When it comes to the Alabama Crimson Tide, there aren’t a lot of excuses for losing. With the most talent, the best coach and the most prestigious name in the sport, Alabama is expected to win, and it’s a disappointment when it doesn’t. That’s a fact of college football life.

This year’s team, while still as talented as any, actual had somewhat of an out: inexperience.

That, of course, is not the reason Alabama lost to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl. The Buckeyes outplayed the Crimson Tide, outcoached them and looked a lot more like Alabama than Alabama did. Ohio State took advantage of shaky quarterback play and worse secondary play, and Alabama couldn’t adjust. The Crimson Tide certainly can’t use inexperience as an excuse for this one, as they were beaten by a quarterback making his second career start.

The loss in the College Football Playoff semifinal is a disappointment. Alabama was the No. 1 team in the country and was a heavy favorite to beat Ohio State, which snuck into the playoff at the last minute. As usual, the Tide were expected to come out and stomp a team from the supposedly sorry Big Ten.

Despite many of the members of this edition of the Crimson Tide having been around for the 2012 national championship, Alabama was rife with inexperience. Coming into the season, Alabama ranked quite low in Phil Steele’s Combined Experience rankings. Alabama’s talent had plenty of experience in the program this year, but the team had few senior starters and just as few upperclassmen that had played prominent roles on the biggest of stages. That’s what happens when you keep bringing in a cycle of four- and five-star recruits at Alabama: they play as expected and keep the younger talent on the bench.

It started at quarterback for the Crimson Tide. Blake Sims was a senior this year, but he’d never taken significant snaps at quarterback behind three-year starter AJ McCarron and had spent plenty of time in the program at running back and defensive back. That he came in and played lights out for the majority of the season is a huge accomplishment.

On the Sugar Bowl stage, Sims wasn’t the same quarterback that picked apart the SEC all season. Ohio State took away the first option that Alabama had relied on all season, bubble screens and quick throws to Amari Cooper, and it threw the entire offense out of whack.

That’s not all on Sims. In fact, you could point to another member of the team in this position for the first time, Lane Kiffin, for some of the offensive woes, as he couldn’t seem to figure out what pieces to move to help Alabama keep drives alive. Alabama’s offense never got in a rhythm, something that was glaring on the lackadaisical final drive of the game.

Nick Saban was very complimentary of his team this year, even when they didn’t play well. While overachieving at Alabama isn’t quite an option, Saban seemed wholly impressed that his team was able to reach No. 1 and reach the national semifinals despite some obvious flaws.

Many consider this to be one of Saban’s finest coaching jobs in his illustrious career. He helped mold Sims into a championship-caliber quarterback, helped elevate a young defense to one of the best in the country and was open to changing his ways for the first time maybe ever, turning responsibility for the offensive game plan over to Kiffin.

Alabama fell apart in the Sugar Bowl. The defense came unglued at the worst moments, the offense looked lost in both its execution and play calling. The Crimson Tide just weren’t ready to handle to stage in New Orleans.

With just as much talent departing this year, they’ll be facing the same challenge in 2015.