TUSCALOOSA — Yes, the scoreboard shows a 23-21 home defeat for the Alabama Crimson Tide against the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium, and yes, the gut punch stings. The Tide had a chance to lock up a playoff berth and seemingly worked into a precarious spot instead. But let’s pour an optimistic glass of crimson Kool-Aid, dust off the disappointment, and keep the bigger picture in focus: Alabama may have lost the battle, but it hasn’t lost the war just yet.
Alabama (8-2, 6-1 SEC) entered the clutch stretch of the season with the prestige, résumé and brand to lean on. The 12-team College Football Playoff format gives programs like Alabama a margin it didn’t always have.
With quad-1 wins and a national power reputation, the doors remain open. And in many ways, Saturday offered solid evidence that this team is capable of making a playoff run.
Remember 2007 LSU that defeated an Ohio State Buckeyes juggernaut in the BCS National Championship Game? Those Tigers had two regular season losses, one in October to Kentucky on the road and another during rivalry week to Arkansas.
That Arkansas game? It was at home in Tiger Stadium, where LSU fell by just two points. Sound familiar? LSU would go on to defeat Tennessee in the SEC Championship Game a week later and win the national title in January.
How about last year’s eventual champion, Ohio State? The Buckeyes suffered a gut-wrenching October loss in Eugene to Oregon and later during rivalry week, at home to Michigan, as 20+ point favorites.
Ohio State would go on to complete a legendary four-game death march through the College Football Playoff and become champions.
This Alabama team has time on its side, with at least two games left to impress the selection committee and right the ship before the final bracket reveal, joining 2007 LSU and 2024 Ohio State as the last two-loss national champions.
Now, forget title talk. Let’s just talk playoffs for a moment. No two-loss team made the playoff in the four-team era, but six made it last year for the inaugural 12-team field, plus three-loss, ACC Champion Clemson.
Losing sucks, especially at home. But… all is not lost on the season for Alabama, we’re just used to needing greatness every week and that’s okay.
Now that we have had time to let emotions settle, comb over the box score stats and re-watch the game tape, there is some light at the end of the tunnel for the Tide.
The entire social media timeline is talking about a night game Iron Bowl in the vaunted Jordan-Hare Stadium against a pesky Auburn team.
You know the narratives by now. Alabama can’t run the football, the Tide are doomed in Jordan-Hare, the team chemistry is off… yada, yada yada.
We aren’t going to pretend Saturday didn’t happen, but there is opportunity to learn from the setback. This is not an everything is fine sort of sugarcoating column, but it should provide some optimism around Tuscaloosa County and the Yellowhammer State.
As the great Nick Saban once said, “never waste a failure.”
Alabama has a chance to bounce back against its in-state rival next weekend.
Let’s look over the bright spots from Saturday’s loss with a glass half-full approach. Here’s why the loss could end up being a turning point for the Tide.
The Defense Showed Up
Let’s talk about the most encouraging storyline: the Tide’s defense. Oklahoma (8-2, 4-2 SEC) scored an early pick-six and capitalized on three turnovers for 17 points. But once the offense settled its chaos, the defense locked in—holding the Sooners to just six points after halftime, three of which from an Alabama fumble, in which the defense kept the Sooners out of the end zone, with field position working against them.
Alabama’s run defense surrendered only 74 yards and the total yardage allowed was 212—by far their best performance in recent weeks. On paper, that’s a performance you can build from. When your defense shoulders the load like this, you give your offense a chance to right the ship. While it may not have showed on the scoreboard, the defense did its job against the Sooners.
The turnovers were an unfortunate part of the game, but let’s give proper credit to Brent Venables’ defense for seizing the moment and cashing in on the opportunities earned on the field.
Venables has long been a defensive mastermind, from his days as Clemson defensive coordinator under Dabo Swinney, where the Tigers won two national championships and made six-straight playoff appearances in the four-team era.
The turnovers were no fluke, but they are fixable for Alabama.
The Optimism On Offense For Alabama
Quarterback Ty Simpson passed for 326 yards (28-of-42), and running back Daniel Hill posted two rushing touchdowns. Tight end Josh Cuevas led the receiving corps with six catches for 80 yards and a score. The offense moved the ball—Alabama out-gained Oklahoma 406-212—so the yardage gap was in the Tide’s favor. The big problem? Turnovers: a pick-six, a fumble from Simpson, a punt return fumble from Ryan Williams, all serving as critical mistakes. In the aggregate those miscues cost the Tide the game. But the weapons are there, the scheme is still evolving under first-year offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, and the mindset exists. Remember how this team responded after the early-season loss to Florida State in Tallahassee? Alabama woke up and responded, rattling off four ranked wins in four weeks at the time.
All the pieces are there for a similar turn around in this second stint of the season.
Big Picture Remains Bright (For Now)
The schedule ahead includes a “get-right” game at home against the FCS-level Eastern Illinois Panthers, followed by the regular-season finale in the Iron Bowl against the Auburn Tigers.
Yes, the road gets wild in Lee County under the Jordan-Hare lights, but that game also offers clarity: prove you belong and everything else takes care of itself.
Win the Iron Bowl and the Tide still controls its destiny for a playoff berth. Assuming Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Missouri can win this week as favorites, the path to Atlanta is still there too.
Lose the Iron Bowl, and we’re talking “what could have been,” despite a historic September and October for the Tide.
All the tools remain intact—elite recruiting, a veteran roster, burgeoning depth, national brand power—and this loss to Oklahoma, while painful, could be the jolt this offense needed.
Closing Thoughts On Alabama
Losing is never good. And this one could have been avoided. But Alabama didn’t collapse. They didn’t unravel. They played good football, made mistakes, and walked out reflecting and re-routing. That matters. The defense proved it can anchor. The offense showed flashes of excellence. Coach Kalen DeBoer’s program didn’t suddenly crumble—it simply paused for a moment, against a championship level defense, led by a mastermind.
If the Tide has championship DNA—and I believe Alabama still does—then what Saturday offered is another much-needed wake-up call. In the age of NIL dollars, transfer portal chaos, superconferences and 12-team playoff gauntles, sometimes it takes more than one loss to truly round a football team into its best form.
This is gut-check time. No more mulligans. The season hangs in balance, yes, but the direction remains upward.
Whether the Tide finish in December with an SEC Championship banner, a playoff berth or a bowl game remains unknown. But if Alabama does rise from the kind of loss it just took? That’ll tell us everything. Alabama, you’ve still got unfinished business. You were one play away from locking up a playoff berth on Saturday, which is still very much there for the taking.
Let’s see if you’re good enough to collect it on the Plains.
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