NORMAN, Okla.–– No. 7 Alabama was on the wrong end of a chaotic day in college football as the Crimson Tide fell to the Oklahoma Sooners in a road battle on Saturday night.
After a stellar past three weeks on both sides of the ball, Alabama couldn't move the ball on offense or stop the run on defense against the Sooners.
This loss gives Alabama three on the season, all but certainly taking the Tide out of the College Football Playoff race, despite the format increasing to 12 teams after a decade with just four programs included.
After the clock hit zeroes and a field storm by the Sooner crowd ensued, Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer spoke about his team's performance during the postgame press conference.
Opening statement:
“Obviously, extremely disappointed, frustrated. We worked, I thought, extremely hard all week, putting a plan together. Guys, good energy, excited to come here on the road. We’ve just gotta play better. 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, and then, really, it comes down to the end of the first half, them scoring a touchdown and then the turnovers really kind of changing the momentum of the game there.
“Turnovers were gonna be a key. 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. Credit to them. They did a nice job with their run game, staying on the field early, in the first half, especially. I thought there was some things that we continued to tweak and adjust to do a better job against it and what they were doing there. Obviously, the game got away from us in the middle of the third quarter there.”
On if he got an explanation for wide receiver Ryan Williams' illegal touching penalty:
“They said it was illegal touching, so someone would have had to been covered up, ineligible.”
On the impact of co-captain and linebacker Deontae Lawson’s exit due to injury had on the defense:
“Any time you lose a great player like Deontae, it’s gonna 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 come in with JJ. 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.”
On what he told co-captain and quarterback Jalen Milroe after throwing back-to-back interceptions:
“I think stepping back, I felt like there were some things that are 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 where, again, 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 a little bit, put them on the field. They kind of start churning the yards on the ground, winning the time of possession there. We couldn’t get over the hump tonight, and that’s the unfortunate thing.”
Hunter De Siver is a graduate from the University of Alabama, earning a degree in sports media. During his time in Tuscaloosa, Hunter distributed articles covering Alabama football, basketball, and baseball for WVUA 23 TV and discussed these topics on Tide 100.9 FM. Hunter also generated articles highlighting Crimson Tide products in the NFL and NBA for BamaCentral. Since graduation, he's been contributing a plethora of NFL and NBA stories for FanNation and is a staff writer at MizzouCentral, Cowbell Corner and is back at BamaCentral.
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