Alabama vs Texas 2023

The Texas offense’s explosive big plays left Alabama football reeling in a resounding home defeat during a nationally anticipated showdown.

Nick Saban emphasized the significance of playing winning football throughout the preseason, but this essential element seemed to elude Alabama in their second game of the season against Texas.

The primetime clash at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday was marred by penalties, turnovers, and vulnerabilities in defending deep passes. Despite Alabama’s valiant efforts to stay in the game, these issues ultimately led to a 34-24 loss to Texas in only the second game of the season.

Here, we provide key takeaways and observations from the match between No. 3 Alabama (1-1) and No. 10 Texas (2-0).

1. Jalen Milroe’s Rollercoaster Performance
   In the preceding week, Milroe displayed an impressive debut with five touchdowns and zero turnovers, solidifying his position as Alabama’s clear-cut starting quarterback. However, against Texas, Milroe exhibited areas that require improvement. He began the game with a costly interception, making an ill-advised pass into double coverage. In the fourth quarter, he threw another critical interception across the field. While Milroe faced challenges from his offensive line at times, his overall performance lacked the polish seen in the first game. Notable moments included a 49-yard touchdown pass to Jermaine Burton in the third quarter and a 39-yard score to Amari Niblack in the fourth. Nevertheless, his inconsistency in passing, particularly on intermediate routes, kept fans on edge.
2. Mixed Results for the Offensive Line
   Pass protection issues weren’t solely attributed to the offensive line, but there were instances where the unit struggled. In one play during the second quarter, Texas managed to pressure Milroe significantly with only three rushers, forcing him to scramble. Two touchdowns by Burton were nullified due to penalties on offensive linemen: Darrian Dalcourt was flagged for being downfield on one touchdown, and Kadyn Proctor was penalized for holding on another. While the offensive line created opportunities in the running game at times, their performance lacked consistency.
3. Penalty Woes Resurface
   Penalties, a recurring issue for Alabama, made an unwelcome return. In the previous game, the Crimson Tide appeared to rectify this problem, accumulating just two penalties. However, against Texas, penalties plagued Alabama, frequently disrupting the offensive rhythm and resulting in unfavorable third-and-long situations. By the final two minutes, Alabama had amassed a total of 10 penalties during the game.

Everything Steve Sarkisian Said After Texas’ 34-24 Win Over Alabama

Opening statement from Texas coach Steve Sarkisian after beating Alabama 34-24 Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium:

“Really proud of our players. Everybody worked really hard this week. I was proud that they believed in the plan, even when it got dicey. We trailed 16-13 and I loved the response with the grit and perseverance the guys showed.

“Two to nothing in the turnovers played a huge factor in the game. Ultimitely, getting the ball with seven minutes to go in the game and finishing the game with the ball in our hands and not giving it back was big. That’s an explosive team and for us to possess it is indicative of how far we’ve come.

“Our ability to rebound when things don’t go our way in the second half and our ability to finish games on the road and possess the ball and finish it out was big.

“Lot of individual performances to talk about but it was a heck of a team win. We have a ton of respect for (Alabama). I know how well they’re coached and how hard they play. They are 52-1 walking into this stadium in the last 53 games, so it shows a lot of what we are capable of.

“This game is not going to define our season. We got 10 more regular season games to play, but it does serve as a benchmark of what we are capable of and the potential for who we can be as a team.”

On falling behind 16-13

“We knew we were going to face some adversity tonight. When you play a good team on the road not everything is going to go your way. I told the team before the game, and I didn’t waver, we were going to be aggressive tonight and we were going to stay aggressive.”

“We went for it on some fourth downs—didn’t make some—but you have to try and win the game. I never felt it was slipping away, I just felt it was our turn. Our guys responded.”

On the defensive effort

“I think in the end, getting pressure on the quarterback was big. I like to think that forced a couple of errant throws. We got a couple of turnovers. We got a couple of really big sacks—Anthony Hill had a big-time sack late in the game. To play good defense you have to stop the run and affect the quarterback. They hit some plays and they’re going to do that. But in the end we stopped the run enough, and we created two turnovers and made plays in critical plays.”

On hitting deep passing plays

“As the game went on you could feel the coverage moving toward Xavier (Worthy) and that gave opportunities for (Ja’Tavion Sanders) and (Adonai Mitchell) and Jordan Whittington to make some big plays. To hit the deep ball early with Xavier and then to come back and get that deep ball to (Mitchell) for that touchdown and finding some of those intermediate throws to some different people, that’s what we have to get accustomed to.”

On creating a special culture at Texas

“We’ve worked long and hard on the culture aspect. I love these guys. They really give us everything they have and they trust us and believe in us. We’ve tried to recruit really well to get players in our program that are made of the right stuff. It’s not about stars, it’s whether they are made of the right stuff and coachable. That’s what this group has. The coaching continuity is shining through a little bit. Our guys understand our calls and why we are doing what we are doing. The put forth the preparation and try to go out and execute.”

