The 2025 College Football Playoff got underway in Norman, Oklahoma, on Friday night, 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 win.

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

What just happened?

Oklahoma’s offense only had 20 minutes in it. The Sooners were perfect out of the gate, bursting 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 answer. From 17 down, Bama outscored its hosts by a 34-7 margin from there.

We use the word “momentum” far too much in football, but this was an extremely momentum-based game.

1. Over the first 19 minutes, Oklahoma went up 17-0 while outgaining 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 might have produced a safety or a touchdown.

2. Over the next 21 minutes, Bama outscored the Sooners 27-0, outgaining 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 he caught a huge third-down pass earlier in the drive), and the second TD came on a 30-yard lob that put the Tide up for good. The Tide defense got pressure on John Mateer, and his footwork and composure vanished. An egregious pick-six thrown directly to Zabien Brown tied the game, and Bama scored the first 10 points of the second half as well.

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

Zabien Brown takes a big-time interception 50 yards to the house to tie the score before halftime.

OU responded briefly, cutting the margin to three points early in the fourth quarter thanks to a 37-yard Deion Burks touchdown. But the Sooners’ offense couldn’t do enough, and kicker Tate Sandell, the Groza Award winner, missed two late field goals to assure a Bama win.

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Tate Sandell’s back-to-back FG misses help Alabama secure 1st-round win

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

Impact plays

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

The botched punt was actually the second of a two-part sequence that turned the game against the Sooners. First, Mateer passed up an easy third-and-3 conversion to throw downfield to a wide open Xavier Robinson, but he short-armed the pass and dropped it. On the very next snap, punter Grayson Miller dropped the ball moving into his punting motion. Bama’s Tim Keenan III recovered the ball at the OU 30, and while OU’s defense held the Tide to a field goal, what could have been a 24-3 OU lead turned instead into a 17-10 advantage. That set the table for Brown’s pick-six and everything that followed.

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

See you next fall, Sooners

We knew that whenever Oklahoma’s season ended, offense would be the primary reason. The Sooners survived 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 got enough defense (third in defensive SP+), special teams (21st in special teams SP+) and quality red zone play to overcome it.

The Sooners’ defense still played well on Friday night — Bama gained only 260 total yards (4.8 per play) — but the special teams miscues put more pressure on the offense to come through, and after a brilliant start, it ran out of steam. Mateer began the game 10-for-15 for 132 yards with a touchdown, 26 rushing yards and a rushing TD, but his last 31 pass attempts gained just 149 yards with five sacks and the pick, and his last nine non-sack rushes gained just 15 yards.

Brent Venables therefore heads into the offseason with some decisions to make. OU’s offense technically improved after the big-money additions of coordinator Ben Arbuckle and Mateer, but Mateer was scattershot before his midseason hand injury and poor after it. Do the Sooners run it back with the same roster core, hoping that better health and a theoretically improved run game can give the defense what it needs to take OU to the next level? Does Venables hit the reset button again? Can he ever get all the arrows pointed in the right direction at the same time?

What’s next

Alabama’s reward for the comeback win is a trip out West: The Tide will meet unbeaten and 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 attack, but Bama’s defense has been mostly up for the test this season. Their ability to pull an upset will be determined by Ty Simpson and the Alabama passing game.

Simpson began Friday night’s win just 2-for-6 with a sack, and while he improved from there and didn’t throw any interceptions — his final passing line: 18-for-29 for 232 yards, two touchdowns and four sacks (6.0 yards per attempt) — his footwork still betrayed him quite a bit over the course of the evening, and he misfired on quite a few passes. Oklahoma’s pass rush is fearsome, but Indiana’s defense ranks seventh in sack rate itself, and with almost no blitzing whatsoever. 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 and two touchdowns to three picks. Bama will be an underdog for a reason.

That said, kudos to the Tide for getting off the mat. They were lifeless at the start, missing tackles and blocks and looking as unprepared as they did in their season-opening loss to Florida State. But Brooks’ play-making lit the fuse, and Bama charged back.

NORMAN, Okla. — Ty Simpson passed for 232 yards and two touchdowns, and No. 9 seed Alabama rallied from a 17-point deficit to beat No. 8 Oklahoma 34-24 on Friday night in the first round of the College Football Playoff.

Alabama freshman Lotzeir Brooks, who did not score a touchdown in the regular season, scored two and had season highs of five catches and 79 yards.

It was the third meeting between the schools in 13 months. Oklahoma defeated Alabama 24-3 last November at home, then beat the Crimson Tide 23-21 last month on the road.

It was the first playoff for the Crimson Tide since coach Kalen DeBoer arrived from Washington two years ago. Alabama (11-3) advanced to play No. 1 seed Indiana and Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza in a quarterfinal game at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1.

Oklahoma’s John Mateer passed for 307 yards and two touchdowns, but he threw a costly interception that Alabama’s Zabien Brown returned 50 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter. Deion Burks had seven catches for 107 yards and a score for the Sooners (10-3).

Oklahoma’s Tate Sandell, the Lou Groza Award winner for the nation’s best kicker, tied an FBS single-season record for most made field goals of 50 or more yards. He drilled a 51-yarder into a stiff wind to give the Sooners a 10-0 lead late in the first quarter, his 24th consecutive made field goal. The Sooners outgained the Crimson Tide 118 yards to 12 in the opening period.

Mateer’s 6-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Sategna III early in the second quarter pushed Oklahoma’s lead to 17-0.

Alabama, which went three-and-out on its first three possessions, finally got its offense going midway through the second quarter, when Simpson hit Brooks for a 10-yard score to trim Oklahoma’s lead to 17-7. Later in the quarter, Brown’s interception return tied the score at 17.

Brooks caught a 30-yard touchdown pass from Simpson early in the third quarter to give Alabama its first lead. The Crimson Tide took a 27-17 advantage on a 40-yard field goal by Conor Talty.

Burks caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from Mateer two plays into the fourth quarter to cut Alabama’s lead to 27-24. Oklahoma had chances to stay in the game, but Sandell missed from 36 yards with just under three minutes remaining to end his streak. He missed again from 51 yards with 1:18 to play.

LAS VEGAS — Jack Eichel and Shea Theodore will not make the Vegas Golden Knights‘ weekend Canadian road trip because of injuries, costing the team its leading scorer and one of its top defensemen.

Neither played in Wednesday’s 2-1 shootout loss to New Jersey.

Eichel did not play because of illness, but coach Bruce Cassidy said Friday that the center also has a lower-body injury. Cassidy indicated that Eichel isn’t expected to be out long.

“Maybe next week we’ll see where he’s at,” Cassidy said.

Eichel leads the Golden Knights this season with 29 assists and 41 points, and he also has 12 goals.

Cassidy said Theodore’s status changed from day-to-day to week-to-week with an upper-body injury.

“I don’t think this will be a long one,” Cassidy said. “I don’t want to speak out of turn, and hopefully that’s the case.”

Theodore was playing his best hockey of the season at the time of the injury. He leads Vegas defensemen with 20 points (four goals, 16 assists) and has a plus-5 rating.

The Golden Knights went into Friday’s action tied with Anaheim atop the Pacific Division with 42 points apiece. Vegas visits divisional foes Calgary on Saturday and Edmonton on Sunday.