Alabama admits there’s fear of getting in its own way ahead of matchup with Missouri Tigers
Alabama may have walked away with a 30-14 win over Vanderbilt last Saturday, but the performance underscored a recurring theme under first-year head coach Kalen DeBoer: inconsistency and lapses in discipline that continue to concern the coaching staff.The Crimson Tide committed a first-quarter turnover — a Ty Simpson interception — and allowed a 65-yard touchdown […]
Alabama may have walked away with a 30-14 win over Vanderbilt last Saturday, but the performance underscored a recurring theme under first-year head coach Kalen DeBoer: inconsistency and lapses in discipline that continue to concern the coaching staff.
The Crimson Tide committed a first-quarter turnover — a Ty Simpson interception — and allowed a 65-yard touchdown run. They also missed a 47-yard field goal, gave up a 36-yard scramble by Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, committed two holding penalties in the opening quarter, allowed four sacks, and mishit a 30-yard punt that set up a Commodores touchdown.
Those miscues, particularly in the first half, have become a pattern for Alabama this season. It’s why our expert staff is projecting a close outcome this week for Alabama vs. Missouri. DeBoer acknowledged as much during his appearance on the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast.
Alabama’s keys to winning against Missouri are clear
“I looked at the film, and we looked at the film as a staff, and there were some mistakes that and things that we did early in the game in particular, as a team, that just can’t happen,” DeBoer said. “It’s set in a direction early on — thank goodness we’ve been through the fight a little bit and we didn’t flinch, like people have probably expected us to the last few weeks. We didn’t flinch when we got in that moment.”
“But we got a lot of just things that we got to clean up and be better. It’s exciting, too, because it shows there’s a higher ceiling for our team, but we got to go make it happen. Because [if] we keep making those mistakes — we’re gonna have one of these teams going on the road at a Missouri, or whatever it might be, that are gonna get you.”
His comments reflect a team still searching for its identity — one that has shown flashes of toughness but remains prone to costly errors. No. 8 Alabama enters Saturday’s 11 a.m. CT kickoff in Columbia as a three-point favorite over No. 14 Missouri. Between internal threats and running back Ahmad Hardy, it’ll be a tough game.
“Just, again, got to execute better,” DeBoer continued. “That’s really what it was. I can’t say our guys weren’t in the fight. They came off the sideline and wanted to solve problems, and be solution-oriented. They want to be coached. But we just didn’t execute a couple things — and it’s really not a schematic thing, it’s not a team thing. It’s just literally one guy has got to do his job better, and some of the things we went through could have been avoided.”
“We got to finish at certain times, but I’m proud of how we finished the game. The second half in particular, stuffing the run defensively. Offensively, we scored every possession — we just got to turn some of those drives into touchdown and not settle for field goals.”
Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb echoed that sentiment, pointing to Alabama’s inefficiency in the red zone — just one touchdown on four trips before the final clock-killing possession.
“It was disappointing, to be honest,” Grubb said Monday. “I thought our red zone execution was poor, something we got to work at a lot. We can’t put ourselves in those positions to count on another part of the football team to take care of our business.”
With a road trip to Missouri looming, Alabama’s margin for error is shrinking — and the need for cleaner execution is becoming more urgent.