On offensive line not giving up a sack

“A lot of that is on Quinn (Ewers) where he has a good understanding of what we were calling scheme-wise, and that was getting the ball out, even when he was getting his secondary reads. I thought our tackles had really good games; I just felt like Kelvin Banks and Christian Jones protected well. Ultimately you have to change protections and keep moving on them because I know how well (Alabama) is coached. To go two straight games with no turnovers and protecting the quarterback and running the ball was big.

“You have to be able to run the football when they know you are going to run the ball. That’s what that last drive was. Seven minutes to go and we finished with the ball in our hands.”

Message to the team of not fearing Alabama

“I’ve been in that locker room. A lot of people walk in that stadium—and with the mystique of Alabama—they are beat before the game starts. I had to make sure that our players understood that they were good enough to come in here and win. The moment doubt creeps in that’s when you can make mistakes that can get you beat. I wanted to be clear with our players that it’s not about fearing them—we do respect them—but we were good enough to come in here and win if we played the way we are capable of doing.”

Biggest stride Quinn Ewers made tonight

“I don’t think the moment was too big for him. From the moment the ball got snapped he showed great composure. There were times his feet got choppy in the pocket, but we got him settled down. I thought he managed the line of scrimmage really good. To be in this environment and not have one false start is a credit to Quinn managing things. It’s not like we lined up in static formations. There were shifts and motions and that’s a credit for our guys to manage all that.”

On Nick Saban and time at Alabama

I have a ton of respect for him and I owe everything to him. I would not be standing here without Nick Saban. Tuscaloosa, the University of Alabama, Nick Saban, it changed my life. In a moment of my life when things were not going great, Nick extended me an olive branch. Everybody was so supportive of me coming here, and then bringing me back a second time, then to having to have open-heart surgery while I was here. These people here mean a lot to me. I’m grateful for everyone at Alabama and Tuscaloosa for what they showed my family, my wife. To come here and play them and play the way we played, it’s humbling. Life comes full circle.

Breakout moment for Quinn Ewers?

I think for Quinn, like our entire team—why did we play well tonight? Because we prepared very well and practiced really well. For them now to recognize that’s what it takes every week, that’s what championship teams do. They don’t have ups and downs in preparation. They prepare right mentally and they prepare right physically. Preparation plus practice equals peak performance. That’s what Quinn did tonight. He prepared great and had a good understanding of what we were trying to do and why we were doing it. He had good reads and never got stuck on his progressions. He was able to bounce back when things weren’t going so great. I think this can serve as a springboard for Quinn, if he can create the habits Sunday through Friday to get himself ready to play.

On the fourth quarter performance

I believe this—you get what you enphasize in this profession. In year one, I know how ugly some of those fourth quarters were. We played decent fourth quarters, and we didn’t play decent fourth quarters and lost some games. As you continue to put for an emphasis in practicing things, tonight I think it shined through with our ability to play fourth-quarter football. We worked hard on conditioning, worked hard on getting guys reset and refocused in the fourth quarter. It comes down to execution in the fourth quarter.

Everything Nick Saban Said After Alabama’s 34-24 loss to No. 11 Texas

Alabama suffered a crucial blow in the form of the Crimson Tide’s first loss at home since 2019.

Here’s everything Nick Saban said during his postgame press conference following the 34-24 loss against No. 11 Texas.

Saban: “This was a test for us. […] we obviously didn’t do very well, but it’s the midterm, it’s not the final.”

Saban on Jalen Milroe: “He didn’t get the poor-me’s over any of it. He was competing like crazy.”

• Saban said he appreciated the atmosphere at Bryant-Denny Stadium tonight.
• Saban said he considered playing multiple quarterbacks, but opted to stay with Milroe after taking the lead late.
• Saban closed the press conference by saying it’s a privilege to play in games like that and expressed his admiration for fan support. Specifically:

“It’s a privilege to play in games like this. It’s a privilege to play at The University of Alabama. It’s a privilege to play at a place where you have such good fan support. So, thank you.”

Here’s the full transcript:

“This was a test for us. I told the players early in the week last week that this was gonna be a test, that we were gonna play a really good team and we would actually find out where we were as a team. And this was a test for everybody. It was a test for the coaches, it was a test for me, it was a test for all the players, and we obviously didn’t do very well. But it’s the midterm, not the final. So if we can learn from some of the mistakes that we made, coaches and players alike, we can all get better and have a lot better opportunity, I think, to be successful in the future.

Alabama vs Texas 2023

“But everybody’s got basically two choices: You can throw in the towel and quit and be mediocre, or you can fight and grind and do the hard things that you need to do to be successful. And I think you don’t wanna waste a failing, and we certainly don’t wanna waste this failing. So we’re all gonna be committed to trying to do things better, practice better, prepare better, have a better plan for the players, whatever it is, all of us, coaches and players alike, and it all starts with me, and I obviously let our team down in terms of how we were able to execute and play.

“We went back up and had like 10 penalties, two of which negated touchdowns. They got 10 points off of turnovers, and we gave up way too many explosive plays on defense. We have to correct all those things if we’re gonna be able to play and have the kind of team we’re capable of playing.

