Alabama’s Monday reset after the Tennessee loss came with no sugarcoating and no soft edges.
The Crimson Tide were beaten 26-10 in Knoxville, their second straight regular-season loss - the first time that has happened since 2007, Nick Saban’s first year in Tuscaloosa - and the fallout is simple: if Alabama wants to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive, the margin for error is gone. LSU is still on the schedule, but first comes Texas A&M this Saturday in Tuscaloosa, and there’s no room for another flat showing.
Kalen DeBoer, along with offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb and defensive coordinator Kane Wommack, met with reporters to start the week, and the message from the trio was blunt. Grubb didn’t hide from the offensive mess.
He said he thought he had a good game plan, then admitted he didn’t. He said he’s “pissed off.”
He called the loss embarrassing. He also said the plan may have been too much, which could have made Alabama play slow, and said that in that kind of environment he needed to get Keelon Russell playing faster.
Grubb also didn’t dance around the second-half drought. He said it’s “pathetic” that Alabama hasn’t scored a touchdown in the second half for the past two weeks.
The first drive in Knoxville drew particular attention, with Grubb saying the early plays put the Crimson Tide behind the chains. He said he needs to find the right balance with Russell between sitting in the pocket and getting the quarterback on the move, and he added that the opening series had nothing to do with anything Tennessee did defensively that Alabama hadn’t expected.
The sacks have become part of the problem, too. Grubb said that “the sacks have really been adding up,” and he made clear the offense has been hurt badly by it.
Asked about balancing consistency and explosive plays, he said the two go together, with consistency creating the explosives. He closed by saying the offense is “tough as hell,” and insisted the players didn’t quit even when the game was mostly out of reach.
Wommack followed with a defense-first view of the defeat. He said Alabama simply didn’t do enough to win, though he pointed to some positive moments in the first half when the Tide got stops after Tennessee opened with short fields. He also said the players started pressing in the fourth quarter and need to fall back on doing their jobs.
Perimeter screens were a recurring theme, and Wommack said the answer is a mix of coverages throughout the game. Alabama also has to execute when the ball goes outside. When asked about Tennessee quarterback George MacIntyre’s comment that the Volunteers knew Alabama would play off, Wommack said that wasn’t a secret going into the game and that everyone involved needed to do a better job executing.
He also singled out a couple of players. Wommack said Dijon Lee was better in man coverage against Tennessee than he had been before, while Carmelo O’Neal showed some positive signs in zone, but neither was good enough against the perimeter screens.
On the pass rush, Wommack noted that Alabama managed just one sack against Georgia and one against Tennessee, and said both offenses did a good job getting the ball out quickly. Because of the way those games flowed, they were able to keep doing that throughout. He added that Tennessee does a good job using tight ends to create extra gaps in the run game, and said Alabama handled much of that well but can’t allow teams to “bleed” it out late.
Wommack wrapped by saying the defense is tough, physical and plays hard, while also acknowledging there are some fundamental issues to clean up, including overpursuit.
DeBoer then took his turn and put the focus on accountability. He said the standard doesn’t change, and that starts with him and the staff.
Asked about the offensive playcalling, he said it all comes down to execution, describing many of the calls as base calls that Alabama needs to stack together. He said the issue is also about being on the same page and playing team football, adding that intentions “were certainly there,” but early mistakes let Tennessee play the game it wanted to play.
DeBoer was also asked what Alabama can do to get Russell in better spots. His answer was straightforward: keep him comfortable and run what he likes. On the offensive line, he pointed back to what the Crimson Tide does during the week and stressed the value of continuity, while also noting that the atmosphere at Neyland Stadium had an effect.
He also backed Grubb, saying he is “a great playcaller.”
The injury update brought more concerns. DeBoer said Zabien Brown has a lower-leg injury and will be evaluated through the week.
Racin Delgatty and Ryan-Coleman Williams are in the same situation. EJ Crowell also has a lower-leg injury, and Terrance Green is “week-to-week.”
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The encouraging part for Alabama is that the group is being handled on a week-to-week basis, with some players expected back at practice soon. Still, until those bodies return and the Tide can see how quickly they regain rhythm, the conversation around the program is going to be about depth, availability and whether the roster can stabilize fast enough to keep the loss from turning into something more lasting. [Read more 🡒]