College Football Playoff 2025 first-round takeaways - ESPN

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.

Oklahoma's offense had only 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 34-7 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 score, and Bama scored the first 10 points of the second half as well.

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

OU responded briefly,