Why Alabama's game-winning touchdown against South Carolina was technically a bad idea

Alabama football might not have been wise to score the game-winning touchdown against South Carolina. Seriously.

Even if it sounds crazy, it might not be. In fact, Germie Bernard's touchdown could have cost the Crimson Tide the game.

No. 7 Alabama needed one more first down to beat South Carolina after the two-minute warning had expired. The Crimson Tide had a one-point lead and the Gamecocks had used all their timeouts.

On third-and-10, Jalen Milroe hit a wide-open Bernard near the sideline at the 8-yard line. Bernard took the pass into the end zone for the score.

As a result, Alabama had an eight-point lead with 1:54 left.

Then South Carolina responded with a touchdown drive in the next 1:11. The Gamecocks couldn't convert the two-pointer to tie the game, but South Carolina recovered the ensuing onside kick and made one final shot to score, leaving the game at a two-point deficit with 40 seconds left.

Alabama cornerback Domani Jackson had to intercept a pass in the end zone with 12 seconds left to help Alabama beat South Carolina 27-25 at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday.

However, the South Carolina touchdown, subsequent onside kick and Jackson interception did not have to happen. Had Bernard gone under instead of scoring a touchdown, Alabama (5-1, 2-1 SEC) could have run out of time on the final few plays.

With less than two minutes to play, Alabama could have gone down three times and the game would have been over.

Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer was asked about the play call decision and whether there was any thought given to bringing down Bernard instead of scoring a touchdown.

“We knew we had to go first with the time on the clock,” DeBoer said. “We knew they had no time off, so these calls carry both risk and reward. You're just on the edge of what it would take to make a field goal. A field goal makes all the difference in what they need to score. There are a lot of things that go into what we're trying to do. There were many safe ways and things that we discussed in this piece. I think they were aggressive and tried to play a lot of them.”

DeBoer said like many temporary concepts, there is a deeper path. Milroe saw it and hit Bernard for the score against South Carolina (3-3, 1-3).

“Proud of the guys in this execution,” DeBoer said. “That was a big part of the win.”

Bernard said the coaching staff “didn’t say anything about getting involved with me,” so Bernard just went and scored.

“My job was to catch the ball,” Bernard said. “I didn’t care about anything other than catching the ball.”

Thanks to Jackson's interception, it ultimately didn't matter, but Bernard scoring a touchdown was one of those rare moments where a touchdown can actually hurt you. This is the nature of a battle over clock management.

“You try to make them aware that there are no timeouts,” DeBoer said. “That is the situation. We’ll talk about it.”

Nick Kelly is a beat writer from Alabama AL.com and Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X And Instagram.