Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe finds an opening against South Carolina Saturday in Tuscaloosa. While Milroe scored on a couple of short runs, he was forced away from the deep ball and threw two interceptions. (UA Athletics)
Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams warms up before Saturday’s game against South Carolina in Tuscaloosa. Despite being held without a touchdown for the first time in his college career, Williams still has better statistics than the greatest Tide receivers had at the same point in their careers. (UA Athletics)
TUSCALOOSA — The imposing structure at 920 Paul W. Bryant Drive nearly got used as a huge nausea receptacle for 100,000 fans on Saturday as Alabama tottered on the brink of back-to-back losses to Vanderbilt and South Carolina and continued to plummet from the euphoria of a 30-7 lead over Georgia, which seems like two decades ago, not two weeks ago.
Somewhere in Athens, Kirby Smart must be hunkered down with his own bucket and the dry heaves.
It would have been a mess mopping up the remnants of sausage, eggs and biscuits, as well as a few mid-morning belts guzzled down as a bracer, just in case the Crimson Tide didn’t prove that the 40-35 loss to the Commodores was an aberration.
Perhaps the gold nugget in all of this is the fact that Alabama still beat the Gamecocks 27-25 despite all that went wrong. Consider the following:
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Ryan Williams didn’t score a touchdown for the first time in his college career, relegated to decoy duty as the Gamecocks’ safeties kept him in front of them or their defensive front otherwise occupied Jalen Milroe with four sacks and pressure that led to two interceptions.
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The No. 7-ranked Crimson Tide led South Carolina 14-0 in the second quarter, then became the Crimson Died. In one disturbing sequence, Milroe’s intentional grounding from the end zone, his interception with one second left in the half and the Gamecocks converting a third-and-15 during a drive of 85 yards and 16 plays gave South Carolina a 19-14 lead in the third quarter.
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A busted coverage on fourth-and-9 — with seven defenders in pass coverage — led to a Gamecocks touchdown and a 14-7 game. Mazeo Bennett had what seemed like a week to wait for the ball to float down.
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Alabama recovered to take a 27-19 lead, only because South Carolina lost a fumble and gave the Tide a short field at the 31, then the Gamecocks scored late, recovered an onside kick and menaced the end zone before Domani Jackson intercepted on the last play.
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Alabama’s defense, criticized for its laissez-faire approach after the Vanderbilt debacle, stopped a two-point conversion with 50 seconds left that would have tied it.
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Keon Sabb led the Tide with 12 tackles. When a defensive back leads your defense in tackles, you have serious problems.
Bama fans usually overreact to everything. In this case, a mass throw-up would have been appropriate. For most of the day, the most satisfying thing they could cling to was when Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats and his Final Four team were introduced during a TV timeout in the first half.
When the relieved fans were finally able to roar with the Rammer Jammer victory ditty — “Hey Gamecocks, we just beat the hell out of you!” — it seemed misplaced, like a church hymn coming from a tavern jukebox.
At least Milroe persevered. After getting intercepted in the end zone late in the game going for Germie Bernard while Williams flashed open underneath, Milroe threw the game-winning 34-yard touchdown pass to Bernard on third-and-10 with 1:54 to go.
Coach Kalen DeBoer chose not to play it safe — Bernard could have hit the ground and Alabama could have run out the clock instead of giving South Carolina the ball back with a chance to win. Instead, DeBoer was aggressive and said the route, which had several variations, is evidence Milroe is progressing in the pocket.
“There’s a lot of safe avenues and things that we discussed on that play,” DeBoer said. “And just like a lot of our concepts, there’s a deeper route. And I love that Jalen saw it because I think that’s a lot of times early in the season we didn’t maybe see those things.”
In a general sense, DeBoer concluded: “I guess I’m always just aggressive that way and try to weigh the risk-reward and put the trust in the guys.”
After the victory was finally secured, DeBoer walked into his postgame press conference having shed his Alabama State Trooper escorts, which he doesn’t need — at least not for now — and spoke of the pride in winning a close game while deftly avoiding an explanation of his team’s struggles. He seemed edgy, his eyes darting about the room, as if seeking a safety valve in the flats against a blitz.
“Another game down to the wire,” said DeBoer, who stood in front of a backdrop that included the sponsorship logo of an entity called Cardiac Solutions. “We’ve kind of been accustomed to those. I think there’s some things that we can certainly do to make sure that it doesn’t get to that point. But we always talk about finding a way to win. And as many times as it maybe looked like we weren’t, you know, we did. The biggest thing I’m proud of is the response starting early in the week. Today, there’s things I think that happened because of the way they came ready to practice.”
But after escaping with a victory Saturday and marinating in misery all week after the loss to the Commodores, Tide fans are wondering what hole their team fell into after beating Georgia and rising to No. 1 in the national rankings.
Of course, it’s insane for anyone to contemplate showing DeBoer de door based on these last two weeks. Nick Saban, Paul “Bear” Bryant and Gene Stallings all had tough first years, too, and went on to win national championships. Then again, for a long time Saturday, it seemed within the realm of reason to consider replacing their statues on the Walk of Champions with replicas of the esteemed coaches weeping. All three taught championship defense, a void that is glaringly obvious.
Last week, Vanderbilt physically whipped the Tide’s defense and it doesn’t matter what you run when that happens. Some say defensive coordinator Kane Wommack is stubbornly staying with his 4-2-5 scheme just to make a reputation for his system in coaching circles. If so, it’s not the type of reputation that will serve him well. While Rome is burning, Wommack is strumming a fiddle and it’s badly out of tune.
On Saturday, the defense looked a little better but South Carolina still outgained Alabama 374 yards to 313, ran more plays (71-61), controlled the ball for 31:40 and converted 7 of 15 third downs. The Tide did force four turnovers.
Unfortunately, there is no fixing the defense, at least not this year. The fans soaking in the sun Saturday wanted to see an aggressive, punishing defense and a coach willing to adjust. The problem for Alabama’s defense is that it has no dominant players, especially up front. I don’t see any All-American types in the box except maybe for linebacker Deontae Lawson.
Milroe isn’t worried about the talent. He wants to see mental toughness from all of his teammates.
“We have a board that says ‘TNT’ — takes no talent,” Milroe said. “And it takes no talent to have mental toughness, grind, refine and compete as much as possible throughout the whole week. And then when we have games, just being our best us and doing it.”
That’s all true but great players are why Saban’s defenses were great. That’s not the case now.
Most of the great players are on offense, including Williams. If you don’t believe it, believe this: the freshman from Saraland, who is on the Biletnikoff Watch List, is having a better career six games in than Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith, Julio Jones, Jameson Williams, Jerry Jeudy, Amari Cooper, Calvin Ridley and Jaylen Waddle had at the same point — and each was an All-American and a first-round NFL Draft pick.
Even with Saturday’s drought of big plays, Williams still has better numbers than any of them in his first six games— 23 catches for 576 yards and 6 touchdowns, an average of 25 yards per catch. The next closest in yardage is Ridley (385).
For the first time this season, the Gamecocks’ safeties did a good job denying Williams and Milroe the deep ball.
“They’re going to give us looks that we haven’t seen before,” Milroe said. “It was a great job by them. I missed some. The beautiful thing about football is there’s so much opportunity, now we can refine and reflect on this past game and then, boom, we can move forward from it.”
They must do it in a hurry. Does the Tide play up or down to its competition? If it plays up, the Third Saturday in October in Knoxville should be one to remember. It’s either going to be a titillating 48-45 game or a Tennessee blowout. If it’s the latter, DeBoer and Wommack will face justifiable and ever-escalating criticism.
