What Kalen DeBoer Said After Alabama Defeated Oklahoma in the First Round of the College Football Playoff

NORMAN, Okla. -- No. 9 Alabama went into Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium and fell into a 17-0 hole in its first round College Football Playoff game against No. 8 Oklahoma. The Crimson Tide proceeded to score 27 straight points to take the lead. The Crimson Tide won the game 34-24 and will advance to the College Football Playoff Quarterfinal against the Indiana Hoosiers in the Rose Bowl.

Head coach Kalen DeBoer spent time with the media after the game to discuss what went right and wrong for his program in the dramatic first round game.

This story will be updated with a transcript and a video from Alabama's post game press conference.

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DeBoer - We weren't going after the punt, the ball got dropped and picked up the ball. Field position is so critical and so that was huge. Takeaways and the field position was kind of the opposite of the first game. We got the shorter field and took advantage of it.

DeBoer - What's done is done (In the SEC Title) but we wanted to take advantage of our opportunity. Having a couple weeks and getting back healthy was key for us. We know we can become the team we're capable of. Just everyone owning our issues and being all in was really the case since the game two weeks ago.

DeBoer - Ty seemed pretty confident. I think it just goes back to just getting one score. Even a 10-point game going into half. Just chip away. A year ago in this very place we had said just get one score. Just get one. Those are things we talked about in the offseason. Even at the end it flips the other way. The games can go fast, but it's a long game.

DeBoer - Just really if they want to be aggressive and have an incomplete pass you've seen us go down and get points to end a half. Just keep applying pressure. Make them snap it again. They weren't far from being in his range either. That's just how we've played.

DeBoer - The guy's got a great ability to seperate. Winning before you catch the ball and the other one after the ball is in his hands. He's pretty loose and easy going. Sometimes we have to reel him in a little bit. He came out and had a great game.

DeBoer - Talty making his field goals and not letting the wind affect him. I'm really proud of him. He's just continued to work, no finger pointing ever. We know there's going to be more battles ahead. We know Indiana has a special team and is having a special season.

DeBoer - This group is tight enough to where there's never been any finger pointing. If you just keep fighting you're going to force them to make a mistake. The game came back to us and we were able to make some plays.

DeBoer - I just saw a guy (Ty Simpson) committed to bringing energy. The quarterback is so important to everything. He said I'm going to give everything I've got last night and that's just huge. Him pulling the ball on some RPOs was really critical. I feel like they made some diving catches and guys started making plays for him and we found a way to move the ball.

DeBoer - Especially on the road, we couldn't overcome. A lot of times it's just guys making plays and continuing to stay the course. How you chip away. You can't score a 17-point touchdown. You've got to go one score. I was feeling good before the Zabien Brown score. The field position flipped in the second half. We got the punt-blocked there and it carried us.

DeBoer - We went for it earlier, but we had faith in Conor Talty. When we got the lead, taking it to a two-score lead it was an easy choice.

Simpson - There wasn't any doubt in my mind at all. 17-nothing is nothing to us.

Lawson - I just think we're a resilient team. Coach DeBoer says just keep playing and the game will come back to you.

Lawson - No we weren't expecting 50 Cent but we listen to Many Men every Friday.

Simpson - What did Kobe say, we're not done.

Simpson - I just expect Lotzeir to make a play like that. Germie made a great play. We have 85 scholarship players who are big time players.

Simpson - Thank you guys for writing us off. Ya'll tried to say we weren't good and it fueled us.

Deontae Lawson - We knew we had to be aggressive. We knew we had to get the best field position for our offense and be aggressive there.

Ty Simpson - Just keep going, Lotzeir made a really good play and I just knew we had to keep going.

Deboer - I couldn't be more proud of the guys, the resiliency they showed. They really stayed the course and each side of the ball kept making plays.

Grubb - The offensive line starting lineup is the starting lineup but really it's about keeping guys fresh.

Wommack - You don't win those games without great culture. That wasn't what we were a year ago and we faught to get there in the fourth quarter and offseason program. We've learned how to fight and we have a culture of fighters.

Grubb - There's a finality to playoff football. Everything feels on edge. Sometimes the win or go home mentality puts a different feeling into the game.

Grubb - Josh Cuevas is one of the toughest kids I've ever seen play football. To do what he did was unbelievable. You think about TO coming back in the Super Bowl with stories like Josh. His mindset and perserverence is special.

Grubb - Ebs in flow in every game and certainly some looks I thought we needed to get back to. The guys did a good job executuing. Venables does a great job of showing a lot of pictures. We had to get Ty some looks. It wasn't perfect but we had some really big blitz pickups.

Grubb - Jam did a good job, we tried to limit his reps but he did a nice job.

Wommack - We talked about it before the game they would use wrinkles. I thought they had a great plan early on. The quarterback was dialed in. We didn't affect him but then we started to and it started to change things. Finding a way to settle in and being ready to adjust. We haven't played a lot of man coverage but that's what we needed to do and our DBs were begging for it. Our players won the game with sheer will.

Grubb - I just had a feeling Lotzeir was in a position to make plays and no one was surprised he made those plays.

Grubb- Coach Shephard is at Oregon State so Tyler Hughes was on the sideline so I felt like I had to move upstairs. Didn't have the normal guys in the booth and felt like I needed to be up there to have good pictures.

Wommack - When you can not only flip the field but score its huge. When you're down like that to get something going. They had a good plan and they changed tendency a lot. Our players did a really good job of adjusting and we saw something we thought we could bait them into and Zabien made a great play.

Kane Wommack - Great fight by our football team. Way to protect the sideline. To be down 17-0. Think about where we've gone and where we are a year ago. We keep punching and that's the only way you come back from being down 17-0. Our guys are doing a great job of putting themselves in position. That was a good team win.