5 critical observations from Alabama football's 30-14 win over Vanderbilt

Alabama football got the revenge it was seeking on Saturday, defeating Vanderbilt 30-14 in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama handed Vanderbilt its first loss of the season, and it was the fourth consecutive win for the Crimson Tide after a disheartening season-opening loss to Florida State in Tallahassee.

Alabama looks like a different team now than it did in Week 1. It got an expected fight from Vanderbilt. The Commodores led 7-0 early, and the game was tied 14-14 at halftime, but the Crimson Tide dominated the second half, outscoring the Commodores 16-0 over the game's final 30 minutes to secure a 2-0 start in SEC play.

There are a lot of challenging games remaining ahead for Kalen DeBoer and his team, but Alabama passed another massive test on Saturday in Tuscaloosa with another win over a quality opponent.

5 things we observed during Alabama's win over Vanderbilt

Alabama's defense came up with two critical redzone takeaways

Alabama's defense made some critical plays in key moments for the second week in a row. This week, forcing two turnovers in the redzone helped key the Tide's win over the Commodores.

In the first quarter, with Alabama already trailing 7-0, Vanderbilt was in scoring range to go up by two scores. On a third-and-10, Diego Pavia scrambled up the middle and was hit well short of a first down by Justin Jefferson. The senior LB ripped the ball away from Pavia, with Tim Keenan jumping on it for the turnover.

In the fourth quarter, with Alabama nursing a slim six-point lead, Keon Sabb picked off a Pavia pass in the redzone to turn Vanderbilt away:

Alabama's offense would go on a long drive that resulted in a field goal to give the Tide a two-score lead, effectively putting the game away.

Alabama's defense may be beginning to live up to preseason hype

It was believed in the preseason that Alabama would have one of the best defenses in college football. The Tide finished 9th in the country a year ago in yards per play defense, but had struggled, particularly against the run, early in 2025. The defense got gashed repeatedly in the loss to Florida State, and even in last week's win over Georgi, struggled to stop the run.

It was more of the same early against Vanderbilt. Sedrick Alexander broke free for a 65-yard run on the 'Dores's first drive of the game. After the first five rushing attempts, Vanderbilt racked up 113 rushing yards. For the rest of the game, Alabama held Vanderbilt to just 22 more yards on 14 attempts.

Credit to Kane Wommack for making the necessary adjustments to put his guys in position to make plays. Jefferson led the way with 14 tackles, and despite not popping in the box score, Yhonzae Pierre was terrific, setting the edge to help Alabama stop the run.

Alabama still has plenty of issues to iron out defensively, but it's another big step forward. In the last two second halves combined, Alabama has allowed just seven total points.

Jam Miller's return has provided some juice to the run game

The numbers may not have been pretty a week ago, but Kalen DeBoer thought Alabama was 'close' to breaking through on the ground. That breakout happened against Vanderbilt, thanks to Jam Miller in his second game back from injury.

If you take out the yardage on the four times Simpson was sacked, Alabama ran for 171 yards on a 5.1 yards per carry average. Miller keyed the effort, producing 136 yards and a touchdown on 22 attempts. He punctuated his performance with a late touchdown on a fourth-down run to officially put the game on ice.

It was Miller's first 100-yard rushing effort since Week 2 of last season against USF. He and Kevin Riley are providing a nice 1-2 punch in the backfield and helping the Tide's offense find offensive balance.

Ty Simpson continues to play at an elite level

It was inevitable that Ty Simpson would eventually throw an interception. He got it out of the way early against Vanderbilt, throwing a pick on Alabama's first drive of the game. He shook it off quickly, however, and had another brilliant day.

He threw for 340 yards on 23-of-31 with two touchdowns. He led a brilliant drive at the end of the first half in a critical situation. Trailing 14-7 with just 1:33 to play - and without a single timeout left - Simpson led Alabama down the field in six plays, connecting on a 27-yard touchdown pass to Germie Bernard to tie the game at 14.

After struggling in his first career start in Tallahassee, Simpson has been playing at an elite level ever since. He's playing as well as any quarterback in the country and is beginning to generate a lot of NFL Draft buzz:

Alabama's offense stalled far too often in Vanderbilt territory

Alabama's offense moved the ball all day and only punted once, racking up 486 total yards. Simpson was efficient passing, Miller and the ground game gave the Tide balance, and yet Alabama only put up 23 points until Miller's game-sealing touchdown run late in the fourth quarter.

The Tide's offense consistently stalled in Vanderbilt territory in the second half. The first three drives out of the locker room, Alabama was held to field goals. Connor Talty connected on field goals of 30, 38, and 30 yards to build the Tide's lead to 23-14.

But if it wasn't for a herculean performance from the defense, Alabama could have been in trouble thanks to some issues in Vanderbilt territory. Part of it was playcalling, with Ryan Grubb outsmarting himself on occasion. There isn't a better example of that than the 3rd-and-5 direct snap to Germie Bernard with Simpson split out wide. On money downs, I'm not taking the ball out of Simpson's hands for anyone right now.

Simpson took a few bad sacks, too. He could have thrown some balls away, or even checked them down to the back, and instead was just trying to do a little too much. That's part of the maturation still to come for Simpson. The fact that he's playing like this while still having room to improve should be a terrifying thought for opposing coaches.

It was a good win for Alabama over a quality opponent, but there's still plenty to clean up before the trip to Missouri next week.