For about 24 minutes of game-clock time Friday night in Norman, Okla., it appeared that Alabama was well in danger of repeating its egg-laying performance of Dec. 6 in Atlanta against the Georgia Bulldogs, and the crowing was already coming in loudly on social media from pundits who never wanted Alabama to be making this trip to Norman to begin with.
Then, Alabama scored a touchdown on a gutsy 4th-down playcall, blocked a punt on Oklahoma’s ensuing possession, and polished off the first half with a pick-six from CB Zabien Brown, the second game of the year Brown has turned on its head with an interception just before halftime.
Alabama added another 10 points in the third quarter before Oklahoma finally got the number of the truck that had just run over it. The Sooners pulled back within three points, but Alabama answered with a touchdown run from RB Daniel Hill – then watched as Oklahoma’s usually automatic placekicker, Tate Sandell, missed two field goal attempts within about a two-minute span of time. We’re not sure who was the most surprised with the eventual 34-24 result – the national pundits, Oklahoma, its fans, or the Alabama fans who had earlier sat through a first quarter straight from hell.
Alabama now heads to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., on New Year’s Day to face the Indiana Hoosiers, who come into the game as favorites, with a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, and as the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff. Say that sentence to yourself slowly a couple of times, because it’s what college football is these days, and Alabama may be the only team battle-tested enough to be able to do anything about it.
The resume that Alabama has put up in 2025 is rather mind-blowing, starting with the disaster in Tallahassee, Fla., during the season’s opening week. There was then a long string of victories before a mistake-filled effort in Tuscaloosa in November caused Alabama to drop a game to these same Sooners, severely endangering Alabama’s postseason hopes in the process. Thanks to a strong close on the road against Auburn, and a CFP Committee that was favorable to both Alabama’s entire body of work and the knowledge that yes, teams in the SEC do deserve a bit more leash than some of their counterparts, Alabama is now guaranteed of being no worse than one of the final eight teams left standing.
The amount of grit shown just to get where Alabama is going next is substantial. It was a substance lacking for most of Kalen DeBoer’s first-year team in 2024, but the 2025 team has been defined by it. Is this a perfect team? Far from it, in part – aye, maybe even especially – due to the lack of a consistent running game. But it is not a “soft” team, nor is it a team bereft of guts.
To mount a comeback in Norman – not the easiest place to play in the world already, much less when one is down 17-0 just a few minutes into the second quarter – deserves its own kudos. But then to eventually win by double digits, in a playoff game, with outright elimination as the alternative to victory … that says something for this Alabama team.
Maybe what it says is the Kalen DeBoer era will prove to be more prosperous than Alabama fans dared to dream after that disastrous opening game against Florida State. Tonight, Alabama came out smelling like a rose.
Here’s the Five-Point Breakdown for Alabama-Oklahoma:
1. Special teams were a big part of Alabama’s November loss to Oklahoma. They were an even bigger part of Oklahoma’s loss to Alabama tonight. It didn’t start out that way, as Oklahoma appeared to at least affect, and maybe even get a fingertip on, Blake Doud’s first punt of the evening. Doud didn’t have his best night of the year, to be certain, but he got stronger as the night progressed. Everywhere else, though, Alabama came up aces. Cole Adams was solid as Alabama’s punt returner, PK Conor Talty was in peak form on placement kicks, and Talty also did a solid job on kickoffs. But it was the Oklahoma kicking units that truly messed in their kit. PK Tate Sandell missed a 36-yard attempt just wide left, then followed that up about 2 minutes later by coming up short on a 51-yard kick. Either would have gotten Oklahoma to within a single score. Sandell had missed his first kick of the year prior to hitting a mind-boggling 24 kicks in a row before letting his 36-yard attempt drift outside. He was clearly affected by the experience, and didn’t get the best pass at the ensuing attempt. It’s worth questioning whether Oklahoma chose the wrong end of the field coming out of the half; the end of the stadium where Sandell missed both kicks appeared to be far more affected by the stiff breeze Friday night. As for punter Grayson Miller, the blocked punt happened after Miller lost control of the ball in his drop. Miller uses a rather long and outstretched drop mechanism for a modern punter, putting him at greater risk for losing control of the ball, and it happened at just the wrong time for him and the right time for Alabama. In a season where Alabama has rarely won the special teams duel, all of this couldn’t have come at a better time.
