Heather Dinich reassess Alabama's CFP chances following Texas loss

For the first time since the 2015 season against Ole Miss, Alabama has suffered a loss in the month of September. Texas was able to come into Bryant-Denny Stadium and outclass a Nick Saban-led team. A monumental win for those in Austin, there is plenty of work to be done in Tuscaloosa.

College Football Playoffs are the standard for Alabama. Now already having a loss on the resume, it’s going to be a steep uphill battle to get there. We have never seen a two-loss team make the CFP, meaning winning out is likely the only option.

But based on how they performed against Texas, ESPN’s Heather Dinich believes Alabama is in trouble based on its current form.

“We haven’t seen a two-loss team in the College Football Playoff,” Dinich said during Monday’s episode of The Paul Finebaum Show. “It doesn’t mean that it can’t or won’t happen. But here’s the thing — Alabama didn’t look like a top-four team. It’s one thing to say ‘this team played really well. It lost a close game. They can run the table, win the SEC.’

“Well, they’re not going to run the table and win the SEC if they continue to turn the ball over, have so many penalties, can’t get pressure on the quarterback. The list goes on and Nick Saban knows this.”

Looking at the areas of concern from Dinich — Alabama turned the ball over twice, both interceptions by Jalen Milroe. Ten penalties went for 90 yards against the Crimson Tide, similar to the struggle from last season in Austin. And Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers had a clean pocket for most of the night, not getting sacked once.

Dinich believes Alabama has to get better in all three of those areas immediately. It all begins in Week 3 against USF before opening their SEC schedule against Ole Miss on Sept. 23 at home.

“In order to be a factor in the College Football Playoff — and I do believe they would need to run the table and win the SEC to have a chance — they have to get better quickly,” Dinich said. “Nobody knows that better than Nick Saban.”

Following the Ole Miss loss in 2015, Alabama went on to win 12 consecutive games. An SEC Championship and national championship came back home to Tuscaloosa. It’s certainly been done before by the program in recent times.

This go-round might be slightly tougher, though. Texas being a nonconference opponent means eight SEC games are still on the regular season schedule. Back-to-back national champions Georgia likely await in Atlanta as well.

Alabama has quite the mountain to climb to get back into the top-four race. But improvements are going to be needed quickly or we could be witnessing a second consecutive season without a College Football Playoff appearance for Saban.