean on in the first half and you want to be better at, you’re not able to. And then the penalties there in the fourth quarter gets you behind the sticks as well. So, it becomes a pass-happy game to try to catch up and lengthen the game to try to give yourself a chance to win.
“But yeah, we didn’t run it as well as we had hoped to early in the game. I think it’s a little bit of both. Usually, from what I’ve seen from us, the two- or three-yard gains become four of five and then some game-breakers. And we just never got to those game-breakers because we didn’t get a chance to really hammer away enough with the normal down and distances and the normal flow of the game.”
DeBoer praises Oklahoma’s Jackson Arnold, Xavier Robinson for being physical against Alabama’s defense
“That was the story for them. Those guys — inside, outside, different ways — just moving the chains and then hitting the explosives that they had. It seemed like they were always falling forward and again, there were explosive plays that they had. You’ve got to credit the toughness that they had. I think (Arnold) carried it over 20 times, both of them around that. Credit to those guys on staying with their game plan and doing what they needed to do to win.”
DeBoer demurs on how Oklahoma’s defense was able to make things tough on Jalen Milroe
Asked about what the Sooners did specifically on defense to disrupt Milroe’s game, DeBoer demurred.
“Well again, I go back to… I felt like there were some things that were pretty easy that just didn’t happen for us, too. Just short little concepts that would have moved the chains. Easy throws and catches. Some drops early that take you off the field. Some third down conversions that we missed on. An explosive play where the ball, we can’t find it. Those were some of the momentum things that early in the game kind of took the wind out of our sails. Put (Oklahoma) on the field, they kind of start churning the yards on the ground, winning the time of possession there. We just couldn’t get over the hump tonight and that’s the unfortunate thing.”
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