Oklahoma stuns no. 7 Alabama 24-3 to likely end the Tide’s playoff hopes

No. 7 Alabama’s SEC title hopes are over and a College Football Playoff appearance looks very, very unlikely after a 24-3 loss at Oklahoma.

The Crimson Tide were 14-point favorites, but Oklahoma took control of the game with a pair of interceptions in the third quarter and its pass rush collapsed the pocket of QB Jalen Milroe all night.

The Sooners scored late in the second quarter to take a 10-3 halftime lead. On Alabama’s third play of the second half, freshman cornerback Eli Bowen had his first career interception when he threw a short screen to fellow tight end Ryan Williams and returned the ball to the Alabama 14-yard line.

Oklahoma went up 14 five plays later when Xavier Robinson got his second rushing TD of the night.

Alabama’s next possession lasted five more plays but had the same result. Milroe was picked off by Kip Lewis and Lewis returned it 49 yards for a pick 6.

Any hope Alabama had of a comeback vanished in the fourth quarter during a bizarre — and probably incorrect — officiating sequence. Williams appeared to make a phenomenal TD catch on fourth down to cut Oklahoma’s lead to two scores. But a flag was thrown well after the play began. The call ended up being for illegal touching when officials said Williams had been illegally covered at the line of scrimmage.

However, replays showed that Williams was the only receiver on his side of the field lined up at the line of scrimmage. With a tight end also on that side of the formation, Alabama had seven players lined up on the ball with the two receivers flanking Williams, each lined up behind the line.

To be clear, the call is not the reason Alabama lost. Three turnovers and an inability to run the ball are much bigger factors.

Oklahoma did a great job of containing Milroe. His longest run of the game was only 11 yards. He was also ineffective as a passer, completing just 11 of 26 passes for 164 yards. The three points scored by Alabama are the fewest by any Crimson Tide team since 2004.

The Sooners, meanwhile, are bowl eligible with a sixth win and keep alive a bowl streak dating back to 1998.

How many teams does the SEC make the playoffs?

Missing the playoffs will go down as a serious failure for Alabama in coach Kalen DeBoer’s first season as Nick Saban’s replacement. And it’s hard to see how Alabama makes the playoffs, barring even more chaos in the final week of the regular season.

Alabama is now 8-3 overall and 4-3 in the SEC. The Crimson Tide is out of the SEC title race with four teams ahead of them in the standings.

And those four teams — Texas, Texas A&M, Georgia and Tennessee — all have much clearer paths to the College Football Playoff, especially if the Aggies beat the Longhorns and win the SEC title game despite their four-overtime loss to Auburn on Saturday night. The SEC entered Week 13 with six teams battling to make the postseason. Now that group is down to four and maybe even three…except more chaos.

Alabama has to hope Georgia loses to Georgia Tech or Tennessee falls to Vanderbilt in Week 14, while Texas knocks off Texas A&M. That would leave one one-loss team in the SEC and just one two-loss team. And that might not be enough to keep Alabama in the playoffs, barring what happens in the ACC.

Under Saban, Alabama reached the four-team playoff eight times in 10 seasons. In the first year of the 12-team playoff, the Crimson Tide look like they could miss out unless things get wilder over the next two weeks.