It was not the prettiest game to start, but the Alabama Crimson Tide played their best football when it counted. After overcoming a 17-point deficit on the road, Alabama proved victorious over the Oklahoma Sooners in their first-round playoff game, winning, 34-24. This was Alabama avenging its previous loss to the Sooners earlier in the year. While praise is good, maybe not for Ryan Grubb yet...
When looking at the advanced statistics from the game on over Game on Paper, two stats really jump out working against the Crimson Tide's much-maligned offensive coordinator. That would be success rate and yards per play. Alabama was only successful on 31 percent of its offensive plays, which puts them in the seventh percentile on the year. 4.67 yards per play only has them in the 21st percentile...
Part of what contributed to Alabama winning by multiple scores was a slew of offensive miscues by Oklahoma, as well as some of the worst special teams you will ever see in any postseason format. Oklahoma's offense had been pedestrian at best all season long, especially once John Mateer got hurt in early October. The real game-saver for them was explosive play rate, which was at 16 percent.
When you are exploding offensively in the 98th percentile to win on the road, that is not sustainable...
How Ryan Grubb can redeem himself in Rose Bowl vs. Indiana Hoosiers
The biggest issue with Alabama's offense has been its inability to run the football effectively throughout the entire season. It has become part of the national narrative on them. What this does is forces Ty Simpson to be unrealistically perfect within the context of this offense. He has played well for the most part, but having a one-dimensional offense often puts him into compromising situations.
Perhaps the best plan forward is to use Alabama's talent advantage over Indiana to get the screen game going a bit. Simpson always delivers an accurate football, so getting more explosive players in space may be the best course of action. Of course, Indiana can get after the passer, too. However, Alabama was still able to thwart what Oklahoma threw at them because the Tide played very clean.
In the end, Grubb and Kalen DeBoer have had a ton of success working together in the college game. While running the football is something they both need to invest fully in next year, they are doing to have to make do with what they have got the rest of the way, or for as long as they are in the playoff. For now, they still do present an interesting matchup to Indiana, based on them having experience.
All we know is winning without playing your best football is the perfect combination to get better.