No. 7 Alabama needs 4th-quarter rally, defensive stand to hold off South Carolina and avoid disaster

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — There are SEC teams who pride themselves on their calm, relentless march to victory, and there are teams who live in chaos, every game an adventure where wins aren’t assured but madness is. Alabama used to be one of the former teams. Now, in the Kalen DeBoer-Jalen Milroe era, it’s very much the latter.

You’d never get a soul within a hundred miles of Tuscaloosa to admit it, but last week’s loss to Vanderbilt rattled the Tide to their core. You could see it in the secondary ticket market, which collapsed in the hours following last week. You could see it in the empty seats all over the upper reaches of Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday. And you could see it in the final 97 seconds of the first half, where the Tide defense completely fell apart and allowed 12 points — on three separate possessions — to the visiting South Carolina Gamecocks.

Yes, Alabama won, in a deeply unconvincing 27-25 victory after intercepting South Carolina on a potential winning drive in the final seconds.

The Gamecocks were stopped on a potential game-tying two-point try in the final minute, and they got one more shot when they recovered the ensuing onside kick. But Domani Jackson picked off SC quarterback LaNorris Sellers in the closing seconds to save the day for the Tide.

But wow, are there problems in T-Town.

It makes sense, the Tide’s shaken self-image. When you establish your identity on a generational expectation of excellence, you’re not exactly built to handle the sledgehammer-to-the-heart of a loss to Vanderbilt. If the sun rose blue in the west, that’d be pretty upsetting too.

Given a chance to redeem itself for that Vanderbilt faceplant with a home game against South Carolina, Alabama once again inexplicably, maddeningly fell far short of expectations. Instead, the Tide did a whole lot to confirm the idea that the crew that hung 28 straight on Georgia was the aberration, and the team that flailed against the Commodores is a whole lot closer to the true 2024 Tide.

Alabama took the opening kickoff and proceeded to march 75 yards into the end zone in four minutes even, and for a moment, the Crimson Tide’s fortunes seemed to have turned back in the expected direction. When the Tide took a 14-0 lead with 4:38 left in the first half, well, it wasn’t pretty, but hey, at least it was a two-possession lead, something the Tide never managed against Vanderbilt.

But then came the final 1:37 of the half, 97 seconds which defined this year’s Tide program and probably detonated the Heisman hopes of Alabama QB Jalen Milroe. First, the Alabama defense suffered yet another stunning defensive lapse, allowing Gamecock receiver Mazeo Bennett Jr. to get wide open in the end zone on a fourth-and-9. That cut the lead to 14-7.

On the ensuing possession, Milroe, under pressure, intentionally grounded the ball, resulting in a safety. Alabama forced South Carolina to punt, but Milroe then threw the first of his two interceptions. The clock appeared to run out, but officials put a second back on the timer … and that’s never good news for Alabama. South Carolina kicked a field goal to run out the half and draw within 14-12.

The Gamecocks kept the beat going in the third, grinding out a monstrous 16-play, 85-yard, 8 ½-minute drive that ended in a go-ahead touchdown. The stunned aura of what the hell is happening hung thick over Bryant-Denny Stadium, and when Milroe threw an interception in the end zone on the Tide’s next possession, disbelief veered toward fatalism.

But this is the Alabama of 2024, where nothing goes as expected. The very next play, South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers fumbled away the ball, and Alabama flipped it into a touchdown to retake the lead in just 1:23.

From there, Milroe and crew righted the ship and held on for the win. Milroe provided some redemption by running for a 7-yard TD and throwing the clinching 34-yard score to Germie Bernard on third-and-10 with under two minutes in the game.

Alabama fans, for the moment, could exhale.