Jalen Milroe is an undeniably talented football player. He's had some great moments as the Alabama quarterback and has won big games throughout his two seasons as the team's starting QB. But it's also fair to point out that Milroe is a deeply flawed QB and Kalen DeBoer and offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan's overreliance on him has been the fatal flaw for the Crimson Tide's offense.
That came to a head in a 24-3 loss to a mediocre Oklahoma team in Norman on Saturday night. It was the lowest-scoring output for an Alabama team in 20 years. It was the first time since 2011 that Alabama was held out of the endzone.
This kind of offensive outing was a long time coming. We saw a glimpse of it against Tennessee when Alabama struggled on offense and fell to the Volunteers 24-17. This was 10 times worse than that. This game was worse than the Vanderbilt game. At least Alabama was competitive in those first two losses. They didn't even compete against a team that came in just 5-5 and fighting for bowl eligibility while Alabama was still fighting for a national championship.
When the clock hit zero in Norman and Oklahoma fans stormed the field, the Sooners had achieved bowl eligibility while Alabama was proven to be a pretender in the College Football Playoff race.
This team was going to go as far as Milroe took them. Against Oklahoma, Milroe drove them off a cliff. And I don't place the blame squarely at Milroe's feet, though I know a lot of Alabama fans will. I think the play-calling was poor and offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan did him no favors. Kalen DeBoer often looked perplexed and without answers on the sideline.
Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables cut his teeth as a defensive coordinator, and a dang good one. He had his team well prepared to stop Alabama's greatest weapon, Milroe's legs. Two weeks ago Milroe ran through, away from, and around LSU's defense. Obviously, DeBoer and Sheridan expected a similar result against Oklahoma.
Unfortunately, the Sooners came in as one of the nation's stingiest rushing defenses, giving up just 2.5 yards per carry on the season. They stifled Milroe's rushing ability time and time again and Alabama failed to adjust. It was like watching a struggling pitcher who had lost their fastball, except the offense couldn't throw a slider, curveball, splitter, or even a changeup.
Milroe's flaws are well documented. He doesn't read defenses well. He consistently makes improper reads on the read-options and RPOs. He can be mistake-prone and turn the ball over too much. All of that was on full display last night. He threw three interceptions, one of which was a pick-six, and managed just 7 yards on 15 rushing attempts.
Jam Miller and Justice Haynes combined for 63 yards on 15 attempts. Haynes only getting three carries is a total mystery.
When you build the whole ship out of one player, if that player doesn't perform well, then the whole boat is going to sink. Alabama could have theoretically survived a bad Milroe game in Norman. They would have needed the defense to not surrender 260 rushing yards. And they would have needed play calling that featured the running backs more in the running game when it was obvious from the opening drive of the game how much Oklahoma was keying in on the designed QB runs.
Instead, the coaching staff just sat back and prayed that Milroe would figure it out. They watched him make mistakes in the RPO and read-option calls. They watched him stare down receivers and get baited into back-to-back picks. They left him out there and watched the offense die a slow, painful death.
I wonder if at any point there was any thought of giving Ty Simpson a shot? That would be a difficult decision to bench a guy who is the leader on the team, but at a certain point, even pulling him for a drive might have settled him down some. Not doing so makes me believe that the coaching staff has little faith in Simpson to pilot the offense.
Unfortunately, it's too late to do anything about that now. Too late in the season to change course. This staff hitched its wagon to Milroe, for better and for worse, and now Alabama is 8-3, its worst record through 11 games in 17 years. And its hopes of playing for the SEC Championship, or going to the College Football Playoff, came to a deflating end in Norman.