Alabama football is 0-2 against the state of Tennessee this season. After losing to Vanderbilt two weeks ago, Kalen DeBoer’s first Crimson Tide team fell 24-17 at Neyland Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
DeBoer discussed Tennessee’s run defense controlling the game, going for it on fourth-and-22 late in the game and much more. Here’s everything DeBoer said.
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Opening statement
“Obviously a tough loss, a frustrating loss. We’ve had two now. And we just can’t play team football. We can’t bring it together. One side of the ball has highlight moments, and the other side stumbles and some missed opportunities. We try to look inward after every game, and we gotta continue to do the same. I know we’ve got a locker room that’s hurting. I feel like there’s always, I guess, a common feel in the locker room after a loss. But these guys, no doubt in my mind, that they pour everything into the preparation. Just frustrating we can’t get over the hump.”
On Alabama going for it on fourth-and-22 late in the fourth quarter
“There was a lot of things that can go for you. Either way, it’s gonna be a punt and you’re gonna get the ball back if you stop them, and you’re gonna have to have a touchdown either way on our end. If we can just hold them to a field goal, you’re gonna have to get a stop on three straight plays, use your three timeouts. And so it can go both ways. But you’re more than likely – if you stop them – gonna get the punt back. You have to go the length of the field anyway.
“And you’re getting yourself one more play, and they did a good job checking in and out of something, a chance for us. I know what it looks like when you watch it, but there’s a game plan reason where we would do something where I understand where you’re throwing short of the sticks, as well. So hats off to them. They played it the way they needed to. They adjusted. I couldn’t burn a timeout when we’re in that situation because we needed three for the defensive sequence when we got to that.”
On Alabama’s problem with penalties (15 for 115 yards)
“It’s a little bit of everything. It’s false starts, just getting off to a rough start there, and then there was a couple more intermixed in there. There’s some mental mistakes. The two games, right, earlier in the year and this one, you just can’t get over the hump, and it’s going to put you in situations where you got your backs to the wall. And we can’t kill ourselves like that. There’s times where you see like we’re locked in, but we got to be better. There’s no question. You can’t win a football game when you have mistakes like we had out there and all the penalties.”
On Alabama’s struggle to run the ball against Tennessee
“They’re a physical defense up front. We knew we had to have a mix of run and pass and try to use J-Mill in the run game, as well. But just trying to get a flow, trying to find times where you can get in a rhythm. The penalties hurt us to where you’re behind the sticks. You’re trying to stay patient. You’re trying to – even at the end, not the last drive but the second-to-last drive – try to stay with it and know that if you can just put one play on top of the other, you can move the ball down the field. But when you don’t have the explosives, it’s just too hard to stack plays a whole length of the field. You have to add some type of explosive play.”
On his message to Alabama players who aren’t accustomed to losing games
“I told them they’re there. These are the speeches I’m not good at. You gotta look inward first and make sure that everything you’re doing is right, and then anyone that you sense that has any type of questioning, you got to make sure you bring them with. The thing I know that with our guys, there’s enough vets that know exactly what you’re talking about to where it eats at them, and we got to continue to mesh the vets with the new guys, the ones that need to continue to understand what this program stands for and what it’s all about. I don’t question the fight. I mean, I don’t question the prep. I don’t question the work that was put in. These guys came ready, and Tuesday’s practice was great as far as the energy, and really felt like we were on track each and every day.
“But we just can’t mesh right now, the offense and defense, together and play great team football. There’s times where we got to be able to separate ourselves and have that killer instinct. And right now, we don’t do that. And it’s not like they’re not trying. It’s just the execution needs to be better. One play can kill an offensive drive. And then defense does a nice job, and then they get into their tempo – which we knew if we kept them out of that rhythm, we’d be all right. They got into it there, the third quarter, and it was tough to stop. It starts with running the football for them.”
On if there’s any concern with Alabama forcing the ball to Ryan Williams
“No, I don’t think so. I mean, I think that some of them, there is an intentional element to making sure he’s part of the game plan. And then some of it was just the progressions and where it ended up. Unfortunately, we just had a couple misses, right? If we hit one or two of those – the interception early in the game, we had a good little rhythm right there. I mean, some of those hurt. But you have to have confidence in your players to continue to go back and go make the next play. And we obviously have a lot of belief in every one of our players. He’s a guy that can go make those plays anytime. So we gotta continue to make sure he’s a strong part of the game plan.”
On his message to Alabama fans after the loss
“I told the guys, and the message to them is to get back after it and get to work. And first of all, do some soul-searching and look inward. I know there’s enough guys that still believe, that still wanna go do what we wanna do. There’s a lot of season left for not just us but everyone, and it’s gonna go fast if we don’t take advantage of it. That urgency’s gotta be there, there’s no question. We get a chance to get back home. We’ve gotta go to work first before we play that game and find a way to take the next big jump. A lot of guys that we gotta now incorporate into schemes offensively, defensively just with some guys going down. They’re getting an opportunity right now, too, to help build depth.
“But we’ve gotta make the plays to go win right now, and that’s what we’re just falling short of. Make sure our minds are right. Make sure our heart’s in the right place. And then all I know is you just go back to work. That’s the only thing you can do. That’s what I’ve always done, and that’s what these guys – just have a talk in the locker room – I really firmly believe that that’s what they wanna do, too. Don’t lose belief in these guys because there’s a lot of guys making some big sacrifices in ways that you’ll never know, people will never know because they just keep plugging away and might be physical things and stuff like that, but they’re working hard and they have a lot of pride in who they are individually and who we are as Alabama.”
