No. 7 Alabama and first-year coach Kalen DeBoer avoided a second loss in as many weeks Saturday, hanging on against unranked South Carolina at home 27-25.
Alabama still hasn’t lost back-to-back regular-season games since the 2007 season, Nick Saban’s first year as head coach of the Crimson Tide, but the Gamecocks had a chance until the final seconds Saturday after recovering an onside kick and led in the fourth quarter.
Alabama entered Saturday’s game as a 21.5-point favorite, one week after losing at Vanderbilt as a 23.5-point favorite.
Is this Alabama squad even built to win in the Playoff?
So, is this Alabama team even built to make noise if it makes the 12-team Playoff? Saban’s best teams didn’t get dominated up front the way South Carolina handled the Crimson Tide on Saturday. Alabama averaged a measly 2.7 yards per carry, and SEC sack leader Kyle Kennard and five-star freshman Dylan Stewart had quarterback Jalen Milroe seeing ghosts. Stewart had two of South Carolina’s four sacks and three of the team’s nine tackles for loss. The sacks weren’t surprising. The Crimson Tide allowed 3.5 per game last year with Milroe at quarterback. But it’s a troubling sign the running game was shut down and Milroe was under as much duress as he was. Alabama’s offensive line came into Saturday’s game grading out as a mediocre power conference unit according to Pro Football Focus, responsible for four sacks and 29 quarterback pressures allowed through the team’s first five games. Four of the team’s eight sacks allowed were blamed on Milroe. There are tougher opponents with excellent pass rush units ahead on the schedule. — Manny Navarro
Bama struggles again but finds a way
Milroe played his worst game of the season but found a way late. He threw an end zone interception with 12:17 left, only for the defense to give him the ball right back one play later. The result: a three-play, 31-yard touchdown drive culminating in a Milroe touchdown run from 7-yards out to give Alabama a 20-19 lead. With two-minutes remaining, on third-and-10 with the game on the line, Milroe hit a wide-open Germie Bernard for a 34-yard touchdown and the eventual game-sealing score.
But there was more drama ahead. South Carolina scored with 43 seconds left to cut the deficit to 27-25, missed the two-point conversion but recovered the onside kick. Alabama eventually held via Domani Jackson’s interception to clinch the game. And Alabama fans collectively exhaled in relief.
It wasn’t pretty. We’ve continued to learn how small the team’s margin for error is in SEC play. Saturday’s game produced a near dead-even result across the board: total yards (South Carolina: 374, Alabama: 313), first downs (South Carolina: 23, Alabama: 20), time of possession (South Carolina: 31:40, Alabama: 28:20), among other things.
And now Alabama faces another big test in heading to Tennessee. Both teams have one loss, an ugly loss, against an unranked opponent. It’s a potential SEC championship elimination game, and whichever team loses will be on the Playoff bubble. On the bright side, the expanded Playoff allows for more margin of error, however, Alabama’s recent results won’t help in the eyes of the committee. The Tide won and will maintain their ranking, but the eye test indicates that this is a team that’s not trending upwards. — Kennington Smith III
An inexplicable end to the first half put Alabama in danger
Up 14-0, freshman Jaylen Mbakwe made an impressive open-field tackle on third-and-8 with 1:40 remaining in the first half to set up a South Carolina fourth down. At that point, it looked like Alabama had the momentum. Then a series of costly mistakes turned the game on its head.
South Carolina took advantage of an Alabama blown coverage to score a 36-yard touchdown on fourth-and-9 to cut the deficit to 14-7. Entering Saturday, Alabama’s defense allowed a 73 percent fourth-down conversion rate, 112th nationally. A series of miscues led to an interception by Milroe, which was returned inside the Alabama red zone. A short field goal gave South Carolina 12 unanswered points and cut its halftime deficit to 14-12. — Smith
Alabama’s defense is in desperate need of answers
South Carolina opened the third quarter with a 16-play, 85-yard touchdown drive that took up 8:40 of game clock. What’s more concerning for the Tide inside of that drive: The Gamecocks converted 4-of-4 on third downs after going 0-for-5 in the first half.
Alabama allowed only one 16-play touchdown drive from 2014-2023. It has allowed three of those drives this season alone.
Some personnel questions about this unit arose on Saturday. It’s known that the secondary is thin and inexperienced. Starting cornerback Domani Jackson went down with an injury in the second quarter, and four true freshmen saw snaps through the first half: Mbakwe, Zabien Brown, Zay Mincey and Red Morgan. The inexperience hurt Alabama on the fourth-down touchdown pass where Mincey was out of position.
Over the past 10 quarters, Alabama’s defense has allowed 85 points and 1,136 yards. Kane Wommack’s defense was dominant in the first half against Georgia, but the past few weeks have shown a unit that’s consistently been out of sorts between the scheme and a lack of player execution.
However, the defense does deserve credit for timely plays that stifled South Carolina from breaking the game open. The unit forced four turnovers and stopped South Carolina from taking the lead midway through the fourth quarter when the Gamecocks were driving down 20-19, in addition to a few clutch late game stops.
But the overall trends are concerning ahead of next week’s game at Tennessee. The Crimson Tide survived on Saturday, but there’s a ton of work to do to reach their goals of the SEC Championship Game and Playoff. — Smith
(Photo of Kalen DeBoer: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
