The Alabama Crimson Tide fell to the Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday afternoon by a score of 40-35 on Saturday afternoon on the road in Nashville.
It’s a jaw-dropping defeat for the Tide and the worst loss for Alabama since they fell to Louisiana-Monroe at home in Nick Saban’s first season in 2007. The argument can be made that this is an even worse defeat for the Tide with DeBoer not exactly having to build a program from scratch in taking over for Saban.
The game was marked by shockingly poor defense from the Crimson Tide in pretty much all facets, but by far the worst of it coming on third down. The Commodores had already converted a ridiculous 12 of their 18 third down attempts headed into a last drive where Alabama needed a stop.
Trailing 40-35 with just over two minutes left, Alabama forced a negative play on first down but gave up another long pass on 2nd and 12 to push the game to the brink. Vanderbilt never faced a third down on the final possession, giving up a 13-yard rush on the very next play followed up by a 3-yard run and an 8-yard run to put the game on ice.
All tolled, the Tide gave up 419 yards of offense including 252 through the air and 167 yards on the ground. Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia will haunt Alabama’s nightmares with over 300 total yards and two passing touchdowns.
Eli Stowers caught six passes for 113 yards and Sedrick Alexander rushed for two touchdowns himself.
It was a fine day for the Alabama offense with over 400 yards total and 300 through the air for Jalen Milroe, but ultimately a fourth quarter fumble from Milroe when the team had the ball within one score for the first time of the second half led to yet another Commodores touchdown.
Alabama pulled within five once again after another long touchdown drive, but ultimately DeBoer decided not to try an onside kick with just under three minutes left and three timeouts remaining, but as had been the theme all day, no stop could be made.
Alabama must regroup and quickly with everything still in front of them if they want it to be. They will likely have to win out from here to have any chance at an SEC title, but if they ever needed a wake up call, they got one this afternoon.
The Tide host South Carolina next week at Bryant-Denny Stadium at 11 a.m. CST.
Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.
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