The Rose Bowl was supposed to be Alabama’s statement game. Instead, it turned into a nightmare. Ty Simpson took a vicious hit in the second quarter that led to a fumble and left him nursing cracked ribs and back issues. By the middle of the third quarter, head coach Kalen DeBoer made the call to pull him. Austin Mack, a redshirt sophomore who hadn’t played meaningful snaps all season, now had to orchestrate a comeback against the nation’s top-ranked team on the sport’s biggest stage. 

After the 38-3 shellacking, Mack didn’t hide from his mistakes. Speaking to reporters, he owned up to a critical miscue that derailed what could’ve been Alabama’s only real scoring threat of the second half.

“There was no miscommunication between me and Lotzeir Brooks,” Mack explained, his voice steady but clearly filled with regret. “I messed up previously throughout the beginning of the play. I had slipped my protection the wrong way. So I ended up having two guys right on my face, and then I ended up kind of just trying to force it to Lotzeir here, and he didn’t have his head around yet. So, I took full responsibility for that play.”

The play in question came during Mack’s first real drive of the game. It was a nine-play, 65-yard march that had Alabama fans momentarily believing a comeback might be possible. Austin Mack had moved the Tide into Indiana territory with a mix of short completions and scrambles. He showed off decent pocket awareness and the ability to extend plays with his legs. 

But when it came time to punch it in, the wheels came off. Mack’s protection call sent him in the wrong direction, leaving two Indiana defenders bearing down on him unblocked. Scrambling to salvage the play, he forced a throw toward Brooks, who wasn’t ready for the ball and hadn’t turned his head around to track it. The pass fell incomplete, killing the drive’s momentum and forcing Alabama to settle for a 28-yard field goal from Conor Talty. Those were their only points of the game. 

Mack’s stat line told the story of a backup trying his best under impossible circumstances. He finished 11-of-16 for 103 passing yards. He outpaced Simpson’s 67 yards in fewer drives and showed he could at least move the chains. His three possessions averaged nearly eight plays each, compared to just five for Simpson’s drives, which suggested Mack had the capability to sustain offense when given the chance. 

But he also took multiple sacks as Indiana’s defensive front feasted on Alabama’s offensive line and Mack’s inexperience in reading blitzes. The Tide managed just 193 total yards for the entire game. It was an embarrassing total for a program that had averaged 380 yards per game during the regular season. Mack did what he could. But asking a guy who’d barely played all year to engineer a 24-point comeback against an undefeated juggernaut was always going to be a tall order.​

DeBoer preaches patience and culture 

If there was any silver lining in the wreckage of a 38-3 beatdown, Kalen DeBoer tried his best to find it. The second-year Alabama coach spoke with an almost eerie calmness after watching his team get steamrolled by No. 1 Indiana.

“There is a culture that we feel better about now than we did a year ago,” DeBoer told the Crimson Tide Sports Network, his voice measured despite the carnage on the scoreboard. “The guys – I can’t wait to get back with them. I can’t wait to get back to work. This one is going to linger on us here for a day. I’m confident the sun is going to come up tomorrow.”

You expect this talk from a coach trying to hold things together when the program is on the verge of collapse. However, it also raised eyebrows among a fan base that’s accustomed to competing for national titles. DeBoer insisted there’s a “fine line” between what happened Thursday and winning a championship. This felt like a tough sell after watching the offense manage just three points and 193 total yards. 

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DeBoer tried to frame the loss as fuel for the young players who got “a taste of it” and will use the experience to “take the next step.” But it’s hard to ignore that this was the second straight year Alabama ended its season with a lopsided bowl loss under his watch.