Happy Monday, everyone. As noted over the weekend I didn’t get an opportunity to watch the game on Saturday and frankly still haven’t, but looking at the full game highlight reels, commentary, and box score offers a pretty clear picture of what went down.

My take on the game is that Vanderbilt is much better than usual and will continue to develop. I don’t think they get blown out much this season because they are a pain to defend.

Still the way that this game was won is very difficult to replicate, as noted by Colin Gay.

The Commodores averaged 5.5 yards per play and 3.1 yards per rush – each of which were less than Alabama’s offensive output – but ran 29 more plays than the Crimson Tide with an offensive game plan that was as close to a triple-option as the defense will likely see all season.

On those third down tries, Vanderbilt faced an average distance of nearly 7 yards. Three of Vanderbilt’s five touchdowns came on third down, including the 6-yard backbreaker from Diego Pavia to Kamrean Johnson.

“It was hard to get off field on third down,” Alabama linebacker Deontae Lawson said. “And then penalties, penalties hurt us early. And that created some long drives for us. And then just got beat on some man-to-man-coverage.”

Alabama’s offense averaged 8.8 yards per play in the game, which is a ridiculous number. As a point of reference, that’s a full yard more than the season average of the great 2020 Alabama squad. Defensively, the Tide was very good against the run. Yes, Vanderbilt gained 166 on the ground, but it took 53 attempts to get there.

So, all it took for Alabama to lose to Vanderbilt was an offense converting 13/18 times on either 3rd or 4th down when they averaged 7 yards to go, another conversion on a penalty for having two players on the punt team with the same jersey number, a pick six off a deflection that should not have stood and another turnover. All while the opponent commits only three penalties on the day (ahem), does not turn the ball over at all, and converts 77% of the time on 3rd or 4th (including the assist from Alabama which doesn’t count as a conversion in the box score.)

The defense giving up too much in the passing game is hardly a fluke at this point. They will certainly need to get better. But the way this game went down had some fluke in it, as most of college football’s zany upsets do. You just don’t lose very often when you average three more yards per snap than your opponent.

The good news is that this team will only have to deal with lavish praise being heaped upon them for one week. As expected, they are now one of the doubted.

Five teams in the top 11 of the AP poll went down on Saturday, causing some serious re-examination of my bracket. But I tried not to overreact to Alabama’s 40-35 loss at Vanderbilt or Tennessee’s 19-14 loss at Arkansas.

I still see the Tide and Vols getting in, although with Tennessee beating Alabama in two weeks and the Tide sneaking in toward the bottom of the at-large pecking order. (This scenario assumes a Texas-Georgia SEC title game.)

I considered swapping in Texas A&M, but I would like to see more than one great performance against Missouri.

In theory, Alabama’s CFP hopes remain very much intact, with an 81 percent chance to make the bracket, according to The Athletic’s model. In reality — panic! As explosive as Kalen DeBoer’s offense is (it averaged 8.6 yards per play but suffered from a Milroe fumble and fluky pick six), his defense has allowed 60 points in its last six quarters. That includes a combined five passing touchdowns by Pavia and Georgia’s Carson Beck. DeBoer and DC Kane Wommack, who gave up a head-coaching job at South Alabama for this gig, need to find some answers in a hurry.

In the meantime, Paul Finebaum’s callers figure to be extra colorful come Monday. DeBoer was always going to be held to an impossible standard as Saban’s successor, and so it begins. As many will note, Saban’s teams only lost to an unranked opponent once in his last 16 seasons (2021 at Texas A&M). But Saban did infamously lose in his first season to Louisiana-Monroe as a 24.5-point favorite. The spread Saturday was 22.5.

How they respond from here will define their season and give us an idea of what the new coaching staff is truly made of.

As Chase Goodbread notes, Jalen Milroe took full responsibility for his role in the loss.

Vanderbilt linebacker De’Rickey Wright, an Alabama native from Gadsden, broke up the pass and appeared to make contact with Williams from behind a bit early, but Milroe praised the Commodores’ defensive work on the play.

“He did a good job,” Milroe said of Wright. “I’ve got to have better eye discipline, and read the coverages better. That’s on me. I’ve got (to) protect the football, so I take all ownership of that.”

That’s a mature way to process an interception that came off a deflection. It was just the second pick thrown by Milroe this season, and the first one, against Georgia, wasn’t his fault either. Still, the fourth-year junior believes he should have looked for another receiver on the play.

That’s noble of him, but the fact is that we do want him getting the ball out early, it was not a terrible decision by any stretch, and it should have been flagged for pass interference. The last thing we want is for Jalen to regress into holding the ball because of one play. We’ll take 18/24 for 310 every week.

Last, Malachi Moore’s antics late in the game were embarrassing, as called out by Damien Harris.

“No. 13, Malachi Moore, brother, I don’t know you. I’m not trying to disrespect you. But what you did last night on that football field was complete and utter (expletive). You are a two-time captain. Somebody who has your hand and footprint in Denny Chimes. How did you show up yesterday?,” Harris said. “The only thing I remember seeing from you is slamming the guy’s head on the ground unnecessarily. Punching yourself, throwing your mouthpiece. Not even in a way of, like, OK, nobody’s looking. Like, ‘I’m bigger than the game. I’m bigger than the team. I’m bigger than this moment. Like, everybody look at me. Look at how pissed off I am. Look at what I got to say about it. Let me pick up a ridiculous 15-yard penalty for no apparent reason.’ And you call yourself a two-time captain?”

Overall, DeBoer seems to connect better with this generation of players, but there certainly needs to be some sort of internal discipline for this behavior. What that looks like I don’t know, but I wasn’t entirely pleased with Kalen’s postgame commentary on the matter. We all like to see passion from players, but that whole episode was petulant nonsense that should not be accepted. Lack of discipline in one area tends to bleed into others.

Alabama now must move on to South Carolina, but people are going to be talking about this one for a while. Hopefully DeBoer and company are able to wash the taste of this one off and get to work on fixing the deficiencies.

Roll Tide.