Alabama football: Where do Kalen DeBoer and Tide go from here?

Happy Monday everyone. As mentioned over the weekend, I didn't get a chance to watch the game on Saturday, and honestly I still haven't, but a look at the full game highlight reels, commentary and box scores provides a pretty clear picture of what happened.

In my opinion, Vanderbilt is much better than usual and will continue to develop. I don't think they'll be out of contention much this season because it's difficult to defend them.

Still, the way that game was won is very difficult to replicate, as Colin Gay noted.

The Commodores averaged 5.5 yards per play and 3.1 yards per rush – both less than Alabama's offensive output – but ran 29 more plays than the Crimson Tide with an offensive game plan that was as close to a triple option as the Defense probably wants to see this all season long.

On these third down attempts, Vanderbilt averaged nearly 7 yards. Three of Vanderbilt's five touchdowns came on third down, including Diego Pavia's 6-yard backbreaker to Kamrean Johnson.

“It was hard to get off the field on third down,” Alabama linebacker Deontae Lawson said. “And then penalties, penalties hurt us early. And that gave us some long rides. And then I just got beat because of man-to-man coverage.”

Alabama's offense averaged 8.8 yards per play in the game, which is a ridiculous number. For reference, that's a full yard more than the season average for the great 2020 Alabama squad. Defensively, the Tide was very good against the run. Yes, Vanderbilt scored 166 points on the floor, but it took 53 attempts to get there.

All Alabama needed to lose to Vanderbilt was an offense that converted on 3rd or 4th downs 13/18 times when they averaged 7 yards to go, another conversion on a penalty because two Players on the punt team wore the same jersey number, a pick six after a deflection that shouldn't have existed, and another turnover. And that's while the opponent only commits three penalties on the day (ahem), doesn't turn the ball over at all, and converts on 3rd or 4th 77% of the time (including Alabama's assist, which doesn't count as a conversion). the box score.)

The fact that the defense is giving up too much in the passing game is hardly a coincidence at this point. They certainly need to get better. But like most crazy upsets in college football, there was a coincidence in how this game ended. You just don't lose often when you average three more yards per snap than your opponent.

The good news is that this team only has to deal with lavish praise for one week. As expected, they are now among the doubters.

Five teams in the top 11 of the AP Poll were eliminated on Saturday, prompting serious scrutiny of my rankings. But I tried not to overreact to Alabama's 40-35 loss at Vanderbilt or Tennessee's 19-14 loss at Arkansas.

I still see the Tide and Vols getting in, even though Tennessee beats Alabama in two weeks and the Tide are creeping toward the bottom of the overall pecking order. (This scenario assumes an SEC title game between Texas and Georgia.)

I've considered transferring to Texas A&M, but I'd like to see more than a great performance against Missouri.

In theory, Alabama's CFP hopes remain largely intact with an 81 percent chance of making the bracket The athlete's model. In reality – panic! As explosive as Kalen DeBoer's offense is (it averaged 8.6 yards per play but suffered from a Milroe fumble and a fluky pick six), his defense has allowed 60 points in the last six quarters. That includes a total of five passing touchdowns from Pavia and Georgia's Carson Beck. DeBoer and DC Kane Wommack, who left his head coaching job at South Alabama for this gig, need to find answers quickly.

In the meantime, Paul Finebaum's callers assume that Monday will be particularly busy. DeBoer was always held to unattainable standards as Saban's successor, and that's how it begins. As many will note, Saban's teams have only lost to an unranked opponent once in his last 16 seasons (2021 at Texas A&M). But Saban lost to Louisiana-Monroe in his first season as a 24.5-point favorite. The spread on Saturday was 22.5.

How they respond from here will determine their season and give us an idea of ​​what the new coaching staff is really made of.

As Chase Goodbread notes, Jalen Milroe took full responsibility for his role in the loss.

Vanderbilt linebacker De'Rickey Wright, a Gadsden Alabama native, broke up the pass and appeared to make contact with Williams from behind a little early, but Milroe praised the Commodores' defensive work on the game.

“He did a good job,” Milroe said of Wright. “I have to discipline my eyes and read the reports better. That's up to me. I have to protect the football, so I take full responsibility for that.”

This is a sophisticated way to handle an interception that occurs through a deflection. It was only the second pick Milroe had thrown this season, and the first one, against Georgia, wasn't his fault either. Still, the fourth-year senior believes he should have looked for another receiver for the game.

That's noble of him, but the fact is we want him to get the ball out early. It was by no means a terrible decision and should have been flagged for pass interference. The last thing we want is Jalen holding the ball again because of a single play. We take 18/24 for 310 every week.

Finally, Malachi Moore's antics towards the end of the game were embarrassing, as Damien Harris pointed out.

“NO. 13, Malachi Moore, brother, I don't know you. I'm not trying to disrespect you. But what you did on that football field last night was complete and absolute (expletive). You're a two-time captain. Someone who “Your hand and your footprint in Denny Chimes. How did you show up yesterday?” Harris said. “The only thing I remember is you hitting the guy's head on the ground unnecessarily the mouthpiece. Not even in a way that no one is looking. For example: “I'm bigger than the game.” I'm bigger than this moment. Look at me pissed I am. Look at what I have to say about that. “Let me give you a ridiculous 15 yard penalty for no apparent reason.” And you call yourself a two-time captain?”

Overall, DeBoer seems to identify better with this generation of players, but this behavior definitely requires some sort of internal discipline. I don't know what that looks like, but I wasn't entirely happy with Kalen's comment on the subject after the game. We all like to see passion from players, but the whole episode was testy nonsense that shouldn't be accepted. Lack of discipline in one area tends to affect others.

Alabama now has to move to South Carolina, but that will be talked about for a while. Hopefully DeBoer and his company will be able to eliminate the flavor of this problem and get to work fixing the deficiencies.

Roll Tide.