No. 11 Alabama couldn’t overcome a disastrous first quarter in a 19-13 loss to Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl on Tuesday.

The Crimson Tide turned the ball over three times in four plays in the first 15 minutes, giving Michigan a 16-0 lead.

That was enough points for the Wolverines to win the game, although they had to sweat in the end. Alabama reached Michigan’s 15-yard line with less than a minute left, but Jalen Milroe’s fourth down pass into the end zone fell incomplete before reaching the goal line.

The loss means Alabama ends coach Kalen DeBoer’s first season at 9-4. It is the first time since a 7-6 season in 2007 that the Crimson Tide has finished a season with fewer than 10 wins. This was Nick Saban’s first season in Tuscaloosa.

Alabama entered the College Football Playoff rematch from a season ago as a 16.5-point favorite, but the Tide was in disarray early on. The Tide stumbled after the opening kickoff and things went downhill from there as rain began to fall at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

Jalen Milroe fumbled on the first play of Alabama’s second possession and Michigan kicked a second field goal. Milroe was then picked off two plays into Alabama’s third drive and Michigan took over at the Alabama 16-yard line. Three plays later, Davis Warren hit Fredrick Moore for a 13-yard TD.

Milroe was sacked and fumbled again to open Alabama’s fourth drive, and Michigan took over at the Alabama 6-yard line. The Tide defense once again held the Wolverines to a field goal, but the lead was ultimately too big to overcome thanks to a standout performance from a Michigan defense that didn’t have star Mason as it prepared for the 2025 NFL Draft Graham and Will Johnson decreed.

Advantageous field position due to turnovers was the main reason Michigan won the game. The offense had just 190 total yards and struggled to move the ball like it had done most of the season. Michigan was 5 of 16 on third down.

Warren left the game in the third quarter with a knee injury after being sacked following a third down. But Michigan kept the ball and got an automatic first down when Alabama received a foul on the sideline for celebrating after the play. Several players ran excitedly from the bench onto the field and the official patrolling the sideline was also knocked down by an Alabama player.

Alex Orji replaced Warren and Michigan’s offense became even more ground-based. Orji was 2-of-3 passing for two yards and an interception. Freshman running back Jordan Marshall led the team with 23 rushes for 100 yards. He saw the most work of any Michigan rusher, as both Donovan Edwards and Kalel Mullings did not play on Tuesday.

We can put to rest the playoff arguments in Alabama

Look, we’re not here to make blanket judgments about the entire season based on one middling bowl game, even though Alabama played extremely poorly on Tuesday.

But we can all agree that the arguments that Alabama should have been in the College Football Playoff against SMU should stop, right? The Crimson Tide became the first team to be eliminated from the playoffs after SMU lost to Clemson in the ACC title game. Alabama missed the playoffs due to three losses to SMU’s two and the Mustangs played an extra game.

The deliberations surrounding the committee’s decision to include SMU in the playoffs came to a head when the Mustangs were eliminated in the first round by Penn State. And that second guess conveniently ignored who Alabama lost to during the season.

Two of the Crimson Tide’s three losses came to teams that finished the regular season 6-6, and one of those came by three touchdowns. Alabama lost 24-3 at Oklahoma in Week 13 in a game that ultimately ended the Tide’s playoff hopes. A win in Norman likely would have given them a win over the Mustangs in the postseason. And the mistakes that doomed Alabama’s regular-season playoff hopes were on display again Tuesday.