This wasn’t the outcome Alabama wanted, nor is it the one it needed. But it’s the one Bama got, and with the Crimson Tide’s playoff cushion flattened, Bama gets one more chance for introspection, improvement – and maybe, change.
Oklahoma won on the scoreboard – the only place wins really matter – but the way the Sooners got there was a process heavily aided by Alabama’s own hand. A Crimson Tide team that had been among the best in the nation in turnover margin fumbled the ball away twice, was intercepted once, and packed enough special teams misfires into one game that fans were getting flashbacks to the worst of the Dennis Franchione and Mike Shula years.
It was always going to be a tough assignment to get around the season-opening loss to Florida State and challenge for a playoff spot. It was going to take either running an 11-game table, or at the very worst, doing it with a loss in there somewhere. Well, here’s the somewhere.
It isn’t that Oklahoma is a bad team by any measure. The Sooners have some areas of concern, not the least of which is an offensive line that collapsed at key moments in drives and only allowed a good collection of skill talent to collect an anemic 212 total yards of offense. Oklahoma came into the game ranked 11th in the country. If a media pundit tries to sell you on this being an “embarrassing” loss or something similar, turn the channel. However, this game was imminently winnable for Alabama, except the Tide just didn’t do it.
Alabama nearly doubled Oklahoma’s offensive output, tallying 406 yards. Alabama had nearly double Oklahoma’s first-down output, 23 to 12, even getting more first downs in the running game (6 vs. 4 for the Sooners) and more than twice the number (16 vs. 7) through the air. The Tide’s Ty Simpson threw for 326 yards compared to John Mateer’s 138 for OU, and averaged more per attempt (7.8 to 6.0) and completion (11.6 to 9.2). But the difference here, Mateer never turned the ball over; Simpson coughed it up twice.
These are the kind of things that separate playoff contenders from good teams who were simply in the discussion. Alabama still has at least two games to play before the playoff bracket is filled, possibly three, and now may have backed itself into a corner where all three games are of the must-win variety. These include, of course, a road game against Auburn – a place where Alabama has nearly lost twice over the last four years to some of Auburn’s worst teams in the last 40 years – and an SEC Championship Game that suddenly seems more trouble than it is worth.
Getting to the final playoff field is going to require some introspection on Alabama’s part, because the offense is on a downward trend over the last month – but has thankfully been able to lean on a defense that has caught fire. The problem is that this is a team whose identity has been tied to how it produces when it has the ball in its hands, and over the past month or so, it’s been a fairly one-dimensional affair, and now even that one dimension is starting to look shaky.
Alabama may have rolled up 326 yards passing in this game, but Oklahoma was able to make most of that yardage not count for much. The Sooners forced Alabama to churn yards and clock, but got critical stops when they had to have them, chief among them a pick-six – for the second year in a row – just when Alabama was threatening the red zone. Without a consistent running game to fall back on for help, the threads that were holding Alabama’s offense together began to break.
Can Alabama fix it? We don’t know. Eastern Illinois is 3-8, losers of six straight, and will offer only the most meager of resistance next week. Alabama could literally bench the entire starting 22 and run away with it. But Auburn has new life with a new coach and quarterback, and Jordan-Hare Stadium has long resembled European trench warfare during World War I more than it has a football field as far as Alabama is concerned.
We’ll talk more later this week, and then next week, about what Alabama must do to fix it. For now, perhaps there will be some catharsis in reviewing what went wrong Saturday. We certainly aren’t lacking for examples.
Here’s the Five-Point Breakdown for Alabama-Oklahoma:
1. Ty Simpson played his worst game for Alabama, stats be damned. Simpson hasn’t been 100 percent since Alabama’s trip to Missouri, but we’re not sure whether the injury (to his back and side) is the issue, or whether teams are finally collecting enough tape to figure him out. It appeared to take Simpson most of the first half to get even reasonably comfortable, and that’s with a pick-six already on the board. Simpson would then get hit and fumble the ball in the late third quarter, a miscue that would allow Oklahoma to put the final points on the board on its ensuing possession. But it wasn’t just about the turnovers; Simpson seemed slower than usual to recognize reads, his presnap recognition didn’t go as quickly as it usually does, and he missed several open throws, including one thrown in Isaiah Horton’s direction on the final drive. For that matter, even though Simpson completed 28 passes, only one of them – a deep throw to Horton that set up Daniel Hill’s second touchdown – was particularly extraordinary. Still, take away the two turnovers and Simpson’s performance is good enough to win the game. This was only Simpson’s second interception of the year, but he’s been prone to fumbling in the pocket, especially from frontside pressure, and that is what Alabama needs him to clean up immediately. Alabama is asking a lot of Simpson right now given the lack of a running game, yes. But that’s just part of the deal right now.
