Joel Klatt says Oklahoma Sooners exposed Alabama football in upset loss

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The Alabama Crimson Tide‘s flaws were exposed by the Oklahoma Sooners over the weekend at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Fox Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt says.

On the Monday edition of his popular video podcast, the color commentator on Fox’s weekly “Big Noon Saturday” games gave credit to Oklahoma coach Brent Venables for having a solid game plan against Alabama. Klatt said the Sooners’ front seven was particularly outstanding in their 23-21 upset win over the Crimson Tide.

“I know that they gave up over 400 yards, but that OU defense was the reason they won the football game,” Klatt said. “They got the defensive score. They set up their offense for short fields. If you combine them with special teams, it was like OU turned into the Kirk Ferentz Iowa Hawkeyes.

“They went in there and just won with defense and special teams — in Tuscaloosa. That’s tough to do,” Klatt added.

Indeed, the loss to Oklahoma snapped a 17-game home winning streak by Alabama and was the first Crimson Tide loss of the Kalen DeBoer era at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Until Saturday, Alabama hadn’t lost an SEC game at home since falling to LSU in November 2019.

‘They cannot run the football,’ Joel Klatt says of ‘one-dimensional’ Alabama

Klatt previously criticized Alabama for being too reliant on the passing game, which he said was only reinforced following the Crimson Tide’s loss to Oklahoma.

Alabama struggled to run the ball again, finishing with 80 yards on 33 carries (2.4 AVG) against the Sooners.

“They cannot run the football. They just cannot. So, it makes it extremely difficult to be an elite passing team, because a defense can just sit there and focus on trying to disrupt some element of your passing game. Oklahoma was able to do that enough Saturday. Got the stop late when they needed to. They presented a short field to their offense when they were down 21-20.”

Klatt added that Ty Simpson wasn’t great in the loss to the Sooners. The first-year starting quarterback threw for 326 yards and a touchdown, but he threw a costly interception to Oklahoma defensive back Eli Bowen that was returned 87 yards for a touchdown. Simpson finished 28 of 42 on passing attempts.

“Ty Simpson (was) not great. If the passing game is not elite in big matchups, (Alabama will) lose. This is exactly what I was talking about on ‘Pardon My Take.’ They asked me who I thought could win the national championship, and I left Alabama off the list. Well, this is why, guys.

“They’re one-dimensional. You run into the wrong matchup on the wrong day, or you have a bad day throwing the football, where are the answers? Alabama doesn’t have the answers.”

“Bama has one elite thing that they do,” Klatt said of the Tide’s passing game. “And if you disrupt that at all, which Oklahoma was able to do a few times with the pick six, the sack fumble, you win. That’s 10 points the defense is creating, and they win it 23-21.”

Why Alabama is not a national championship contender, Joel Klatt says

Klatt said that Alabama’s loss to Oklahoma is why he doesn’t view the Crimson Tide as a national championship contender in coach Kalen DeBoer’s second season in Tuscaloosa.

“Even if they’re able to go and win the SEC, they’re not going to be able to get through a playoff and win a national championship (solely) because of that,” he said. “They have flaws, and they will run into a matchup where they will lose again, in this season. They are not going to line up and win the rest of their games.”

Klatt then joked:

“I shouldn’t have said it that definitively, because that’s just setting it up. That’s just a ‘freezing cold takes exposed’ written all over it. Now, Bama’s going to rattle off a national championship.”

Joel Klatt ‘loves’ Alabama football, says Crimson Tide ‘good for the sport’ 

Klatt said he’d enjoy watching Alabama prove him wrong by winning the national championship.

“If they do, I’d be really happy for them,” he said. “That would be awesome. They have flaws. Again, they’re too one-dimensional. Hope that they can rattle off these victories. Doesn’t look like they’ll be able to do that.” 


Klatt insists he loves Alabama in spite of what some Tide fans think.

“No one will put that entire comment out there. It will just be that first (negative) soundbite and everyone will run with it. Bama fans will be so upset: ‘This guy hates us!’ No, I don’t actually. I love Alabama. Alabama is so good for the sport. I love Kalen DeBoer. Ty Simpson is amazing. I love watching them. I love everything about Alabama. I love the dominance of Alabama. I don’t hate Alabama at all. At all.”

Alabama football schedule 2025

Alabama (8-2) will host Eastern Illinois (3-8) at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Week 13 of the 2025 college football season. Kickoff is 1 p.m. CT.

Alabama-Eastern Illinois will be available to stream on ESPN Unlimited (previously ESPN+).

The Crimson Tide fell six spots to No. 10 in this week’s US LBM Coaches Poll and will learn updated ranking in the new College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday beginning at 7:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.

Here’s a look at Alabama football’s game-by-game 2025 regular-season schedule.

  • Aug. 30: at Florida State (L, 31-17)
  • Sept. 6: vs. UL Monroe (W, 73-0)
  • Sept. 13: vs. Wisconsin (W, 38-14)
  • Sept. 27: at Georgia (W, 24-21)
  • Oct. 4: vs. Vanderbilt (W, 30-14)
  • Oct. 11: at Missouri (W, 27-24)
  • Oct. 18: vs. Tennessee (W, 37-20)
  • Oct. 25: at South Carolina (W, 29-22)
  • Nov. 8: vs. LSU (W, 20-9)
  • Nov. 15: vs. Oklahoma (L, 23-21)
  • Nov. 22 vs. Eastern Illinois, 1 p.m., ESPN+
  • Nov. 29: at Auburn, 6:30 p.m., ABC

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This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: Alabama football was exposed in Oklahoma loss, top analyst says

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