With a 32-31 loss at No. 10 LSU on Saturday night, No. 6 Alabama effectively ended any chance it had to make the College Football Playoff. It also marks only the second time since 2015 that the Crimson Tide have lost two games in the regular season.
The offenses got untracked after halftime, as both teams scored 25 points in the second half and overtime. After the game, Alabama head coach Nick Saban took the blame for the defense allowing that many points following the break.
“Look, I can’t blame the players,” Saban said, via Bama Central. “I’m responsible for all this stuff, so if we didn’t do it right, that’s on me, and we’ve gotta do a better job of coaching the players so that we give them a better chance to have success and when we get opportunities, we take advantage of them.”
While being out of the running for a national championship is below the expectations of a Saban-era Alabama team, the head coach stressed to his players that there is still a lot to play for the rest of the way this season.
“I told them that we all have a chance, we all have a legacy that we wanna uphold in terms of the pride that we have in our performance, as well as what our expectations are,” Saban said. “And I told each player that they can develop value in their stock by continuing to try to play well and improve, and we can create value as a team if we continue to do the things that we need to do to get better as a team.”
Since the College Football Playoff debuted in the 2014 season, Alabama has only missed the tournament once: during the 2019 season when LSU went undefeated. It’s rare that Alabama plays without the motivation of a championship in sight.
The Crimson Tide head to Oxford, Miss., to play No. 11 Ole Miss on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET.
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Bama Central: Mutual Respect: Nick Saban and Brian Kelly Bring Class to an Otherwise Ferocious Rivalry
For more Alabama coverage, visit Bama Central.
