Bama Rallies past Sooners, Stun Oklahoma, 34-24
After a disastrous start, Bama righted the ship and beat the Sooners in Norman.
By: Dave in Tuscaloosa
It was getting very bad. At the end of the first quarter, the hometown Oklahoma Sooners were rolling over Alabama, and it wasn’t even close. Holding a yardage advantage of 118 to 12, and with a 10-0 lead, the raucous Sooner crowd at Memorial Stadium could feel a historic evening was coming which would include the first playoff victory ever, and one in Norman as well (the Sooners were 0-4 prior to Friday in the CFP). After John Mateer found Isaiah Sategna III for a 7-yard touchdown pass at the 10:51 mark of the second quarter and gave Oklahoma a commanding 17-0 lead, the party was just getting started for Sooner Nation. The naysayers were screaming loudly, once again claiming that a three-loss Tide did not belong in the playoffs. Heck, Notre Dame or BYU should have been there instead of Kalen DeBoer’s Bama squad, right? Moreover, the Tide had been slowly fading after a tremendous first half of the season, as the last month had seen a tired Alabama squad that was coming off a 28-7 drubbing in the SEC Championship game at the hands of the Georgia Bulldogs. The dirt was being shoveled on the coffin of Alabama’s once promising 2025 season.
However, football is a funny game, and in the span of six minutes, the momentum of the contest turned, and the Tide not only began to show life but began to take control of the game. In the end, Bama found the spark they had been missing since defeating Tennessee in mid-October and avenged an earlier loss to the Sooners with a stunning 34-24 win in the first round of the College Football Playoffs. The win was Bama’s nation leading 10th playoff victory in the modern era and propelled the 9th seeded Tide to a quarterfinal matchup with top seed Indiana in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day. In addition, Kalen DeBoer became the first head coach to win a playoff game with two different schools. The win was a seminal moment for DeBoer and the post-Saban Tide. Bama showed a degree of grit and resilience that would make any skeptic a true believer in the boys in crimson and white. Indeed, the win not only advanced the Tide in the playoffs but offered excitement and hope of great days to come for the proud Bama Nation under DeBoer.
The end result was stunning on numerous levels. Oklahoma fed off the home crowd and incredible playoff atmosphere and opened the game firing on all cylinders while the Tide failed to pick up a first down until midway through the second quarter. While Oklahoma looked dominant, Bama looked out of sorts and overmatched early, although Bama coaches and players displayed an unusual calm throughout the early storm. Tide quarterback Ty Simpson and his offensive line did not start to get their footing until late in the second quarter. In the Sooner’s 23-21 win over Alabama in Tuscaloosa a month earlier, Oklahoma fed on Bama turnovers and special teams miscues to earn their most significant victory of the year. Yet on Friday, the Tide completely turned the script on the Sooners as they were the ones that took advantage of Oklahoma miscues. In round one, Ty Simpson threw a pick-six that got the Sooners rolling in Tuscaloosa. In Norman, it was John Mateer who threw a costly pick-six that allowed Bama to even the score at 17 before the half. In addition, a muffed punt and a missed short field goal against the Sooners during their first game doomed Alabama. In the rematch, Oklahoma’s usually reliable special teams units failed as their punter dropped the ball right before punting that would result in a Bama field goal and cut the Sooner lead to 17-10 late in the second quarter. In the fourth quarter and with Oklahoma trailing by 10, Oklahoma kicker Tate Sandell, who won this year’s Lou Groza Award as the nation’s top placekicker, missed field goal attempts of 37 and 51 yards that would have pulled the Sooners within a touchdown each time.
As is often the case, a single play could help sway the momentum of a contest, and that is what happened on Friday night. After a touchdown run by Mateer, a TD pass to Sategna, and a 51-yard field goal from Sandell gave Oklahoma a 17-0 lead in the second quarter, Alabama would rally and score the game’s next 27 points. It started with a desperate Alabama offense entering their fourth drive of the game looking for their initial first down of the game. Alabama faced a 3rd and 5 from their own 30 and were in danger of their fourth straight three and out. Instead, Simpson found freshman receiver Lotzeir Brooks for 29 yards and the Tide’s initial first down. Later in the drive, Bama faced a fourth and two from the Oklahoma 10-yard line. Bypassing a field goal. Bama went for it and Simpson connected with Brooks again on a 10-yard catch and run for the Tide’s first touchdown of the game. After Bama’s Conor Talty hit a 35-yard field goal to cut the Sooner lead to 17-10, John Mateer made a huge mistake that fully turned the momentum in favor of Alabama. He failed to pick up on a disguised coverage and threw the ball right to Bama corner Zabien Brown, who made the interception and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown that evened the score at 17 going into halftime.
With all the momentum on their side, Alabama began to take control of the game. Bama’s defense settled down after a shaky start, Kane Wommack’s unit played brilliantly. The front seven pressured Mateer and sacked him five times while they completely shut down the Sooner’s rushing attack, which finished the day with only 55 yards on 33 carries. The Tide offense that had struggled for a month began to make plays. The rushing attack continued to struggle, but a few key plays were actually made on the ground, including a 30-yard Daniel Hill run (Bama’s longest gain on the ground since week two) that set up a beautiful 30-yard Simpson to Brooks touchdown pass that gave the Tide their first lead of the game, 24-17, at the 11:21 mark of the third quarter. Talty would add his second field goal of the game from 40 yards out to give Alabama a shocking 27-17 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Mateer and Oklahoma answered with their first points since the second quarter and when Mateer hit Deion Burks from 37 yards out to cut the lead to 27-24 with 14:45 left to go in the contest, the Oklahoma faithful’s hope in a third victory in a year against the Tide was alive. However, after an exchange of punts, Bama took advantage of a short Oklahoma punt and found themselves set up on the Sooner 35-yard line. Four plays later, Daniel Hill reached the endzone from 6 yards out to increase the Tide lead to 10 with 7:24 left in the game. The teams exchanged punts before Mateer would lead the Sooners on an 8-play, 44-yard drive that stalled at the Bama 18-yard line. In one of the most surprising plays of the game, Sandell would miss his first field goal since the season opener from 36 yards out and with 2:53 left in the game, it was the Sooners who became desperate. Oklahoma would get the ball back with 1:41 to go in the game, but all hope of a Sooner win faded away when Sandell missed his second field goal of the quarter, this time coming up short on a 51-yard attempt that ended the contest at 34-24.
For Alabama, the offensive statistics were ugly: Simpson did end the day going 18 for 29, 232 yards and 2 touchdowns but receivers dropped several passes and the offense could muster just 262 total yards to the Sooners 362. Third downs were a struggle, as Bama converted on only 2 of 12 attempts. However, the guts and determination displayed by the visitors ultimately pulled Bama through. Sorrow turned to jubilation for Tide Nation and hopes are high that Alabama can keep the momentum going as the Hoosiers await in Pasadena.
