No. 11 Oklahoma 23, No. 4 Alabama 21: Upon Further Review

Alabama football was defeated 23-21 by No. 11 Oklahoma (8-2, 4-2 SEC) on Saturday, marking the second straight loss at the hands of the Sooners for the Crimson Tide program. A showing with three turnovers, off of which Oklahoma scored 17 points, cast the dagger into Alabama’s back. Quarterback Ty Simpson had two of them: a pick-six in the first quarter and a lost fumble on a strip-sack in the third quarter.

“Just really disappointed in the outcome. We played a lot of great snaps out there, but the turnover battle, obviously got killed there,” Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said after the game. It was his first home loss as the Crimson Tide’s coach and the program’s first home SEC loss since 2019. “I have no doubt about how we will respond. The guys are disappointed and frustrated… because that’s the moment we’re in.”

The loss snapped No. 4 Alabama’s eight-game winning streak and moved it to 6-1 in the SEC. Correspondingly, the Crimson Tide (8-2) dropped to No. 10 in both the AP Poll and the US LBM Coaches Poll, with College Football Playoff rankings to follow on Tuesday night. The defeat did not derail Alabama’s chances to appear in the conference title game but did put the team in a precarious spot before the Iron Bowl, where it cannot afford a loss.

Player of the Game: Sophomore running back Daniel Hill played like a starting tailback on Saturday. He had 60 yards on 15 attempts and two touchdowns, a stat line which included a long of 28 yards that was one of the Crimson Tide’s longest scampers of the season in the running game. Hill now has 164 yards on the ground and 139 receiving yards this fall, with five all-purpose touchdowns. As Alabama’s rushing attack continues to struggle, Hill makes it more and more apparent that he is an ascending player in this offense.

Play of the Game: The third-quarter clock was down to 56 seconds when Alabama faced a third-down play from its own 31. Needing nine yards to make a first down, Simpson was instead hit by the Sooners’ Taylor Wein and fumbled the football. Linebacker Kendal Daniels (a former Oklahoma State Cowboy) recovered it, and Tate Sandell kicked the decisive field goal early in the fourth quarter after the backbreaking Alabama turnover.

“He’s gotta get rid of it, and be okay with throwing it away… You can only hold on for so long, and I feel like with the blitz they had, you’re going to get overwhelmed and outnumbered,” DeBoer said of Simpson. “You’ve just got to understand the situation. I know it’s third down, and he wants to stay on the field.”

Stat of the Game: Alabama outgained Oklahoma by 194 total yards on Saturday. When something like that happens in a game decided by one score, it’s an indicator of something larger at work, usually turnovers; that proved true on Saturday. Overall, the Crimson Tide logged 406 total yards against just 212 for the Sooners.

Tight end Josh Cuevas had 80 yards, a new high for his tenure at Alabama, on six catches. That was also the most he caught in a game as a member of the Crimson Tide. Over the past two games, Cuevas has 138 receiving yards and is averaging 13.8 yards per catch. Cuevas’ LSU stats set his previous Alabama highs: four catches and 58 yards. It took him one game to eclipse that.

It isn’t, perhaps, the biggest surprise when being outgained by nearly 200 yards, but Oklahoma had 11 fewer first downs than Alabama. The final margin in that category was 23 to 12. The Crimson Tide had the ball for 34 minutes and 28 seconds in the game.

Simpson was 28-for-42 passing with one touchdown and one interception, which was returned for a touchdown. The resultant 66.7 percent completion rate was the highest for Simpson since he completed 23 out of 31 attempts on the road against Missouri. That was also the last time he had a completion percentage above 70 percent (it was 74.2, for the second straight week at the time).

In six home games this year, Alabama is 5-1 and had only trailed once before going down 3-0 and then 10-0 against Oklahoma. The lone prior occasion eventually gave way to an Alabama win in the Oct. 4 victory against Vanderbilt (a 30-14 final). The Crimson Tide led the Sooners 21-20 entering the fourth quarter, but didn’t come back once Oklahoma converted on the game-winning field goal.

Cornerback Domani Jackson had four solo stops (five total) in Saturday’s losing effort. His total number was tied with linebacker Deontae Lawson and safety Bray Hubbard, two players who usually find themselves in the conversation to lead the team in tackles during a given game, for tops on the Alabama defense. Jackson has 11 total tackles in the Crimson Tide’s past three games.

Hill added 37 receiving yards in his performance against the Sooners to push him ahead of Cuevas for the lead in all-purpose yards with 97. Hill had 76 receiving yards at South Carolina and posted five catches Saturday. His increasing production has led to some fans calling for him to take over as the full-time starter at running back.

Following a four-tackle outing opposite LSU, sophomore defensive back Red Morgan has been trending up (and it started before then). He had four again Saturday, one for loss, and forced a fumble in the third quarter. The ball went out of bounds, but the Alabama defense held Oklahoma to a field goal on that drive. Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said in October that watching Morgan’s growth and development has been enjoyable for him.

The talented Crimson Tide senior wideout collected 71 receiving yards on seven catches Saturday. It was the third time this season, however, that Simpson targeted him 14 times. The other two? The season opener at Florida State and the Oct. 25 win at South Carolina. In those three games, Bernard has caught 20 of the 42 passes thrown his way.

Ever since he went down with a concussion late in the Missouri game on Oct. 11, Alabama’s veteran starting running back has seen his output decrease. He averaged an even three yards per carry against the Sooners, which was his highest mark since that Missouri matchup. In two of four games since the concussion, Miller has averaged fewer than two yards per rush, and he carried the rock nine times when facing Oklahoma (eight times against LSU on Nov. 8).

Alabama didn’t have to face the same Sooners quarterback that gave it problems last season (that will happen in two weeks at Auburn). John Mateer was effective enough to help his team win on the road once again, but he didn’t throw a touchdown pass and finished with 138 yards through the air. Simpson had 326, aided by 13 more completions. The Crimson Tide averaged 11.6 yards per completion; the number for Oklahoma was 9.2.