Greg McElroy, a former Alabama quarterback and current ESPN analyst, expressed his thoughts on the Tide’s 27-25 victory over South Carolina on Saturday, raising questions about various decisions made during the game.
“Just an inexcusably bad and dumb game that was played by the Crimson Tide,” McElroy said Sunday on his “Always College Football” podcast. “Just dumb. Flat-out dumb, and it needs to get addressed really quickly, because that almost cost them and it shouldn’t have.”
McElroy pointed out that Alabama was in “full control” early on, leading 14-0, until South Carolina scored a touchdown to an unmarked receiver on fourth down, narrowing the score to 14-7. After that, the Tide made several mistakes.
“Alabama made some of the dumbest mistakes I think I’ve ever seen,” McElroy said. “Seriously, for as well-coached and as good this team has traditionally been, that was about as bad as it gets at the end of the first half, and at the end-of-game situation. This team right now is lacking situational awareness, which is really a problem, and it needs to get addressed and get addressed rather quickly.”
Late in the first half, Alabama was penalized for a late hit on a South Carolina kickoff, and then Jalen Milroe was called for intentional grounding in the end zone, giving South Carolina a safety.
McElroy remarked on South Carolina’s strong edge rushers, Dylan Stewart and Kyle Kennard, questioning why Milroe held onto the ball too long, drifting back into the end zone before trying to throw it away, which led to the safety. “That was a terrible decision from Jalen Milroe. That was a two-point play,” he said.
After the safety, Malachi Moore was flagged for being offsides during the punt. Following a South Carolina fumble that returned possession to Alabama, a confusing clock management situation arose. Milroe took a sack on second down, and Kalen DeBoer let the clock run down to 10 seconds before calling a timeout. The Bryant-Denny Stadium scoreboard still showed Alabama had one timeout left, leading Milroe to attempt a pass over the middle to Cole Adams, seemingly to set up a fourth-down throw to the end zone.
Even if Adams had caught the pass, the half would have ended without a chance for another play. Instead, Milroe was intercepted, allowing South Carolina to kick a 37-yard field goal just before halftime. McElroy criticized Milroe, saying, “Why are you trying to fit it into a tight window? Just two inexcusable decisions gift-wrapping five points to South Carolina.”
Later, Alabama could have sealed a 20-19 win when Germie Bernard caught a pass at South Carolina’s 8-yard line on a third-and-10 with less than two minutes remaining. Since South Carolina had no timeouts, going down—whether in bounds or out—would have allowed Alabama to kneel three times and win. Instead, Bernard scored a touchdown, extending the game. South Carolina then answered with a touchdown, failed a two-point conversion, executed a successful onside kick, and threw an interception before they could attempt a game-winning field goal.
“Third-and-10, you’re going in. It’s under two minutes. A guy catches it. At that point, you go down,” McElroy emphasized. “You don’t score. Under any circumstance, you don’t score there. It’s an automatic declared-down situation.”
McElroy concluded that Alabama played better overall but highlighted the impact of their mistakes, saying, “Dumb mistakes… just can’t happen. Because against really, really good teams, you’re gonna get got. And guess what? You got a really good team coming up next week when you travel to Tennessee to take on the Volunteers.”
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