Film Room: A Deeper Look Into Alabama's Fourth Quarter Failure Against Texas
Over the last 16 years, Alabama hasn't gotten beaten at its own game very often.
Taking over the program in 2007, Nick Saban created a college football juggernaut on four key principles — discipline, effort, toughness and pride. Those four "pillars" make up Alabama's fourth quarter program.
Even the best teams lose — but Saban would never let his group get outworked mentally and physically in the final 15 minutes of a tough game. Over the last 16 years, if you went into the fourth quarter trailing against Alabama — you might as well get the buses warmed up.
The Crimson Tide's loss to Texas on Saturday night was astonishing for a lot of reasons — but none were as stunning as Alabama's performance in the fourth quarter.
The offense was out of wack throughout the night — but even still, the Crimson Tide took a 16-13 lead into the final frame after a long touchdown in the waning moments of the third quarter.
The momentum was on Alabama's side. The crowd was on Alabama's side. It looked like the Longhorns would come up short for the second consecutive season.
The Crimson Tide was 15 minutes away from picking up an impressive win in Week 2 despite poor offensive play — and keeping itself very much in the national conversation.
Instead, it was Texas that dug deep — while Alabama sat in the dirt still holding its shovel. The Longhorns put together their best quarter of football since Colt McCoy was the quarterback in Austin — outscoring the Crimson Tide 21-8 in the final push to the finish line.
Here's an indication of how bad it was — Alabama went into the fourth quarter with a lead over the No. 11 team in the country. After just 15 minutes of game action, the Crimson Tide's existence in the top tier of the sport is being questioned — and rightfully so.
Roll the tape.
Undisciplined Play in Pass Coverage
Pass interference calls always seem to haunt Alabama late in games.
On this play, Terrion Arnold gets beat by Adonai Mitchell. Rather than attempting to make up the distance lost, Arnold just pulls Mitchell to the ground — and the referee throws the laundry on the field.
The ball looked like it may have been overthrown, but there's no way to know that based off how the play went. Any ball would look overthrown when the receiver's route is halted like that. Arnold was upset about the call, but he didn't give the official any choice but to throw the flag.
It was simply poor technique. And there's no way Saban is coaching that in practice — so why is it happening in the game? Not to mention, it appears Jaylen Key could have come over to support Arnold on the back end. And that's assuming the ball wasn't overthrown. If it was — and it looked like it was — it's an incomplete pass and you get away with a blown coverage.
After a mistake like that, surely the Crimson Tide didn't mess up again, right? Wrong.
The very next play, Ja'Tavion Sanders runs across the middle of the Alabama defense uncovered. I mean, look at all that room.
And not just that but two more missed tackles as well on the back end — and Sanders fights his way inside the 10-yard line.
On the very next play, the Crimson Tide plays the run and leaves Kool-Aid McKinstry in a one-on-one situation with the aforementioned Mitchell.
McKinstry must play Mitchell outside here. Instead, he leaves the middle of the field open and Mitchell makes him look foolish on an easy pass and catch. Any quarterback that's capable of beating Alabama is capable of making a short throw inside the hash marks — not every quarterback can make a back-shoulder throw to the pylon.
In the past, the Crimson Tide would make mistakes like these maybe a couple times a game. In this case, it was three consecutive snaps.
Down three points with a little over eight minutes to go, Alabama is back in the football game. This touchdown ended up being the knockout blow.
I'm not sure how you get beat this bad on 2nd and 10 in a likely passing situation — but Trey Amos did. Like McKinstry did on the earlier Mitchell score, Amos leaves a hole in the middle of the field open and that's exactly where the Longhorns went with the football.
Another costly error on the play by true freshman Caleb Downs, who thinks Quinn Ewers is going across the middle — so he comes up. He had been biting on plays like that most of the game — play-callers like Steve Sarkisian will take advantage of that.
Costly Decisions from Jalen Milroe
Let me preface this by saying — you can't make this throw in a 40-point blowout and get away with it, much less against an aggressive Texas defense.
After allowing the go-ahead score on the previous possession, Alabama needed a response from its starting quarterback. Instead he did this:
I still don't know where or why Milroe is going there with the football. The only player that was going to catch that ball was the defender that did.
Milroe has had his fair share of questionable moments, with this being the latest. And it was essentially the nail in the coffin for Alabama.
Down 10 points here, the Crimson Tide had to score. On 3rd and 10, Milroe had enough time to make a play — but he holds onto the football for too long and takes a sack.
After the costly interception, Milroe was likely anxious to make another mistake. But taking a sack is just as bad as throwing an interception in this scenario.
Texas Kills the Clock with the Running Game
After giving the ball back to the Longhorns down by 10, it looked like Alabama had already quit. Instead of digging deep one last time and getting the offense back on the field, Alabama allowed Texas to run almost half of the fourth quarter clock off.
The Longhorns physically dominated the Crimson Tide on their final possession, taking the game into their own hands.
And, as the cherry on top, Alabama picked up one last penalty to ice the game — similar to how it did late in losses against Auburn in 2019 and Texas A&M in 2012.
See Also:
Takeaways from Alabama Football's Embarrassing Early-Season Loss to Texas
Alabama Football Falls in AP, Coaches Polls After Loss to Texas
Is Alabama Football Slipping From Standard It Created for Itself?
