Top ranked Alabama lost to unranked Vanderbilt 40-35 in the biggest upset so far this year. The Crimson Tide were favored by 23.5 points going into the game. There was a lot of talk for Alabama not to overlook the Commodores after last week’s massive win over Georgia. The scary part is that it might not be that Alabama took them lightly. They just got out-played by a team that was better on Saturday. This loss highlighted the legitimate concerns this team has to fix if they want to contend for a championship.
Rough Start
Led by quarterback Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt started the game with a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that lasted 6:10. Pavia was three for three for 44 yards and Vandy ran the ball seven times for 31 yards on the drive. When Alabama got the ball, they had a third and six on their own 29. Quarterback Jalen Milroe tried to fit a pass into a blanketed Ryan Williams. The ball was tipped up in the air to Vandy’s Randon Fontenette, who took it 29 yards for a pick-six. They missed the extra point but, after running only three plays, Alabama was down 13-0.
Vandy Dominates the First Half
The offense was able to get on track on the next drive. Milroe completed a 46-yard pass to CJ Dippre and a 17-yard throw to Josh Cuevas to get them to the red zone. Running-back Jam Miller punched it in from eight yards out to make it a 13-7 game and the Crimson Tide seemed back on track. But the defense got dominated again on the next drive. They let Vanderbilt go 75 yards in 17 plays that ate up 9:50 off the clock. Now down 20 to 7, Alabama went three and out on the next drive. Vanderbilt took four more minutes off the clock and kicked a field goal to go up 23-7. With 4:10 left in the half, Vandy was dominating time-of-possession 20:06 to 5:49. This was a problem throughout the game as Vanderbilt had the ball for 42:08 to Alabama’s 17:52.
Bounce Back
Finally, the Crimson Tide started to look like themselves. An 83-yard drive was capped off by another Jam Miller touchdown run from three yards out. The Bama defense shut down Vanderbilt and the score was 23-14 at halftime. A 46-yard kick return by Emmanuel Henderson Jr set up the Alabama offense well to start the second half. Five plays later, Milroe ran it in from 14 yards out to cut the lead to 23-21. Alabama had got the momentum back and it seemed likely they would roll from there. Wrong.
Huge Plays
The rest of the game was defined by huge plays. On a fourth and one, Pavia found Junior Sherrill for a beautiful 36-yard touchdown catch to put Vandy up 30-21. Milroe responded with a deep pass to Ryan Williams who tip-toed the sideline like a ballerina, avoiding two defenders, and taking it 58 yards for a touchdown. That cut the lead to 30-28. After another Commodores field goal, Milroe dropped back but didn’t see the blitz coming from the blind side. He was sacked and fumbled, which Vanderbilt recovered. Pavia led them on another way-too-easy touchdown drive to go up 12. Alabama scored on a reverse to Ryan Williams for a two-yard touchdown run with 2:46 left in the game to cut the lead to five. But the Vandy offense couldn’t be stopped and the Crimson Tide never got the ball back, making the upset official.
The Real Concern
Milroe and the offense were inconsistent. They need to get more routine first downs and not rely solely on big plays. But they still scored 35 points. The real concern lies on the defensive side of the ball. After getting dominated in the second half against Georgia last week, most people could have chalked it up to playing a prevent defense with a big lead and taking their foot off the gas. But they couldn’t get stops this Saturday either. Pavia looked mostly dominant going 16 of 20 for 265 yards, two touchdowns, and running for 56 of Vanderbilt’s 166 rushing yards.
Missed Tackles
The theme of the day for the Alabama defense was missed tackles. There were multiple third-down plays when Vandy would catch a ball short of the sticks, but the receivers would bust through a makeable tackle to get the first down. There were also many missed tackles on a 36-yard shovel pass that killed their momentum after they had cut the lead to 30-28. That play led to a field goal for the Commodores. On the drive following the Milroe fumble, the defense only forced Vanderbilt into one third down play and that was a touchdown pass. And then even when they cut the lead to five late in the game, the Crimson Tide couldn’t stop them. They didn’t force a third-down and Vandy easily ran out the clock.
Another Upset?
Coach Kalen DeBoer has a lot of work to do. The offense is boom or bust. They don’t sustain drives. There is very little run game other than Milroe’s contributions. While a little more consistency would go a long way, the defense is the real problem. They were bullied at the line of scrimmage, missed too many tackles, and let Vanderbilt convert on 12 of 18 third downs. That’s not a recipe for success. Next week, they head home to play a struggling South Carolina team that got blown out by Ole Miss on Saturday. But if they don’t find a way to fix the defense, they could endure yet another major upset.
