How Does Alabama Rebound From Florida State Loss? 'We Have No Room For Error'

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Alabama football lost its season opener 31-17 against Florida State on the road on Saturday evening.

It's the Crimson Tide's first loss in a season opener since 2001, which came before a heavy majority of Alabama's roster was even born. The Crimson Tide came into this game with the No. 8 rank in the preseason AP Top 25, while the Seminoles weren't even ranked.

Alabama players and coaches have emphasized throughout the offseason that this year's team's mindset is much better than last year's. But Alabama is 0-1.

"All we can do is get better from this," Alabama co-captain Deontae Lawson said after the game. "We can't dwell on it. It happened. We've got to own it. Accept it and flush it. We talk about that all the time. Just get better from this moment, learn from this and know that we have no room for error."

Lawson, who was also a captain for last year's Alabama team, stressed that the small details got "away from us and it bit us in the rear end." He said that the leaders, himself included, have "to push that" narrative.

"That's the thing with this," Lawson said. "Everyone has talent, everyone has great coaches and great players, but how detailed can you be in doing your job every play.

"Man, honing into the small details. Everyone's got to have juice. Everyone is going to have to be ready when their number is called. All we can do is get better from this situation. We'll watch the film, we'll learn from it and make sure we'll never have this feeling again."

Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson mentioned that Lawson "said it best" as this honing into the small details mindset has been brought up by him in the locker room numerous times before Saturday.

"We've got to make sure we finish through the line during flex," Simpson said. "We pick up after ourselves in the lunch room. We make sure our locker is clean. We make sure that we go to class not one minute late. These guys understand that. They're good players, they're smart players, but we also have to have competitive stamina.

"We've got to keep going and know that we can't just be happy with one 8-minute drive. We can't just be happy because we're Alabama. We have to earn this and we're going to earn it. We're going to make sure that we go back to work and we're going to practice our tails off and we're going to work our tails off to get everybody right."

Nevertheless, despite the worst-case scenario for a start to the season, Lawson believes Alabama will bounce back.

"I'm very confident. We always talk about being unbreakable. This is our first test to see how unbreakable we are. Are we going to be unbreakable? It's on us to bounce back from this, to learn from this situation and continue to get better. And that's all we can do."

Alabama's first game to bounce back is next Saturday at home in Bryant-Denny Stadium against Louisiana-Monroe at 6:45 p.m. CT on SEC Network.

Alabama's 23-Game Winning Streak in Opener Snapped

Date, Outcome, Opponent, Score, Site
Aug. 31, 2002   W Middle Tennessee         39-34      Tuscaloosa
Aug. 30, 2003   W USF                               40-17       Birmingham #
Sept. 4, 2004     W Utah State                    48-17       Tuscaloosa
Sept. 3, 2005     W Middle Tennessee         26-7 (v)   Tuscaloosa
Sept. 2, 2006     W Hawai’i                         25-17 (v) Tuscaloosa
Sept. 1, 2007     W Western Carolina          52-6 (v)   Tuscaloosa
Aug. 30, 2008 W (24) Clemson (9)           34-10      Atlanta
Sept. 5, 2009     W (5) Virginia Tech (7)    34-24      Atlanta
Sept. 4, 2010     W (1) San Jose State      48-3        Tuscaloosa
Sept. 3, 2011     W (2) Kent State              48-7         Tuscaloosa
Sept. 1, 2012     W (2) Michigan (8)            41-14      Arlington, Tex.
Aug. 31, 2013   W (1) Virginia Tech           35-10      Atlanta
Aug. 30, 2014   W (2) West Virginia           33-23      Atlanta
Sept. 5, 2015     W (3) Wisconsin (20)         35-17      Arlington, Tex.
Sept. 3, 2016     W (1) USC (20)                  52-6        Arlington, Tex.
Sept. 2, 2017     W (1) Florida State (3)      24-7        Atlanta
Sept. 1, 2018     W (1) Louisville                 51-14      Orlando
Aug. 31, 2019   W (2) Duke                         42-3         Atlanta
Sept. 26, 2020   W (2) Missouri                  38-19      Columbia, Mo.
Sept. 4, 2021    W (1) Miami (14)               44-13      Atlanta
Sept. 3, 2022     W (1) Utah State                 55-0       Tuscaloosa
Sept. 2, 2023     W (4) Middle Tennessee    56-7       Tuscaloosa
Aug. 31, 2024    W (5) Western Kentucky   63-0       Tuscaloosa
Aug. 30, 2025    L (8) Florida State    31-17    Tallahassee
#Final game at Legion Field
v Win later vacated due to NCAA penalty

Alabama's 23-Game Winning Streak in Opener Snapped

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