Can Alabama football stop struggling against Missouri?

Broken cigars littered the field at Neyland Stadium, hours after Tennessee defeated Alabama football on Saturday. Cheap tobacco spilled onto the natural grass playing surface near the walls that fans had jumped over earlier in the evening.

Square feet of turf had been torn up in the orange-and-white checkerboard end zone, where volunteers had tried to take souvenirs of their team’s second win in three years over the Crimson Tide. Just beyond the north end zone lay a torn program page showing former Tennessee offensive lineman Darnell Wright in a Chicago Bears uniform, next to a dirty and laceless Nike sneaker.

There was a party in Knoxville on Saturday. But it was one that Alabama itself founded.

“You can’t win a football game if you make mistakes like we had out there,” UA head coach Kalen DeBoer said afterward.

He’s right.

Starting with the penalties. Alabama had 15 of them for 115 yards.

False starts. A snap violation. Kendrick Law’s unsportsmanlike conduct of shoving a Tennessee defender resulted in the Tide facing 4th-and-22, which they aimed for and failed.

“When someone talks to us, we have to learn to go the other way and be more emotionally disciplined in every way,” DeBoer said.

With 3:36 minutes left in the game, a Tennessee VIP pulled a cigar out of his pocket and put it, still unlit, in his mouth. Alabama was still in the game, but there was no reason to believe UA would take advantage of the opportunity.

That wasn’t the case the whole game. And the Crimson Tide defense gave him every chance in the world.

Alabama intercepted two passes. Sampson had a fumble in the first quarter, which created an early opportunity to take the lead.

Each time, the Crimson Tide stumbled on the ensuing offensive drive. None of the three possessions went more than 32 yards and one of them lost 23 yards.

“I don’t want to say you always shoot yourself in the foot, but we didn’t execute,” DeBoer said Monday of the missed opportunities. “Or something happened, and often it was false starts or whatever. We just wasted plays and put ourselves in our place by not being able to have our full offense available on every play.”

The Crimson Tide had a chance at the end. UA took a 25-point lead on its own with 1:24 to play, plenty of time to win or go to overtime.

Cue another problem. Protection.

Jalen Milroe certainly wasn’t at his best against Tennessee. Some of that was his fault, but the Volunteers pressured him 26 times, according to Pro Football Focus.

While under pressure, his accuracy dropped significantly, dropping from 66.7% to 31.3%. The final offensive play was no different, as Milroe attempted to quickly score on Germie Bernard after Elijah Pritchett sniffed around the defensive end.

The throw came behind the Washington transfer and UT’s Will Brooks, a Mountain Brook native, intercepted it. Two kneels later, the Neyland Stadium announcer pleaded in vain with fans to “please stay away from the playing field”.

“We won in two unique ways the last two times here in Neyland,” said Volunteer head coach Josh Heupel. “I will remember our players for a long time. There’s nothing better than walking off the field with the crowd around you and a cigar in your mouth.”

Now Alabama is at a crossroads. The team that destroyed Georgia in the first half on Sept. 28 is still somewhere, but it hasn’t been seen on the field since halftime against the Bulldogs.

And the Crimson Tide has no chance. Lose one more game and it’s likely out of the College Football Playoff discussion entirely.

Missouri comes to town on Saturday for a game that Alabama can win as long as it doesn’t repeat the woes of Vanderbilt and Tennessee.

“Two losses we probably shouldn’t have had,” tight end CJ Dippre said. “I mean, that’s… There’s no way you can accept that. You somehow can’t understand it. You have to understand that we lost these games internally. Bama lost those games. Nobody beat us. There were still two good teams, but we beat ourselves.”

How Alabama responds next will determine the first year of the DeBoer era. The Crimson Tide can improve execution and beat the Tigers to bring some momentum into the bye week.

However, the improvement must be permanent. Opening day is followed by a trip to LSU, where there’s no guarantee fans would even bother storming the field after a win against the version of the Crimson Tide seen in Knoxville.