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The Tuscaloosa News
Vanderbilt set trap, and Alabama football stepped in it with both feet | Goodbread
- Story byThe Tuscaloosa News
- Vanderbilt set trap, and Alabama football stepped in it with both feet | Goodbread
NASHVILLE − Alabama football fans showed up in droves for the Crimson Tide 's road game at Vanderbilt on Saturday, commanding the vast majority of seats at FirstBank Stadium.
The Alabama team , however, didn't show up.
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There's not a nicer way to describe the listless performance that somehow permitted the Crimson Tide to follow a win over Georgia in the biggest game of the college football season to date with a 40-35 loss in the season's biggest upset to date.
But somehow, only seven days separated Alabama from looking like a championship contender one week, and an absolute pretender the next. And it was the sort of loss that could count double at season's end when the College Football Playoff selection committee pulls out its magnifying class to judge not only the quality of wins, but the smell of losses.
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The UA staff set out rodent traps in the football building earlier in the week, signifying to players that Vanderbilt, coming off Alabama's emotional win over Georgia, represented what's known as a "trap game."
It appeared Saturday that Alabama had stepped on all of them.
Nobody should've been pointing a finger in the Alabama football locker room at halftime, because everyone − from offense to defense to the coaching staff − could've pointed a thumb. The UA defense was bullied on a 10-play, 75-yard drive on the opening possession for a 7-0, tone-setting Commodores lead. The Alabama offense then wasted no time doubling the deficit with a Jalen Milroe interception that was returned 24 yards for a touchdown. And if the UA coaching staff wasn't culpable enough in failed preparation, it was also squarely responsible for a Vanderbilt fourth-down conversion, by penalty, for illegal numbering. On a Commodores punt, Alabama had both of its players who wear No. 2 – Ryan Williams and Zabien Brown – on the field at the same time. The resulting flag gave Vanderbilt a first down on a drive that ended up in the end zone for a 20-7 VU lead.
And Alabama packed all those woes into the first quarter alone.
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The disaster that was the Crimson Tide's first-half performance was so completely awful, a full description would be like listing the parts replacements needed for a car totaled by a freight train. Alabama's offense battled back in the second half, but its defense continued to struggle. And much like Georgia's play a week earlier in Bryant-Denny Stadium, the last two quarters weren't enough to overcome two quarters of stink.
Alabama's failures, however, are only half of the story that unfolded in Nashville.
Vanderbilt is deserving of miles of credit for engineering one of the biggest wins in program history . Quarterback Diego Pavia was as advertised, and the VU option running attack helped shorten the game. A late sack-fumble on Milroe by the VU pass rush made for a huge fourth-quarter contribution to the upset. Coach Clark Lea and staff had the Commodores highly motivated and outcoached the visitors.
It marked the first Vanderbilt win over Alabama in 40 years; the last Commodores team to do it beat a Ray Perkins-coached Crimson Tide team 30-21 in 1984. It was a history-making performance on the winning side, and at every opportunity Vanderbilt had to fold, as it has so often throughout its history, the Commodores instead responded with a big play to stay a step ahead. VU never trailed for a moment on the scoreboard; the better team for not just one half, but for more than enough of both.
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In the end, the trap sprung.
And Alabama couldn't get out of it.
Tuscaloosa News sport columnist Chase Goodbread.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Vanderbilt set trap, and Alabama football stepped in it with both feet
