Key Turnovers Alabama Football's Kryptonite in Loss to Oklahoma

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— On Saturday, Alabama football lost 23-21 against Oklahoma for the second straight season to remain winless all-time against the Sooners' program during the regular season. The biggest reason why was three massive turnovers, off of which Oklahoma scored 17 total points.

"We played a lot of great snaps out there, but the turnover battle, obviously, got killed there," Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer said postgame. "That became the game. We've done a great job of taking care of it. We've done a good job of taking it off of teams... We missed our opportunities."

Crimson Tide quarterback Ty Simpson had only one interception on his ledger prior to Saturday's contest. His second was a doozy. No. 4 Alabama (8-2, 6-1 SEC) had reached the Sooners' 23-yard line late in the first quarter when a Simpson pass was intercepted by cornerback Eli Bowen. Bowen housed it to put Oklahoma up 10-0.

"I've gotta do a better job of taking care of the ball," Simpson said. "I don't think they had any turnovers... Felt like I could've done some stuff differently."

A pick-six is plenty deflating, especially when the team on the wrong end of it is already down on the scoreboard. Alabama scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive, though, and then forced an Oklahoma punt. It was there and then that the turnover monster reared its head again and howled.

Sophomore wide receiver Ryan Williams put the football on the deck at the end of the return. Oklahoma's coverage team pounced. It took all of two plays for the No. 11 Sooners to mount a scoring drive that culminated in a 20-yard touchdown run by quarterback John Mateer after starting deep in plus territory at the 31.

"There was just these one-off plays that were the takeaways," DeBoer said. "And then it just became an uphill battle... I felt like, it wasn't perfect, but we were facing a very good defense and we understood that. I felt like we were executing better today than we have, probably, the previous couple weeks."

Williams' critical error may not have come against the Oklahoma (8-2, 4-2 SEC) defense, but the Alabama defensive unit understood the stakes and the implications of giving the ball away several times against a quality opponent. One of its captains lamented not forcing any of their own.

"When you turn the ball over three times, you really can't expect to win in this league," linebacker Deontae Lawson said. "As a defense, we gotta take the ball off. We gotta give our offense a short field, or some field position, or something like that. Or [an] extra possession, or anything like that."

Alabama outgained Oklahoma by nearly 200 yards. The final margin was 406 to 212. Simpson had 326 passing yards compared to Mateer's 138. With numbers like that in a one-possession game, it's clear what did the losing team in, and the third Crimson Tide turnover came in the second half.

For five consecutive games, Alabama has experienced a sack-fumble. Saturday's was different than the previous four in the most vital category of them all: the result. With less than a minute on the clock in the third quarter, Simpson was hit on a third-down play by Taylor Wein. Kendal Daniels was Johnny-on-the-spot and made the recovery.

"With the pressure that they brought, he's gotta get rid of it, and be okay with throwing it away," DeBoer said. "You can only hold on so long, and I feel like with the blitz they had, you're gonna get overwhelmed and outnumbered. You've just gotta understand the situation. I know it's third down and he wants to stay on the field... Gotta live with punting once in a while."

The Crimson Tide had been in front 21-20 at that moment. The Sooners' Tate Sandell kicked the game-winning field goal as a direct result of that lost fumble. Part of DeBoer's sentiment was rooted in the fact that he believed the defense was playing well enough to get another stop had the third-down been unsuccessful (Alabama needed nine yards) should he have had to send the punt team.

Instead, after the field goal (Sandell's third of the game), Alabama had to play from behind in the fourth quarter. It had two chances. Neither yielded success. The last of the two began on the Crimson Tide's six-yard line with 7:14 remaining on the game clock and ended with a turnover on downs at the 0:50 mark.

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables is widely regarded as one of the best defensive minds in modern college football, a distinction he has held long before Saturday's victory (which was the first time Alabama lost at home under DeBoer). His team's offense didn't give it away even once. Now, Alabama cannot afford any more miscues for the balance of the regular season, thanks to the ramifications of the turnovers that plagued it Saturday.

It wasn't even as bad as it could've been. On the Crimson Tide's first touchdown drive of the game, which cut the initial deficit to 10-7, Daniels committed pass interference in the end zone that wiped out a Robert Spears-Jennings pick. Running back Daniel Hill scored on the next snap.

"This game could've gone a whole different direction. One play got him [Simpson] with the pressure, and the interception for a touchdown, then the strip-sack," DeBoer said. "Most of the snaps, we played pretty good football, but it's the ones that were big that really hurt us."

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