Alabama Defeats Oklahoma: An In-Depth Game Recap & Reaction

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00:00What a game.

00:01I mean, round one last year with all the favorites and blowout city.

00:05Not last night.

00:06We saw a dynamic effort in the first quarter by Oklahoma.

00:10They build a 17-0 first quarter lead.

00:13They never look back.

00:14And then all of a sudden, with about four minutes left in the second quarter,

00:18John Matier had a huge play to Xavier Robinson, incomplete.

00:23The following punt gets blocked.

00:25Alabama scores, and then all of a sudden, a pick six turns the momentum,

00:30and Alabama pulls away, wins it in dominating fashion.

00:33The over comes in.

00:35Oklahoma goes home, and Alabama moves on.

00:39And all the questions for Alabama in the SEC championship game, Donnie,

00:44that couldn't be answered were answered last night.

00:46Dominant road effort by the Crimson Tide.

00:49We're going to get into that game in just a few moments here,

00:51but understand the stakes set today.

00:52Three games, Joe.

00:54Joe, first game's going to kick off today.

00:55That's Miami and Texas A&M.

00:56Probably going to be the game of the day,

00:57then followed by back-to-back games where the group of five certainly gets involved in action.

01:02But I do want to say this.

01:03The people out there, if you were watching that football game last night,

01:06and if you thought Matier made the wrong,

01:08oh, he should have ran for six yards in the first down.

01:10That's a touchdown.

01:11He threw a perfect ball to a running back that was dropped.

01:14That could have been a game-changing play.

01:16So, Joe, before we get to those games this afternoon and sort of give that preview,

01:19I do want to take a look at last night and also the lead-up to it

01:22because we had Alabama as a favorite roughly since that line opened up.

01:26Late action this week on Oklahoma.

01:28I actually thought, Joe, Oklahoma was probably the right move in that game.

01:3117 to nothing.

01:33How did Alabama get up off the carpet?

01:35Well, I mean, obviously defensive stops and momentum shifts.

01:39Turnovers always create momentum shifts.

01:42We've seen it throughout the college football playoff.

01:44Oklahoma was in a similar spot basically in 2016 when they faced off against Georgia

01:50and Kirby Smart.

01:51They had an 18-point first-half lead.

01:54Second-half adjustments by Kirby Smart.

01:56Georgia allowed Sonny Michelle and Nick Chubb to pull away

01:59and win that ballgame in double overtime.

02:02You have to maintain the momentum and seize the opportunity.

02:06And let's keep an eye out.

02:08The two weeks off, really, you know, teams came out rusty.

02:11Alabama came out rusty.

02:13Oklahoma came out sharp.

02:15So, that's what we want to see today.

02:16But you talk about momentum shifts, second-half adjustments.

02:20I mean, second-half, Oklahoma was a dead-and-buried football team

02:24because of the turnovers, because of the lack of explosive plays in the second half.

02:29And, again, Mateer made the right read.

02:31Xavier Robinson is a running back.

02:33He's not a wide receiver.

02:35He drops that ball.

02:36Could have been 24-7.

02:38Could have been lights out.

02:39I will say you could have gotten great value at Alabama plus money once that happened, Donnie.

02:44And it was astounding trying to watch that game as it played out

02:47because Oklahoma looked like they might drop the hammer, Joe,

02:49win that game by four-plus touchdowns early in the game.

02:52But the one thing that you do understand,

02:54you cannot make the easy mistakes to let the other team get back into the game, Joe.

02:58Like, you can't drop a punt when you're punting it.

03:03What's the equivalent?

03:04Shaquille O'Neal under the rim missing a layup?

03:06Like, Joe, how does it happen?

03:07Well, we talk about specials.

03:09If you watch the first half with Alabama, I mean,

03:11Taltia and their special teams, their punter,

03:14were atrocious in the first half, gave field position to Oklahoma,

03:18and then Oklahoma gave it right back to Alabama with a drop punt.

03:22That was a huge momentum shift.

03:24But if Xavier Robinson does catch that football, Donnie,

03:28it could have been at least 20-7.

03:30You stopped the bleeding at that point.

03:32But unfortunately, Oklahoma couldn't do it, and it's a four-quarter game.

03:36So, again, we got to monitor momentum shifts today.

03:39The underdogs did step up last night.

03:42We saw a lot of underdogs step up in the bowl season so far.

03:46So, again, when you look at these matchups, Ole Miss-Tulane, James Madison-Oregon,

03:51turnovers, teams that seized the opportunity and score points early

03:56could put pressure on opposing teams.

03:58But, again, credit Kaelin DeBoer, credit Ty Simpson,

04:02and more importantly, credit that Alabama defense for coming up with major stops last night.

04:06I see it like a three-score lead early in that game.

04:09The momentum is getting out of whack, and it also makes you one-dimensional

04:12because the question marks that were coming up for Alabama was they can't run the football, Joe.

04:16If you would have just gave me a box score at the end of this game

04:18and said Alabama ran for 28 yards in the game, they'd probably get smoked.

04:21But understand this, as I just pointed out.

04:23Drop a football, which leads right to a scoring drive.

04:26And how about before the half, Joe?

04:27You're trying to get extra points on the board for Oklahoma.

04:30You have a miscommunication that leads to the easiest pick six you're ever going to find out.

04:34And all of a sudden, a 17-0 lead turns into 17-17, and that crowd went silent.

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