Ty Simpson Explains 'Disappointing' Day

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Alabama escaped Columbia, Missouri, with a 27-24 victory over the Tigers, ruining Missouri's chances at a perfect season. Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson threw three touchdowns on Saturday, increasing his season total to 16 ahead of another top-15 game against the Tennessee Volunteers next Saturday.

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Despite 200 yards and three touchdowns, Alabama quarterback Ty Simson walked into the postgame press conference with a frustrated look, flipping through the stat sheet handed to him by an Alabama staffer.

"Too many sacks," Simpson said, almost to himself, when asked what he saw from the stat sheet. "Didn't throw the ball great. Not a good average yards per play. Held the ball a lot longer than they did. Not very clean."

The visible disappointment was a stark contrast to the scoreboard, where Alabama came away on top.

Here is everything that a disappointed Ty Simpson said after the Tide's 27-24 win over Missouri.

On the fourth-and-eight play in the fourth quarter:

"Just gotta go execute. I appreciate Coach DeBoer and Coach Grubb giving us the green light. We have tons of confidence in our guys, and big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games. Lotzeir Brooks is a big-time player. As a freshman, that dude is unreal. His work ethic, the way he plays. He might be 5-11, but he plays like he's 6-5. Hats off to him, man. What a great player, great play."

On the 29-yard catch by Lotzeir Brooks:

Of course, everybody knows the two weeks to prepare, right? But they played two-man, and they hadn't really shown two-man except in two-minute and special situations. Once we shift, and I kind of knew, alright, what the defensive coverage was, and I knew they were going to be in trail. The (offense) did a great job of clearing it out. Lotzeir Brooks made a good move, good route to get open. I just put it where he could try to catch it. Like I said, he's a big-time player.

On the offense sustaining drives and playing keep away from Missouri:

"It was very crucial. I thought we did a good job in the first half but a terrible job in the second half. I told the guys in there [inaudible], I was like, 'We got to be better, and it starts with me.' I can't come out in the second half and fumble it first play, and then they score. That game should have been put away a long time ago. That's disappointing on my part. We're such a good offense, but we just got to be better in the second half. We had a lot of things going in the first. We just got to put it away."

On the frustration he showed on the sidelines after negative plays"

"Gotta go 1-0, right? That's our motto -- every new drive, every new play is a different play. You can't draw on the past, right? I missed a lot of throws. I missed a lot of protection checks. Picked some protection checks, made some throws. This team is such a tough team, and all we do is fight. Three top-25 team games, and they all come down to literally the wire? That's hard to do. The SEC is pretty much like a pro schedule. Lot of good players, lot of good teams, and we just got to keep fighting every week. We got to get better. We got to go in tomorrow and clean some things up, because we play a good team next week."

On facing Tennessee, Alabama's fourth ranked opponent in as many weeks:

"That's why we came here. That's why I stay. Watching the SEC, I told them -- good. That's what we want. That's what we came here for. That's going to make us better in the long run. But we can't play like we did. We got to play a lot cleaner."

On Playing Against Tennessee as a Tennessee native:

"Of course, growing up, big - knew about Tennessee and Big Orange, right? I don't want to say it's personal by any means, right? This is just another game. I'm not gonna make it bigger than what it is. This is a really good team coming in here. Really good defense, really good offense. We know what happened last year. But it's just like the Vanderbilt week. We're not gonna make it about last year. It's gonna be about this year. We need to take care of what we need to do. We need to get better, and then we need to evaluate ourselves, right? Because we didn't play clean. Point period, point blank. We got to get better, and I got to make some adjustments, because I didn't play well at all, either."

On playing without Jam Miller and with Ryan Williams not 100%:

"Big guys step up. We got a lot of depth at a lot of positions, right. We're a good team. Really, really proud of those guys. Michael Carroll, William Sanders, Lotzeir, Wilkin Formby, Rico Scott. Guys like that step up and make big-time plays. Derek Meadows -- I know he got hurt, but he makes that catch a lot. Just really, really proud of those guys. We're gonna need them next week."

On going three-and-out and giving Missouri back the ball with a chance to tie/win:

"It's all up to God. I prayed a little bit. Just told him, whatever happens, happens. But I have a lot of confidence in our defense. They bailed us out a lot. That's a good offense -- that back is the real deal, man. The quarterback, Beau, he can run around. They got some good players on that team. Hats off to the defense. They got us out -- bailed us out a lot. Dijon Lee came up big. Bray Hubbard came up big. Two turnovers. But we got to help them out. That's a good offense -- the No. 1 rushing offense in the country and held them to 150 yards, something like that? That's impressive."

On Bray Hubbard:

"Dude keeps playing. That's a baller. You're gonna dwell? That's a tough team. That stuff is gonna happen. It's a heavyweight fight each week. Bring some punches. That's a good offense. Gotta keep playing. Gotta trust me and the offense that we're gonna go make a play. We gotta trust the defense that they're gonna go make a play. That's just how football is."

On being 'unbreakable' and where Alabama was 'unbreakable' today:

"The fourth down [completion to Brooks]. Nobody flinched whatsoever. They knew it was two-man. They were bringing a bunch of pressure off the edges. The tackles anchored down. Parker [Brailsford] on the interior made sure that we were gonna get this ball off. And Lotzeir Brooks made a good play. Even though went down and got a field goal, that pick on the third down to pretty much seal the game -- that's what Alabama football is. We're gonna keep punching, we're gonna make sure that we play together. I got their back and we got each other's back."

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.