Alabama was riding in fifth gear for most of the games they played this season. They went on full speed during a massive victory over Georgia. A win over a bitter rival that will be remembered for years in the history of Alabama Crimson Tide. However, Vanderbilt came out as a bumpy road and loosened all the spare parts of the Crimson Tide with a 40-35 score. The entire nation saw the Tide’s frailties on defense. Even Kalen DeBoer‘s “We’ve got to do a better job of being disciplined” can not repair the damage it has caused to the fans. But what about their star quarterback, Jalen Milroe? Was he part of this blunder?

A former NFL scout, Daniel Kelly, shared a clip of Milroe where he’s praising Vanderbilt’s defensive work and taking accountability for the defeat. Milroe could have easily put the whole thing on his defense. After all, the offense scored 35. Conceding 40 against an unranked team? The Tide fanbase would have backed Milroe’s criticism. But he went a different route. Naturally, he is getting praised for it.

“This is the kind of accountability teams look for from a QB —this is one of the most impressive things I’ve seen from Jalen Milroe. This is leadership. We can learn a lot from QBs when things don’t work out.” 

In the clip, we see Jalen Milroe praising Vanderbilt’s linebacker, De’Ricky Wright, saying, “He did a good job.” He said of Wright.”I’ve got to have better eye discipline and read the coverages better. That’s on me. I’ve got to protect the football, so I take all ownership of that,” Milroe said while taking responsibility for his team’s loss.

That’s the kind of leadership we expect from a player like him. He also talked about one interception that came off a deflection. Although his pass attempt failed, nobody lashed out at him because he has not thrown such interceptions this season. It’s even the second pick he threw, and the first one was against Georgia. “ I should not have put Ryan in that situation. I should have gotten through my progression and moved on with my progression,” he noted, doubling down on things he could have done better. Besides, let’s look at what happened during the actual game. Why was Milroe upset about his performance?

What went wrong with Jalen Milroe against Vanderbilt?

In the stressful 35-40 defeat to Vanderbilt on Saturday. Poor defense and multiple penalties by Alabama that day turned out favorable to Vanderbilt.

From the very start, the Tide’s defense was not in the game. It looked like they were still hungover from celebrations after the win against the Bulldogs. In his College Game Day comments, Nick Saban had warned that it would be difficult for Kalen DeBoer to motivate his guys after such a rollercoaster against the Bulldogs, and the GOAT was right!

The biggest disappointment? Bama’s failure to stop third-down conversions. On the offensive side of things, Milroe mostly ran a smooth game, except for two mistakes.

If we recall the game, Jalen Milroe threw a pass to freshman receiver Ryan Williams, but unfortunately, it got deflected quite high in the air and dropped right into the arms of their opponent, Random Fontenette, for a 29-yard return. It was one of the many mistakes Alabama made that cost them a loss against an inferior team. In another instance, Milroe had a sack-fumble when he failed to spot a rush from his left.

How stressful is it to be at the top of the AP poll and fall to a team that was nowhere near such kind of rankings?