Critical mistakes hold South Carolina back in upset bid attempt against No. 4 Alabama

On Saturday, South Carolina saw its fourth-quarter lead and upset bid over No. 4 Alabama slip away in the final minutes for the second straight season.

The Gamecocks seemingly did almost everything they needed to do to upset the Crimson Tide. However, two critical turnovers alongside multiple mistakes throughout became the difference.

“We’re going to be sick when we watch this tape. Just missed opportunities that we had,” head coach Shane Beamer said after the game.

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The first critical turnover came in the first quarter when, in the third drive of the game, South Carolina’s chance to go up 10-0 turned into a 7-3 deficit following a pick-six. LaNorris Sellers checked the ball down to running back Rahsul Faison; however, the back could not hold on to it. When the ball tipped up in the air, and Alabama’s DaShawn Jones was there to return it for six points.

Following the play, Beamer made sure Faison still had his head in the game.

“I told ‘Sul when it happened, ‘Look, seven points ain’t gonna win this thing, and we’re gonna need you to come back and carry the same today and help us go win this game,'” Beamer said. “As the game went on, we had a lot of great individual plays today, but we had a lot of plays where we missed opportunities.”

Beamer told the team all week long that executing in practice leads to success on game day. However, what they did in practice just didn’t transfer over.

After the pick-six from Alabama, Sellers said they talked about the play on the sideline.

“It’s just something that didn’t go our way,” Sellers said. “Sometimes with football, things go your way. Sometimes there’s things that just go their way.”

Between the two turnovers, South Carolina’s offense was able to move the ball down the field while its defense controlled the game. However, the offense was unable to finish drives in the end zone.

In its six drives that ended in plus territory, the Gamecocks had to settle for a field goal four times. On those attempts, kicker William Joyce went 3-for-4.

Two of those field goal drives crossed into the red zone. Out of the seven drives where South Carolina either turned Alabama over or forced a three-and-out, the Gamecock offense only scored 13 points. They also allowed 7 points from the pick-six that followed Alabama’s first three-and-out.

The game’s second critical turnover came in the final minute of the game. After allowing Alabama to tie the game, South Carolina found itself in a two-minute drill with the football.

However, immediately following the two-minute timeout, Sellers put the ball on the ground on a designed run up the middle.

“When it was 22-all, I told Mike (Shula) on the headphones, we’ve got the best player in the stadium today, and let’s let him go win it. And we just weren’t quite able to do that,” Beamer said.

The play was a QB draw up the middle, Sellers said.

“I had two hands on it (because) I knew they were trying to strip it,” Sellers said of the play. “I had two hands on it, and I’m thinking the refs were gonna blow the whistle. As soon as I started to fall down, when I was going to catch myself, that’s when I took my other hand off, and I guess that’s when they got under it.”

The fumble gave Alabama the football at the 38-yard line in plus territory. While the Crimson Tide immediately got into field goal range, a Germie Bernard first down turned into a 25-yard touchdown run to give Alabama a 29-22 lead.

Shane Beamer said postgame that allowing Bernard to score was intentional. If a player broke containment, Beamer wanted his defense to let them score. The idea was to give the offense a chance to win the game.

Smith said allowing them to score is a smart play to get the ball back.

“Obviously, we have no timeouts, so they were just going to bleed the clock out,” Smith said. “So just letting them score, trying to get the ball back to the offense so they can have a chance to go down and score.”

Smith said defensive coordinator Clayton White told the defense before the play that if they get close to the first down, just let them score.

“They just outplayed us in the fourth quarter,” DQ Smith said. “We made some mental mistakes, and they made us pay for those mistakes.”

At the end of the day, they had a good game. They just have to keep doing more, Smith said.

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