Kalen DeBoer breaks down how injuries impacted Alabama offense vs. Georgia

Alabama lost to Georgia in the SEC Championship Game on Saturday, a result that could have kept the team out of the College Football Playoff. It didn’t.

And that’s great news for the Crimson Tide even despite the 28-7 defeat at the hands of the Bulldogs. Coach Kalen DeBoer explained after the game that a slew of injuries really impacted the team in the game, especially offensively.

“I think it’s just having some continuity in practice,” DeBoer said. “If I went through, and I don’t think this is what this is about, but if I went through the guys who we are gluing together… and again, I know that (Georgia) locker room has the same situation going on.

“But you talk about Parker Brailsford, who if you give these guys two weeks to get ready and what the health will look like for these guys. Germ(ie Bernard), Daniel Hill. I’m not going to say what he’s playing through, but two weeks it’ll be a different Daniel Hill. You execute or you have a lack of execution in games because you probably didn’t have everyone out there working together in practice. (Kam) Dewberry will be back 100%. I mean he was at the end of the week. Geno (VanDeMark) would be back, he got taken out of the game there. He’d be back. I mean I can keep going on down the line.”

The bottom line is that Alabama was decimated. And it wasn’t just role players who were out.

Starting tailback Jam Miller missed the game and has been in and out of the lineup in the second half of the season. Again, though, there’s good news. DeBoer expects to be healthier for a first-round playoff game at Oklahoma.

“More reps for our other running backs,” DeBoer said of the SEC title game. “We fully expect to have Jam back. Two of our three losses are when Jam doesn’t play. So there’s really not a chance that it felt like he could play today, but he’s not that far away. It’s not the injury that keeps you out and holds you back.”

DeBoer provided some other reasons for optimism at Alabama. Though not all will likely pan out for the first playoff game.

“Again, even a chance, it would be tight, but a chance even Kevin Riley,” DeBoer said. “That one might be a little bit tight, just to be real with you.”

Can Alabama regroup in time to go win a playoff game on the road in what will undoubtedly be a thoroughly hostile environment? Getting healthy would help.

“There’s a lot of guys. I think that’s really what it comes down to is playing with your guys,” DeBoer said. “We got into this game today and the execution just wasn’t quite as crisp. But there’s usually a reason for that. Again, defensively, same thing. Kelby Collins and LT (Overton) and (Zabien Brown) in the game today dinged up. Dijon (Lee) a little bit before the game just with an evaluation there that we had where we had to kind of hold off.

“But all those guys in two weeks, considerably different football team. It’s the one you would have seen earlier in the season.”