In his explanation of Alabama’s last play against Michigan on fourth down, Nick Saban
Jalen Milroe, the quarterback for the Crimson Tide, mishandled a play call and missed the goal line.
After Monday’s Rose Bowl overtime loss to Michigan, Alabama coach Nick Saban didn’t question Tommy Rees’ final offensive playcall for the Crimson Tide, an unfortunate quarterback draw that never worked out for Jalen Milroe. With Michigan at their 3-yard line and facing a fourth-and-goal, Milroe took a low snap and raced toward the line of scrimmage, only to be tackled by a wall of Wolverines. According to Saban, Milroe had no other options on the play. Up in the middle, it was do or die.
“We called three plays, one they called timeout, one we called timeout and the last one, didn’t work,” Saban told Bama247. “It was a really poor decision because it didn’t work, okay? We had a bad look, so we called a timeout. They must have known that we looked closely at the first one. Tommy (Rees) simply believed that the best play we could make for this game was a quarterback run, which was sort of our two-point play.
The position of the ball, on the 3-yard line, is equivalent to a two-point play. It didn’t work because we didn’t get it blocked. It didn’t work because we didn’t do it correctly. They applied pressure. Though we believed we could gap them and make it work, we didn’t anticipate the pressure.”
The Wolverines were able to dominate much of the game, but Alabama’s wall of blockers was brought down by Michigan’s defensive front, leaving Milroe, who was 16-of-23 for 116 yards in the game with 63 yards rushing, with little space to run.
Rees ends his first season leading Alabama’s offense with an SEC championship, but the decisions he made at the end, along with three passing plays that fell short of moving the chains in the last minute of regulation, will be discussed in the weeks to come.
Tyler Booker, an offensive lineman for Alabama, stated that the Crimson Tide were optimistic about the planned quarterback power play.
“Back against the wall, they down there at the (three), one of the best teams in the country, best dynasty teams in the country, game on the line,” Barrett stated on Bama247, “and he goes down short.”
With 1:34 remaining, Roman Wilson’s 4-yard touchdown reception tied the score for the undefeated Wolverines (14-0). Wilson’s 29-yard catch-and-run and Corum’s fourth-down conversion on a wide-open swing pass were two of the drive’s key plays.
The Wolverines took the lead thanks to a 17-yard touchdown run by Corum during Michigan’s possession in the extra session, and they managed to hold on to win their first-ever postseason game.
