No. 7 Alabama’s hopes of an SEC title are over and a College Football Playoff appearance looks highly, highly unlikely after a 24-3 loss at Oklahoma.
The Crimson Tide were 14-point favorites but Oklahoma took control of the game with a pair of third-quarter interceptions and its pass rush collapsed the pocket on QB Jalen Milroe all night.
The Sooners scored late in the second quarter to take a 10-3 lead into halftime. On Alabama’s third play of the second half, freshman cornerback Eli Bowen got his first career interception when he jumped a short screen to fellow freshman Ryan Williams and returned the ball to the Alabama 14-yard line.
Oklahoma went up 14 five plays later when Xavier Robinson got his second rushing TD of the night.
Alabama’s next possession lasted five more plays but had the same result. Milroe got picked off by Kip Lewis and Lewis returned it 49 yards for a pick 6.
Any hope Alabama had of a comeback disappeared in the fourth quarter during a bizarre — and likely incorrect — officiating sequence. Williams appeared to make a phenomenal fourth-down TD catch to cut Oklahoma’s lead to two scores. But a flag was thrown well after the play began. The call ended up being for illegal touching, as officials said Williams had been illegally covered up on the line of scrimmage.
However, replays showed that Williams was the only receiver on his side of the field lined up on the line of scrimmage. With a tight end also on that side of the formation, Alabama had seven players lined up on the ball with the two receivers flanking Williams each lined up behind the line.
To be clear, the call isn’t the reason Alabama lost. Three turnovers and the inability to run the ball are much bigger factors.
Oklahoma did a fantastic job keeping Milroe contained. His longest run of the game was just 11 yards. He was also ineffective as a passer and finished just 11-of-26 passing for 164 yards. The three points Alabama scored are the fewest any Crimson Tide team has scored since 2004.
The Sooners, meanwhile, are bowl-eligible with a sixth win and keep alive a bowl streak that dates back to 1998.
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Missing the playoff will go down as a serious failure for Alabama in coach Kalen DeBoer’s first season replacing Nick Saban. And it’s hard to see how Alabama gets into the playoff barring even more chaos during the final week of the regular season.
Alabama now sits at 8-3 overall and 4-3 in the SEC. The Crimson Tide are out of SEC title contention with four teams ahead of them in the standings.
And those four teams — Texas, Texas A&M, Georgia and Tennessee — all have much clearer paths to the College Football Playoff, especially if the Aggies beat the Longhorns and win the SEC title game despite their four-overtime loss to Auburn Saturday night. The SEC entered Week 13 with six teams vying to make the postseason. Now that group is down to four and maybe even three … barring more chaos.
Alabama needs to hope that Georgia loses to Georgia Tech or Tennessee falls to Vanderbilt in Week 14 while Texas takes down Texas A&M. That would leave one one-loss team in the SEC and just one two-loss team. And that may not be enough to keep Alabama in playoff contention barring what happens in the ACC.
Under Saban, Alabama made the four-team playoff eight times in 10 seasons. In the first year of the 12-team playoff, the Crimson Tide look like they could miss out unless things get wilder over the next two weeks.