Kalen DeBoer talks about Alabama football's defensive third-down woes

At times it was like watching a replay of Alabama football's loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday. The Crimson Tide defeated South Carolina 27-25 in Tuscaloosa, but their defense still had trouble getting off the field.

Overall, the Gamecocks converted seven of their 15 third downs. However, the numbers looked worse in the second half as USC made first downs on seven of 10 attempts, with most of those coming on long drives early in the third quarter.

“We can’t have five of these in one trip, can we?” And I think there’s just a desire to find a way to make the play happen,” DeBoer said. “I will watch the film and we will all understand what happened in a lot of it. Some of them were in good situations.

“I remember the ball they caught over the middle was an advantage for us in terms of depth and distance. And that's what we really need to get away from the football field. And those are just hard to convert from an offensive side, and that’s what they did.”

The drive, which ended with a touchdown that gave the Gamecocks the lead, taxed the Alabama defense and covered 16 plays and 85 yards, equating to 8:35 minutes of game time. However, the group recovered, at least enough to leave Bryant-Denny Stadium with a win.

As DeBoer pointed out, things went better for the rest of the game.

“For most of the game I felt like we did a good job,” DeBoer said. “I can't say we did a great job, but the second half performance certainly set the tone and made things difficult for us for the rest of the game. So you need to start a little quicker when we get out.”

Alabama moved to 5-1 with Saturday's win and reached the halfway point of the 2024 season. It is currently 2-1 in SEC play.

The Crimson Tide will be back in action next week when they face Tennessee in Knoxville.