Alabama football gets away against South Carolina

Alabama needed a boost after losing at Vanderbilt last week. They took a 27-25 win, but whether that represents a rebound is up for debate.

The game started pretty well. Alabama got the ball first and marched fairly easily to take a 7-0 lead on a TD run by Jalen Milroe. The defense bent but didn't collapse, and the offense continued to struggle against a strong South Carolina front led by DE Kyle Kennard living in the backfield. Alabama was able to put together a second drive to take a 14-0 lead and all seemed well.

Unfortunately, the last few minutes of the first half were a disaster.

Domani Jackson had left the game with a leg injury and it took a few series for his absence to be felt, but that was largely the case as freshman replacement Zay Mincey made his deep third-and-goal appearance on 4th-and-9. With 1:37 left in the game, South Carolina was able to get within 14-7 with a wide-open 36-yard TD pass.

Jalen Milroe then made perhaps the stupidest decision of his career on the first play of the game. Caleb Odom was called for a personal foul while bringing the ball to the Alabama 12. Milroe dropped back to pass, and when he saw Kennard in his face, he ran backwards into the end zone before putting the ball on the ground for a safety.

The Alabama defense was able to hold on by forcing a fumble near midfield, but Milroe was immediately sacked twice, setting up 3rd-and-19 at the Alabama 38. Here, Kalen DeBoer made the boldest decision of his Alabama career and inexplicably called a timeout with 11 seconds left, South Carolina was content to let the clock run out.

Milroe made the situation worse by attempting to throw the ball through a zone that would have provided essentially no advantage had it been caught. The ball was deflected and a long return allowed South Carolina to score a field goal and get within two scores at halftime.

Early in the second half, the Gamecocks got the ball first, and Alabama's defensive woes continued. A 22-yard completion on 3rd-and-15 was the key play in a long touchdown drive that consumed half of the quarter before Alabama even saw the ball, and suddenly Alabama was down 19-14.

After a punt conversion, Alabama put together a solid drive and had the ball in the red zone to open the fourth. Unfortunately, Milroe made another poor decision by letting a pass into a zone only to be intercepted in the end zone. South Carolina couldn't handle the momentum and immediately put the ball on the turf unforced to give the ball right back to the Tide in plus territory.

Alabama finally broke through when Milroe followed up a dart to Ryan Wiliams between two defenders with a focused touchdown run. The two-point attempt failed and Alabama had a narrow one-point lead at 20-19. South Carolina marched down the field again, but was mercifully cautioned for holding as it crossed midfield. The Alabama defense took advantage of the ball with a stop and forced a 51-yard field goal, which the South Carolina kicker fired well past the right goal with just over six minutes to play.

Alabama went into clock mode by running the entire game before running the ball, something they didn't do against Georgia two weeks ago. Maybe they felt better about their ability to run the ball this week, or maybe it was the fact that South Carolina only had one more timeout. In any case, they managed to get the clock down to two minutes before Milroe found Germie Bernard for a touchdown and a 27-19 lead.

South Carolina immediately showed why it's important to keep scoring with a lead rather than trying to sit on a one-point lead. An Alabama penalty (have you heard this before) on Qua Russaw for pulling a face mask put the Gamecocks within striking distance, and 6-foot-10 Nyck Harbor made a phenomenal catch at the front pylon to pull South Carolina within two points.

South Carolina failed at the two-point conversion, but the drama just couldn't end there. The onside kick bounced around and was eventually recovered by the Gamecocks. QB Lanorris Sellers threw a desperation attempt under duress that was blocked by Jackson, who was able to return after halftime.

The bottom line is that this is just not a very good football team right now. There is talent in the squad, but also young people in some key positions, and the implementation of new systems on both sides of the football has been inconsistent, to say the least. Pass protection has been something of a strength to date, but the Gamecocks' front has exposed them for another problem that needs to be addressed.

The team that dominated Wisconsin and the first 20 minutes of the Georgia game still exists, but we haven't seen them in about ten quarters now. The 3rd/4th down defense is just confusing and the offense, especially Milroe, needs to stop turning the ball over.

If we fix those two areas, we'll be in pretty good shape, assuming the pass protection gets back in order. Can you?

I guess we'll see.

There wasn't a lot of good football from the Tide, but there's a lot more to see today.

Roll Tide.