Paul Finebaum expresses concern in Alabama for Iron Bowl after loss to Oklahoma

For a second straight season, Alabama suffered a key loss to Oklahoma, losing its second game of the season to the Sooners on Saturday which had massive implications for both teams as far as the CFP. Paul Finebaum is even more worried about it moving forward, though, considering what we all know can happen sometimes down on The Plains.

Finebaum reacted to the 23-21 loss yesterday afternoon for the Crimson Tide to OU on ‘The Matt Barrie Show’ on Sunday. He thought, as for the actual game, that it was the second game in a row that ‘Bama wasn’t at their best, and third time now this season with them now having lost to Florida State and Oklahoma. That’s something they, like any team at this point of the season, couldn’t afford, with them worsening their chances to be in the SEC Championship or in the College Football Playoff.

“I really wonder about Alabama now too, because, I mean, that was just – I mean, they were flat against LSU, and, against Oklahoma, I mean, they may rue the day that they let that one get away,” said Finebaum.

“Yeah, (the swagger) was gone. And, how many times has everyone, me leading the pack, said, ‘Well, you just have to throw that Florida State game out’. Well, you can’t throw it out anymore,” Finebaum said. “It’s way too early to speculate, but I think, you know, Alabama has made everything very complicated for itself. They still have a path, and I’ll spare the audience the 18,000 tiebreakers in the SEC. But, they don’t have a lot of air to breathe right now. Which, I mean, they were 97%, and now they’ve lost about half of that going into the playoff.”

Alabama fell to 8-2 (6-1) with the two-point loss in Tuscaloosa, not being able to overcome a ten-point deficit from after the first quarter as they turned it over four times in total and missed a field goal in what was one of their lowest-scoring efforts of the season. It’s just their second loss in league play, having opened with six straight to start with the first four being against top-twenty competition, but is their second loss overall, which starts to bring their postseason hopes back into question again.

That’s especially so with, as we all know, the Iron Bowl coming up in less than two weeks, with this year’s rivalry game back inside Jordan-Hare. Worse teams than this one for Auburn have beaten better teams for Alabama in this spot before, which Finebaum pointed out has happened in each of their last two trips there. So, now, the Tide will go on the road in the final weekend of the season to probably play a near must-win against the Tigers.

“I don’t mean to make too much out of history here, because the history of the Iron Bowl is pretty haunted. But, four years ago and two years ago, Alabama went down there against just dreadful Auburn teams. One went four overtimes. Should have ended but an Auburn running back went out of bounds instead of staying in bounds. And then, last time, everybody remembers. It was the Gravedigger play, the 4th & 32, in what turned out to be Nick Saban’s last year, and, I mean, that’s one of the greatest plays of all time,” Finebaum noted. “I know that has nothing to do with this, but, this Alabama team? Probably not as good as those two. And, this Auburn team is not bad, and it has a little bit of life after Hugh Freeze got sent packing.”