For Alabama football fans, the sun will come up, even when you don't want it to

It's Sunday morning and the sun came up, like it always does, even when you might not want it to. Like when you drank too much and are nursing a hangover, or like when you stayed up too late the night before work the next morning. Or, more aptly, after Alabama football lost to Vanderbilt and you'd have been happy if the dang thing just swelled up and exploded.

It's one of those Sunday mornings where I wish I wasn't raised a fan of sports. I'm jealous of those who don't let their entire mental well-being hinge on the performance of kids between 18-22.

I'm 31 years old, I've been watching Alabama games my entire life. I can't remember a single loss that felt as bad as this one. There's been plenty of them, particularly in the pre-Nick Saban era of Tide football.

I remember the stunning loss to LA Tech in 1999. The loss to Northern Illinois in 2003. Nick Saban's first team quitting in November and losing to LA Monroe.

I remember Brodie Croyle getting sacked 12 times in the Iron Bowl in 2005 and Tommy Tuberville telling us to fear the thumb. I remember the pick play loss to Clemson in title game. I remember getting blown out by Clemson two years later in the title game.

I remember the Mike's and Coach Fran. I remember questioning whether the Alabama football my father described to me would ever be a reality in my lifetime.

There were plenty of seasons that were lost before the calendar flipped to October. This isn't one of them, no matter how bad this loss feels.

The 12-team playoff era gives you a margin for error. Make no mistake about it, Alabama did have a margin for error, but they used it all up in Nashville. They might - MIGHT - could survive another loss and still make the playoff. A lot of that might depend on what the 'Dores do from here.

But the playoff is far from what should be on the minds of the players, coaches, or fans, less than 24 hours after a demoralizing defeat to an inferior opponent. Instead, it's time to soul search and take a long, hard look in the mirror.

There's plenty of puzzling questions that need to be answered. The defense played lights out in the first half against Georgia, but has looked like a massive liability since the second half of that game. Vanderbilt did whatever it wanted to on offense, and provided a script to Kane Wommack's Swarm Defense that teams with much more talent will look to exploit.

The interior run defense was exploited, something we'd seen glimpses of earlier in the season against USF. Georgia being forced to throw the football the entire second half masked some of that. It's a fair question at this point on whether Wommack's defensive style can work in this league.

It was praised in the offseason for being simple, something young defenders could pick up quickly. On Saturday, it looked simple to the Vanderbilt offense, too.

Alabama couldn't get off the field on third down. It came into the game ranked No. 2 in the country in third down defense, a ranking that will fall considerably after allowing Vanderbilt to convert 12-of-18.

The offense has less questions. It wasn't perfect, and two turnovers can be hard to overcome, especially against a team determined to limit your possessions. But scoring 35 points on the road when you have the ball for only 17 minutes should be more than enough to win a football game, especially against a team that had never beaten an AP Top-5 opponent in 60 previous tries.

The Jalen Milroe-Ryan Williams connection is special. Neither are afraid of the moment. The offense is explosive, but might need to score 40+ going forward to win games.

The soul searching will continue on to the bad body language and Malachi Moore's unacceptable antics at the end of the game. There was a concerning lack of effort that even better defensive scheming would have struggled to fix.

Troy Aikman once said "things are never as good as you think they are or ever as bad as you think they are." That's the reality check that Alabama has gotten. They were on the highest of highs after last week's win over Georgia, and now they're facing the lowest of lows after losing to Vanderbilt for the first time in 40-years.

Alabama learned it wasn't as good as it thought it was following last week's win. And now, they'll learn they aren't as bad as they're all thinking following the stunning loss in Nashville.

Some fans are ready to jump off the bandwagon, and good riddance. Those ready to give up on this team aren't real fans anyway. Real fans stick it out. Real fans won't give up on the team, no matter how dark it seems.

Because the sun always comes up, and there's another game in six days.