For Alabama’s offensive line, Friday night’s trip to Norman is less about football and more about exorcising the ghosts of a communication collapse that cost them the last game against Oklahoma.

The No. 9-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide will take on the No. 8-ranked Oklahoma Sooners this weekend. The last time Alabama played Oklahoma, the offensive line surrendered its second-highest sack total of the season. Now, offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb is demanding better communication from his unit to prevent a repeat.

“Elite communication. The best communication they’ve had all year,” Grubb said during his press conference. “That’s what it’s going to come down to, because in the first game, they actually did a good job of that at times. We had two negative-yardage runs that were really gains of zero. We talked about that before. The sacks came from a lack of communication.”

The biggest reason Alabama lost to the Sooners 23–21 in their regular-season game this year came down to three painful turnovers.

The second big reason was communication meltdowns at the worst possible times. Kalen DeBoer’s O-line gave up four sacks against the Oklahoma Sooners’ defense, which deliberately put them in harm’s way more than once.

But it’s not all on the offensive line.

A couple of those sacks happened because the running backs completely missed their blocks in pass protection. This allowed the Sooners’ mayhem front seven to get hits on Ty Simpson.

One specific sack in the second half resulted in a strip-sack, where the ball was knocked loose for a fumble. Oklahoma jumped on it, and that mistake set them up perfectly for what ended up being the game-winning score, despite Alabama out-gaining them by 194 yards.

Basically, Alabama shot itself in the foot with a few huge mistakes. They had the talent and moved the ball well, but Oklahoma played “bend, don’t break” defense and was much better at making Bama pay for every slip-up.

Outside of those errors, the Bama offensive line did a pretty good job up front. Left tackle Kadyn Proctor was a standout, potentially an All-American, who allowed only one sack all year.

They ended the regular season having allowed just 25 or 26 sacks in 13 games (an average of about 1.9 to 2 sacks per game). So yeah, it looks more like a communication problem than an O-line problem.

There’s one more factor that could cause problems again this weekend, just like last season: the lights.

Germie Bernard calls out a big Sooners advantage

Alabama wide receiver Germie Bernard recently reflected on the team’s 24-3 loss to Oklahoma last season and pointed to an unexpected challenge: the stadium lighting. He mentioned that the way the lights are set up at Oklahoma’s stadium, in the corners behind the end zones, made it tricky to track the football in the air.

“No, their lights kind of got me last time that we played,” Bernard noted. “The lights were in kind of a weird position, I guess you could say.”

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This lighting quirk apparently “got” Bernard and other receivers during the game, contributing to five dropped passes overall. However, this time around, Alabama is walking in with an advantage and has nothing to worry about.

Bernard believes those issues won’t be a problem this time. He credited Alabama’s equipment staff for making sure players have the right cleats and gear to handle the field.

With those details taken care of, Bernard said the focus is simple: go out, adjust, and play football. However, that’s always easier said than done at Gaylord Stadium. The Sooners have an all-time win rate of around 89 percent at Gaylord Stadium.

Bernard finished the first matchup with three catches for 58 yards, but he and the rest of Alabama’s receiving corps expect to be far more comfortable with the lighting and conditions this time around.