2. Miscues in general flipped from being a Bama problem in November to a Sooner problem Friday. It was Ty Simpson throwing the pick-six in November, it was Alabama’s receivers dropping key passes, or missing blocks, or picking up the wrong blitzing defender, or making a dog’s breakfast of the mechanics of the kicking game. Friday, Oklahoma told the college football world collectively to hold its beer. The pick-six to Zabien Brown was the most damaging, as it erased the remnants of what had been a 17-point lead and put real fear in the eyes of a lot of the Sooners and their fans – a fear that defeat was actually possible. The botched punt by Miller was a killer, too, but it would never have happened had RB Xavier Robinson not dropped a 3rd-and-3 pass from QB John Mateer on the snap before. If Robinson catches that ball, Oklahoma goes back up 24-7 and we’re likely reading a very different story right now. Oklahoma also did a poor job of reacting to Alabama’s defensive adjustments during the game, especially the failure to boost protection on the right side once Alabama started stacking and overloading RT Derrick Simmons. We talked after Alabama’s November loss about how mistakes brought what otherwise should have been a two-score game into OU’s crosshairs, and once it got there, Oklahoma was too talented and well-coached to give it back. Tonight was a mirror image of that earlier loss. Even changing the outcome of just two plays, the pick-six and the botched punt, would have made a substantial difference in the ultimate outcome.
3. Ty Simpson showed what kind of quarterback he can be when he doesn’t have defenders constantly in his face. That statement could easily apply to any top-level quarterback, but due to Simpson’s nagging back injury, pressure had become an outsized challenge for him. Injuries along Alabama’s offensive line, especially to LG Kam Dewberry and C Parker Brailsford, resulted in Simpson spending way too much time in Atlanta throwing off his back foot or looking for the nearest exit to get away from pressure. For the first quarter of tonight’s game, it was more of the same, but either some timely adjustments to blocking schemes or the shuffling of OL personnel got Simpson into much calmer seas as the game went along. Replacing Dewberry with Geno VanDeMark proved to be the right call as Alabama opened up the offense a bit after falling behind 17-0. Dewberry re-entered, and RG Jaeden Roberts joined him for a brief period as Alabama tried to muscle the ball on the ground later in the game, but for the most part, Alabama had its best alignment with Wilkin Formby at right guard, Michael Carroll at right tackle and VanDeMark in at left guard. Getting extra help to Brailsford as the game went along also made a difference for Simpson, as Oklahoma was able to leverage middle pressure in the first quarter to great effect. Simpson, though, gets a good bit of the praise himself, as he played with quieter feet and more downfield discipline in this game. The second touchdown pass to WR Lotzeir Brooks looked like the Simpson of the season’s first month, confident and calm. It also came on a play in which the Alabama OL absolutely stoned the Sooners’ pressure package.
4. Adjustments on both sides of the ball made a difference, but this might have been DC Kane Wommack’s finest hour. Wommack began bringing more and more pressure as the game went along, but where he really made his pay for this game was in the design of Alabama’s coverage packages in the secondary, as well as the choices in personnel and alignment of his primary pass rushers. Oklahoma QB John Mateer appeared frequently confused by disguised coverage, and a good portion of what led up to Zabien Brown’s pick-six was a pre-snap misread of Brown and where he was going. Keontez Lewis might have missed an audible check signal from Mateer on that play, but the die was really cast when Mateer couldn’t discern Brown’s post-snap intentions. Wommack also did a good job of stacking leverage on the strongside of Oklahoma’s formations, which put pressure directly in Mateer’s face on a couple of occasions. Mateer is a great athlete but appears to be slow to process angles sometimes from incoming defenders, and he didn’t make the best decisions in this game when he had to get out of the initial call priority. The pass Robinson dropped downfield probably should never have been thrown, as Mateer had 10-15 yards of free space in front of him when he threw it. Keon Keeley’s sack could have been avoided by getting out of the pocket sooner. Alabama also did a good job of getting backside pressure on Mateer in a couple of occasions, notably on a twist by DL Kelby Collins that directly led to a sack. Mateer never could seem to figure out where Alabama would park its safeties, and Oklahoma ran receivers into leverage too often. Mateer did manage to accumulate 307 yards passing in the game, but Alabama held him to 15 yards on 19 carries and gave up only 55 yards on the ground overall.
5. A lesser-watched matchup was the battle of the tight ends, and Alabama won that one for a second time. One of the few things that came out of the November loss on the side of the Crimson Tide was the way Alabama held Jaren Kanak to about half of his usual offensive output, while Josh Cuevas came out of the game as the top receiver for either team. Alabama managed to back that earlier performance up with a similar effort today. Kanak caught just 4 passes for 22 yards, none of them transformative. Cuevas caught 3 passes (the box score has him with 4, but one of those should have been credited to backup Jay Lindsey) with one of them being a key seam route for 23 yards that helped set up Alabama’s first touchdown. Alabama also got Danny Lewis Jr. back for this game, marking just the third time all year that Cuevas and Lewis had both been healthy and available. While Lewis did not catch a pass in this game, he gives a big boost to the running game, and Alabama should see more of him in two weeks as his foot injury improves. To be able to shut a tight end like Kanak down for a second time in the same season is an admirable accomplishment by itself, but to also scheme a way to help Cuevas contribute, even though he was at far less than 100-percent health, deserves its own attaboy for the coaches.
Follow Jess Nicholas on X at @TideFansJessN