A week after being ranked the No. 1 team in the country according to the AP poll, Alabama lost to unranked Vanderbilt and is now 1-1 in SEC play.
Plenty went wrong for the Crimson Tide during the matchup. Here is the good, the bad and the ugly in the upset loss to the Commodores.
The good
Jalen Milroe once again performed well, completing 18 of 24 passes for 310 yards with a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown. He was responsible for 81% of the total offensive yards.
Running back Jam Miller made the most of his five carries, adding 45 yards and two rushing touchdowns. The rushing attack as a whole had four touchdowns.
Receivers Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard both performed well. Williams notched three catches for 82 yards and a 58-yard touchdown and added a rushing touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Bernard added three catches for 70 yards, including a 47-yard catch on the Crimson Tide’s last scoring drive of the game.
The tight ends were active in the passing game, as CJ Dippre, Josh Cuevas and Robbie Ouzts combined to have five catches for 97 yards.
Linebacker Que Robinson performed exceptionally, adding three tackles for loss.
The bad
The Crimson Tide offense had two critical turnovers during the game. The first was a Milroe pass intended for Williams that got intercepted and returned for a touchdown early on in the game.
“I need to have better eye discipline and read the coverage better, and that’s on me,” Milroe said. “I take all ownership of that because I shouldn’t have put Ryan in that situation.”
The second turnover was another momentum changer, as Alabama was driving with the chance to take the lead in the fourth quarter, but right tackle Elijah Pritchett allowed Vanderbilt’s Miles Capers to rush through and get a strip-sack on Milroe.
Alabama struggled to stop tight end Eli Stowers, as he had six catches for 113 yards and lead the charge for the Commodores offense.
The Crimson Tide defense committed two costly penalties during a Vanderbilt drive that resulted in a touchdown. The team was flagged on a fourth down because Williams and defensive back Zabien Brown were both wearing the same jersey number while on the field, and Robinson was flagged for roughing the passer on a later third down. Both plays gave the Commodores a new set of downs.
“We’ve gotta continue to do a better job of just being disciplined,” DeBoer said.
The ugly
The Alabama defense struggled to stop quarterback Diego Pavia, who completed 16 of 20 passes for 252 yards and two touchdowns while adding 56 yards on the ground.
The defense couldn’t get off the field on third down, allowing the Commodores’ offense to go 12-18 on third-down tries.
“[Pavia] keeps things alive with his feet,” DeBoer said. “Whether it was third down or just other downs.”
The Alabama defense didn’t force any turnovers or sacks during the game, further allowing the Commodores offense to stay on the field.
“Obviously as a defense, you wanna get takeaways, which we failed at,” Robinson said following the loss. “So it gave them more opportunities to convert on third and fourth downs.”
As a result, Vanderbilt had just over 42 minutes of possession during the game, compared to only 18 minutes for the Crimson Tide.
Linebacker Deontae Lawson said he hopes the defense can “learn from it.” The team will hope to rebound against South Carolina this upcoming week and shake off the loss.
Alabama plays the Gamecocks at home on Saturday at 11 a.m. CT. Fans can watch the game on ABC.
