There are almost no words to describe the way South Carolina vs. Alabama went today.
South Carolina had this game in its hands in the fourth quarter. They had all the momentum on their side, they were driving on offense and getting tremendous stops on defense. However, all it takes is one play to sway momentum the other way.
The bad news for South Carolina was that Alabama made that one play.
The Gamecocks had just gotten their third turnover of the day. The defense had picked off Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe for the second time and the first time in the endzone. The Gamecocks just needed to drive the ball down the field and get at least a field goal to make it an eight-point game.
Instead, South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers ran the ball for four yards before he fumbled, and the worst thing that could have happened did. Alabama recovered the ball, and just like that, the Crimson Tide got the fans back into it. The players had new life, and that team just took all the momentum South Carolina worked so hard to get.
One of the keys to this game for South Carolina was to play a clean game and not turn the ball over. If Alabama doesn't get that fumble, the momentum doesn't change and the game doesn't end the way it did.
The fact that South Carolina was able to score 19 unanswered points to take the lead in the third quarter was great and made the Gamecocks look like a great football team. However, when they lost that fumble, it looked like everything fell apart yet again.
Alabama scored off that fumble, and then the Gamecocks missed a field goal with a little over six minutes left, and it just felt like that was it for South Carolina. However, no one could have predicted what would happen next.
The Crimson Tide went on a long drive, but it was capped off by a big catch on third down for a touchdown that maybe shouldn't have happened. If wide receiver Germie Bernard doesn't score on that play and goes down within the five-yard line, Alabama could have taken a lot more time off the clock and not even given South Carolina a chance.
Instead, the Gamecocks had a little under two minutes left on the clock and no timeouts. The Gamecocks were able to drive down the field, and wide receiver Nyck Harbor made a miraculous catch with 50 seconds left on the clock. South Carolina just needed a two-point conversion in order to tie the game, but pressure from the Crimson Tide forced an errant throw and left the Gamecocks behind by two.
It would have to come down to an on-side kick, something that is not converted all that often. However, some sort of luck must have been on the Gamecocks' side because two Alabama players tried to jump on the ball and couldn't, and South Carolina was able to recover the on-side kick.
The Gamecocks needed a little more luck to get enough yards to get into field goal range to try and kick a game-winning field goal, but apparently, they used it all as pressure from Alabama's defense and wide receivers, forgetting you need to run the full route to catch a pass resulted in the Gamecocks losing 25-27.
South Carolina has now lost two games in a row, and it just seems like the season is lost. with a quote from a few ranked teams left on the schedule, fans will hope to just get bowl-eligible, which feels like a bit of a tall task now. Could Beamer's days as South Carolina's head coach be numbered?