2. Special teams – aside from P Blake Doud – were terrible across the board, and if you feel uncomfortable blaming much on Simpson, look here instead. We’re going to be blunt and say that, barring unforeseen and steep improvement, Alabama’s 2026 placekicker isn’t on the current roster. Kicker shot straight to the top of the transfer portal wishlist after this one, because there’s no excuse for missing a 36-yard kick in a game like this. Yes, the snap was high; yes, the kick may have been partially blocked. But trajectory was a factor to that, and the kicking game has been leaking oil for a few weeks now. As bad or worse was Ryan Williams’ fumble on a punt return. We’ll go on record right now as not being a fan of dual punt returners, especially when one of them has had issues with his hands lately as a wide receiver. Cole Adams is plenty capable of making all the routine catches, and if Alabama could do a better job blocking in the return game without drawing flags, there would be no reason to use a twin-returner setup. In this case, the risk outweighed the reward. Alabama wound up losing 7 points on this one, as John Mateer eventually ran for a 20-yard touchdown after the Sooners recovered Williams’ fumble. That’s 10 lost points in the kicking game. Unacceptable.
3. Playcalling didn’t do Bama any special favors, but it was probably good enough overall, and may have been tricked by signs of life in the running game. Alabama ran into this earlier in the year after Jam Miller’s return from an injury, where the running game exhibited enough reason for optimism that OC Ryan Grubb may have been fooled by it. In this game, the emergence of Daniel Hill – 4 yards per carry and 2 touchdowns makes Hill look like Earl Campbell for 2025 Alabama – led to Alabama continuing to work the run late in the game. In retrospect, Grubb should have sped up the offense and tried to get multiple possessions on the board rather than betting everything on what turned out to be Bama’s final drive. Alabama took over with 7:14 in the fourth quarter and ended up giving Oklahoma the ball back with 50 seconds just across midfield. Given that the strategy appeared to be one of getting a final field goal shot – refer to Point No. 2 here for our feelings on that – this was a curious decision. Most of Alabama’s offensive failures Saturday were of the execution variety, not from the coaching, but the final four drives for Alabama went punt-fumble-punt-downs. Not the way to do it in a game of this magnitude.
4. Sometimes, the other team just has good players. And Oklahoma certainly did. Let’s not overlook that Oklahoma came into this game 4th in rushing defense, 7th in total defense, 8th in scoring defense, 20th in pass efficiency defense and 23rd in raw pass defense. The Sooners also led the nation in tackles for loss and were 3rd in sacks. And yet, Alabama put up 406 total yards of offense and had multiple opportunities to more than put this game away. Oklahoma’s defensive personnel are the best Alabama will face in 2025, at least until the Crimson Tide exits conference play. Offensively, the Sooners have quality everywhere but on the offensive line. Fairness dictates that we make mention of this, because it was a factor. Alabama has never and will never dominate every team it plays, especially when those opponents put up metrics like the ones Oklahoma has recorded in 2025. A lot of the finer points of Bama’s playcalling were no doubt affected by what Alabama thought it could do consistently against this Sooner defense, and a lot of Simpson’s struggles were probably brought on by having to speed up his internal clock.
5. OL and RB are targets for offseason improvement; Bama has what it has for now. The reports of RB Akylin Dear possibly playing more in this game turned out to be nothing more than Internet smoke; in fact, during preseason drills, Dear took his regular position at the back of the line of running backs – behind Miller and Hill, behind Kevin Riley and Richard Young, even behind Dre’lyn Washington. We were encouraged by what we saw from Daniel Hill, but his pass protection still needs work, as Ty Simpson took a big hit in a critical moment when Hill let a rusher blow him up on their way to the quarterback. Regardless, we believe Alabama’s running game has to go through Hill at least through the end of the year. Jam Miller’s game has regressed steeply since Missouri, and at this point Riley probably brings more as a changeup back. The offensive line stayed fairly static in this game, as the only substitution of note was Geno VanDeMark playing down the stretch at left guard in place of Kam Dewberry. The combination of Wilkin Formby working at right guard next to Michael Carroll at right tackle looked promising early, but Alabama still allowed 5 tackles for loss, 4 sacks and 4 QB hurries on the day. There was also a lot of contact around and on Simpson that didn’t show up on the stat sheet. Everything should be on the table at the conclusion of 2025, to include evaluation of the assistant coaches responsible for those two position groups. Development of some players is evident – Hill, Carroll, Proctor, etc. – but it has stalled otherwise.
Follow Jess Nicholas on X at @TideFansJessN