“I believe in these players. These players have worked hard. There was a great atmosphere in the stadium tonight. I appreciate the fans. They did their part, for sure. We didn’t do our part well enough. It starts me with, as I said before. But we’re gonna do everything we can to get it right and get it fixed.”

On pass protection:

“A lot of those sacks were four-man rushes. One of them, I think, was a three-man rush. We didn’t get any pressure on their quarterback. We’re trying to play so we could cover their receivers and rush four guys, and we didn’t affect him at all. The third-down stuff that we did do they did a good job of moving the pocket, picking us and playing man-to-man. So we didn’t do a very good job of affecting their quarterback. We just gotta do better.
I can’t sit here and say one guy broke down in pass protection. I know something different happened just about on every one of those. And I think sometimes we held the ball at quarterback. We’ve gotta do a good job of reading it and getting it out of your hand. And I don’t think we did a good enough job of getting away from people and getting open, and they did a good job of matching the patterns.”

On Jalen Milroe and if he considered using multiple quarterbacks:

“I did. But when he put the drive together to go down the field and score when we got ahead, I thought that gave him a lot of confidence. But we never, ever discussed it. I can’t sit here and say the thought doesn’t come to mind for any player that’s having a difficult time. But he made some good plays at the end of the game, and that was good to see. Obviously, the interception was critical in the game. We’re just gonna work to try to get all our players better.”

On Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and his success agains the defensive backs:

“We didn’t do a very good job adjusting to some motions. We made some mental errors, got people in the wrong spots and we didn’t match the patterns. A couple times, we were fine. We had a middle of the field safety. We got pass interference a couple times. They made a good catch one time. Kool-Aid had the guy covered really well, and [Adonai Mitchell] made a really good catch. We were playing quarters, and they had a quarters beater and we didn’t poach the safety. It’s a lot of technical stuff, but you can’t let people throw the ball over your head if you’re playing the secondary. So we need to get that fixed.”

What happened with the bad snaps:

“That’s a good question. It was very surprising to me. We haven’t had an issue with that in the past. We haven’t had an issue with that in practice. And those kinds of things put you behind the eight ball on offense. You get a 5-yard penalty. We had a couple of those. False starts, I think we had two snaps and one false start. So it puts you behind in the sticks. So the discipline of playing – and this one of the things I talked to our players about … It’s great to have emotion and play with emotion.
Everybody should have that, but that emotion has to be channeled into tangible, functional execution. So you’ve gotta focus on the task at hand one play at a time. It’s gotta be very intentional. If you get emotional, then you make bad choices and decisions. Your brain doesn’t work like it needs to, and bad things happen, whether you make mistakes on defense, whether you snap the ball poorly, whether you jump offsides. I mean, we a had a chance to stop them at the end of the game a couple times and couldn’t get off the field. Let them bleed the clock. Just all-in-all, we just didn’t do what we needed to do to have a chance to be successful against a good team.”

Saban on if Milroe was cautious on his first interception:

“I can’t really answer that. It’d probably be a better question to ask him. I think they kind of catted the corner from the backside and they rolled the coverage, we were in trips, and I don’t think he saw the thing roll up. It was a poor decision. But I didn’t see a bad look from him on the sidelines ever. He was into it. He was talking to Tommy [Rees]. He was getting new information.
So he certainly didn’t get the poor me’s over any of it. He was competing like crazy and came back and made some really good plays. I mean, we had a chance. We got ahead in the game and what was there 11 minutes to go in the game or something?”

What changed between the third and fourth quarters:

“No, they hit big plays. If you look at until the end when they ran the clock out with like 5-6 minutes to go, we had a chance to stop on third down. They ran for a first down.
We had another chance to stop them on third down, jumped offsides. But all the plays that they made were all explosive plays. All were explosive plays. And that was the difference.
They didn’t make explosive plays in the third quarter, and we played better, we got off the field on third down. They took a lot of shots in the game, and they made them. And we knew they would take shots in the game. They did last year. That’s how they play, and it’s a good way to play. But if you play them correctly, they can turn out to be long, foul balls, too. And we didn’t do that. We didn’t make that happen.”

How Alabama handled substitutions, alignments, hurry-up:

“A couple times not good, and that’s when we twice missed a match on wide delayed pass where they fly the back out, the tight end comes across. We didn’t match the pattern. and I think in both cases, I think we had the call, but I think when they went hurry up on it, we were on our heels. so I don’t think we did a good job of that.”

[Saban unprompted]”

“But I do think it was a great atmosphere out there. Our fans did a tremendous job. We appreciate the support. It was fantastic. It’s a privilege to play in games like this. It’s a privilege to play at the University of Alabama. It’s a privilege to play where you have such great tradition. It’s a privilege to play where you have such great fan support. We really appreciate it.”

Sources
Alabama football torched by big-play Texas offense, falls hard at home in national showdown

Everything Nick Saban Said After Alabama’s 34-24 loss to No. 11 Texas

Everything Steve Sarkisian Said After Texas’ 34-24 Win Over Alabama

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