Skip to main content
Join Now
Team Avatar
Alabama

Officials make questionable blindside block call on Alabama vs Texas A&M

On3 imageby: Andrew Graham10/07/23AndrewEdGraham

Alabama appeared to have swung a road game against Texas A&M firmly in its favor with a heroic blocked field goal and return from Chris Braswell. But a suspect illegal blindside block call on Dallas Turner wiped out a return for a touchdown on the play.

Instead, Alabama took over on offense around midfield and eventually was forced to punt. The block, which occurred well behind the play on the return, wasn’t a particularly notable hit.

Turner caught the hip of an Aggie chasing down the play, coming in from the side and delivering a hit that didn’t even knock the Texas A&M player down.

The call, ultimately, did not matter as the Crimson Tide went on to squeeze out a 26-20 win on the road in a conference matchup.

That call was one of many ‘mess ups’ that Nick Saban identified postgame

Alabama has not played clean football over the past two seasons. Thinking about all of the losses — Tennessee, LSU (both in 2022), and Texas this season — they all share a similar trait. Penalties and mental mistakes have added up and contributed. It’s not something we are used to seeing from a team led by Nick Saban.

Saturday against Texas A&M was another example of Alabama seeing the mistakes pile up. Except they were on the winning end this time and Saban believes he set a personal record. The most “mess-ups” in one game to occur while the Crimson Tide still wound up on the winning end.

“This may be a record game for me in terms of messing up and still winning,” Saban said during his postgame press conference. “It might be a record. If you take the mess-ups and the penalties and you add them all together.”

Alabama finished the game with 14 penalties for 99 yards at Kyle Field. A ton of them were for presnap issues on the offensive end, with the home Texas A&M crowd playing a huge role. The offensive line was constantly jumping early and moving the ball back five yards. Just a few mental mistakes.

Saban will turn on the tape and likely find a few more miscues he is not pleased with. A win is a win though, especially on the road against a good SEC opponent. Having firm control of the West and continuing their quest toward winning a conference championship will ultimately be the head coach’s takeaway.