Tim Smith couldn’t lie. After Alabama football allowed a South Carolina touchdown on a 16-play drive to start the second half Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium, the Crimson Tide defensive tackle was “pretty gassed.”
“Definitely going play after play after play like that, I can see how anybody would be tired, especially going against 600 pounds play after play,” Smith said. “You have no choice but to be tired.”
It was the moment the Crimson Tide defense broke down, one that nearly cost the team its fifth win of the season.
Holding onto a slim two-point lead heading into the third quarter, South Carolina began a methodical scoring drive, one where the Gamecocks averaged nearly six yards per play, one where the offense converted on all five third-down attempts including a 1-yard touchdown run by Raheim Sanders to give South Carolina a lead.
Alabama narrowly avoided its first regular-season losing streak since 2007 late when Domani Jackson secured a game-winning interception to beat South Carolina 27-25.
Sixteen plays. Nearly nine minutes of game time off the clock. It was a familiar sight for Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer.
In Alabama’s loss to Vanderbilt Oct. 5, the Commodores had two touchdown drives that lasted more than six minutes, including a back-breaking 17-play, 75-yard drive that kept the Crimson Tide on the field for nearly 10 minutes in the second quarter.
Those two offenses, DeBoer said, are “built to have drives that continue to have plays stack on top of each other,” something that has proved demoralizing to Kane Wommack’s defense.
“The running back, quarterback, guys that just kept moving the chains, three yards, four yards, trying to get in those third-and-ones, third-and-twos, converting on slants or something like that just to keep the drive alive,” DeBoer said.
“Obviously it’s frustrating when they can put five third downs together and then you start to wear on your defense again. They’re out there a long time, and the longer the drive happens, the better chance they have.”
South Carolina finished with 374 yards of offense and 23 first downs, both of which were more than the Crimson Tide’s offensive output. The Gamecocks averaged more than five yards per play.
For Smith, drives like that are on Alabama. It’s not about what South Carolina was doing or what Vanderbilt did.
“Don’t put them in that position,” Smith said. “I feel like that’s on us as far as executing calls and being able to keep them out of those positions. It ain’t nothing that they’re doing (that’s) just crazy. It’s just use being able to execute our calls, going over everything that we have seen throughout the week. Notice it, execute it and react to it.”
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: How Alabama football defense responded to 16-play USC TD drive
