College Football Playoff 2025 first-round takeaways

The 2025 College Football Playoff kicked off Friday night in Norman, Oklahoma, and we’ve already seen a first. After all four home teams won by demonstrative margins in last year’s first round, Alabama became the first road team to prevail in a playoff game with a stirring comeback against Oklahoma and a 34-24 victory.

Here are the key takeaways. We will update this with each completed game.

What just happened?

Oklahoma’s offense lasted only 20 minutes. The Sooners were perfect from the start, jumping out to a 17-0 lead against an Alabama team that looked completely unprepared for the moment. But the Crimson Tide adjusted and rallied, and OU had only a brief response. From 17 points, Bama outscored their hosts 34-7.

We use the word “momentum” way too much in football, but it was a extremely momentum based game.

1. Over the first 19 minutes, Oklahoma jumped out to a 17-0 lead while outscoring Bama by a stunning 181-12 margin. It could have been worse, too, as the Sooners’ Owen Heinecke came within millimeters of a blocked punt that could have produced a safety or a touchdown.

2. Over the next 21 minutes, Bama outscored the Sooners 27-0, outscoring them 194-59. Freshman Lotzeir Brooks caught two touchdown passes – the first on a fourth-and-2 to finally get Bama on the board (after catching a huge third-down pass earlier in the drive), and the second TD came on a 30-yard lob that put the Tide away for good. The Tide defense put pressure on John Mateer, and his footwork and composure disappeared. A huge pick six thrown straight to Zabien Brown tied the score, and Bama also scored the first 10 points of the second half.

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Zabien Brown stuns OU with game-tying pick-six before halftime

Zabien Brown makes an important interception 50 yards from home to level the score before halftime.

OU responded briefly, cutting the lead to three points early in the fourth quarter on a 37-yard touchdown run from Deion Burks. But the Sooners’ offense couldn’t do enough, and Groza Award-winning kicker Tate Sandell missed two late field goal attempts to secure a Bama victory.

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Tate Sandell’s back-to-back FG misses help Alabama earn first-round win

Tate Sandell misses two late field goals as Alabama holds on to beat Oklahoma 34-24 in the first round of the CFP.

Impact games

Oklahoma beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa in November — in the game that ultimately certified the Sooners’ CFP bid — thanks to a pick-six and special teams dominance. But the situation was completely reversed for Norman. Brown’s pick six was huge and the special teams let the Sooners down, both with Sandell’s misses and a botched punt in the second quarter.

The botched punt was the second in a two-play sequence that turned the game on its head against the Sooners. First, Mateer missed an easy third-and-3 conversion to throw down the field to a wide-open Xavier Robinson, but Mateer cocked the pass and Robinson dropped it. On the next snap, punter Grayson Miller dropped the ball while beginning his punt motion. Bama’s Tim Keenan III got the ball at the OU 30, and although OU’s defense limited the Tide to a field goal, what could have been a 24-3 OU lead turned into a 17-10 advantage. That set the table for Brown’s pick six and everything that followed.

The blown lead leaves Oklahoma with a pretty ignominious feat: In College Football Playoff history, teams are 28-2 with a 17-point lead: OU is 0-2 and everyone else is 28-0. Ouch.

Next fall, Sooners

We knew that whenever Oklahoma’s season ended, the offense would be the biggest reason. The Sooners survived by playing with almost no margin for error for most of the year. Their No. 49 ranking in offensive SP+ was the worst of any CFP team, but they had enough defense (third in defensive SP+), special teams (21st in special teams SP+), and quality red zone play to overcome it.

The Sooners’ defense played well again Friday night — Bama gained just 260 total yards (4.8 per play) — but special teams miscues put more pressure on the offense, and after a bright start, it ran out of steam. Mateer started the game 10-for-15 for 132 yards with a touchdown, 26 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown, but his last 31 pass attempts gained only 149 yards with five sacks and the pick, and his last nine carries without a sack gained only 15 yards.

Brent Venables heads into the offseason facing some decisions. OU’s offense improved technically after the significant additions of coordinator Ben Arbuckle and Mateer, but Mateer was scattered before his midseason hand injury and mediocre afterward. Do the Sooners return with the same core roster, hoping that better health and a theoretically improved running game can give the defense what it needs to take OU to the next level? Is Venables hitting the reset button again? Will he ever be able to point all the arrows in the right direction at the same time?

What’s next

Alabama’s reward for its comeback victory is a trip West: The Tide will meet undefeated, top-seeded Indiana in the Rose Bowl on January 1. Bama’s defense will obviously face a stiffer test from Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza and the Hoosiers’ offense, but Bama’s defense has mostly been up for the test this season. The Tide’s ability to pull off an upset will be determined by Ty Simpson and Alabama’s passing game.

Simpson started Friday night’s win just 2-for-6 with a sack, and although he improved from there and didn’t throw any interceptions — his final pass line: 18-for-29 for 232 yards, 2 touchdowns and 4 sacks (6.0 yards per attempt) — his footwork still betrayed him a bit during the game, and he missed several passes. Oklahoma’s pass rush is formidable, but Indiana’s defense ranks seventh in sack rate and with almost no blitzes. The Hoosiers generate pressure and clog passing lanes, and they held Oregon’s Dante Moore and Ohio State’s Julian Sayin to 5.1 yards per dropback with 11 sacks, 2 touchdowns and 3 picks. Bama will be an underdog for a reason.

But kudos to the Tide for getting off the mat. They were lifeless early, missing tackles and blocks and looking as unprepared as in their season-opening loss to Florida State. But Brooks’ play lit the fuse and Bama fought back.