Alabama's Season-Long Flaws Prove Fatal in Rose Bowl Loss

PASADENA, Calif.–– Some of Alabama's season-long flaws became fatal during the Crimson Tide's 38-3 blowout loss to Indiana in the Rose Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal. Slow starts and an inept rushing attack have plagued Alabama all year and were once again issues in the season-ending loss.

The Hoosiers proved why they were the No. 1 team in America and looked dominant from start to finish. Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti famously worked under Nick Saban at Alabama for five season, and his team's performance in the Rose Bowl was reminiscent of Alabama teams under Saban. The 35-point loss is Alabama's worst margin of defeat since 1998.

Indiana got the ball first, and Alabama sacked Fernando Mendoza twice on the opening possession, and the offense responded with a drive into Indiana territory. That drive stalled out at the Indiana 41, just outside or field goal range, forcing Alabama to punt. Momentum still appeared to be on the Crimson Tide's side when the Hoosiers were pinned inside their own 5-yard line.

However, Indiana responded with a back-breaking drive that melted nearly nine minutes off the clock, culminating in a field goal. From that point on, it was all Hoosiers. Alabama gambled on a fourth-and-1 from its own 34 on the next possession, and the gamble failed. Indiana capitalized with a touchdown to go up 10-0 and never looked back.

Alabama was unable to put together a competent rushing attack all year long. Once again, the Tide did not run the ball effectively on Thursday, which put a lot of pressure on Ty Simpson's shoulders. Simpson was benched because of injury after Alabama's first drive of the second half. Simpson was 12-of-16 for 67 yards with a fumble before exiting the game.

The Tide only mustered 23 rushing yards. The longest run of the night was Simpson's nine-yard scramble that he eventually fumbled. It is the eighth time this season that the team has rushed for less than 100 yards in a game.

Trying to beat any top-10 team with that few rushing yards is going to be really challenging. The Hoosiers piled on 215 rushing yards against the Tide defense with five rushing plays of 12 yards or more.

"I think that's what you would always love to see as the head coach, things we used to preach when I was at Alabama, about changing the way they think, breaking their will, and that's the best way to do it, running the football," Cignetti said after the game. "It takes a while. It doesn't happen in the first quarter, the second quarter, it happens in the second half at some point, hopefully, when you're able to achieve that goal."

Breaking an opponent's will with a pounding ground game was something Alabama did not accomplish all year.

Another issue for Alabama this season has been slow starts. Including the Rose Bowl, the Crimson Tide has fallen behind a combined 62-0 in its last three games. Trailing early against an Oklahoma team with a lesser offense was one thing, but trying to erase a 24-point deficit against the No. 1 team in the country with the Heisman winner at quarterback was asking for the impossible.

Alabama trailed 17-0 at halftime and got the ball coming out of the half to cut into the deficit but went three-and-out instead. The Crimson Tide only scored a touchdown on its opening possession of the second half three times this season. (One of those three was against FCS Eastern Illinois.)

"Wasn't our night on offense," Simpson said. "Hats off to them, they did a good job. Just kind of the way the dice rolls sometimes."

Indiana's lead ballooned to 35 points in the fourth quarter as the Hoosiers became the first team to score more than 30 points on the Alabama defense since Week 1 against Florida State. Alabama got the closest it had gotten to scoring all day on Austin Mack's first drive at quarterback. A negative play on second-and-goal put Alabama back to the 10, and Alabama ended up settling for a field goal to cut the deficit to 24-3 instead of going for a touchdown.

Every time that Alabama has lost the turnover battle this season, it has also lost the game. That trend continued on Thursday. Alabama only turned it over once on Simpson's fumble late in the second half, but the Tide defense could never force a turnover of its own.

Alabama has been a good third-down defense this year, coming into the game only allowing teams to convert with a 35 percent success rate, but the Hoosiers were 9-of-14 on third down against the Crimson Tide. Because of this, Indiana was able to have heavy control over the clocking, finishing with a time of possession of 34:21.

Crimson Tide wide receiver Germie Bernard said Alabama wasn't surprised by anything Indiana did.

"We've done a great job of watching film," Bernard said. "Our coaches did a great job of putting a great game plan together for us. But you know, it just comes down to us being able to execute, and we didn't execute to our best abilities. They just capitalized off all the mistakes we made, and it made it a rough game for us."

All these issues and more were way too much to overcome against a team as talented and efficient as No. 1 Indiana. Alabama's talent has allowed it to override its inefficiencies for most of this season. If one side of the ball was struggling, the other would step up. When a timely turnover was needed, the defense would force a takeaway.

Alabama prided itself on being unbreakable this season, but Indiana broke the Crimson Tide on Thursday night. The same things that caused issues all season led to the team's ultimate unraveling.

The Hoosiers (14-0) move on to face No. 4 Oregon in the Peach Bowl semifinal. Alabama's 2025 season and Year 2 under Kalen DeBoer ends with an 11-4 record.

"Frustrated, upset and it doesn't sit well with us, but after today, all we can do is move on," DeBoer said.

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