What Went Wrong With Alabama In Week Six?

The defending national champion Alabama Crimson Tide were playing their best football of an undefeated streak that extended back to the 2009 Sugar Bowl, seemingly improved from the college football betting school that won the national title a year ago. Despite a daunting three-game stretch that featured three nationally ranked teams in a row, it seemed as though the Crimson Tide would have little trouble rolling through undefeated, especially after a massive comeback win over Arkansas, and a dominant performance over Florida. Alabama was 5-0 and rolling with the return of last year’s Heisman trophy winner, running back Mark Ingram, and it seemed as though with two weeks to go before the Bowl Championship Series announced their first rankings of the season that the Crimson Tide were destined to open at number-one. All that changed in a single game however, with a crushing loss costing Alabama an inordinate amount of recognition in the polls.

Alabama fell to the number-19 ranked South Carolina State 35-21, and the fallout was immediate. The Crimson Tide fell from first to eighth in the national rankings, with Ohio State and Oregon jumping in to the online sports betting top two. Meanwhile, the Gamecocks climbed all the way to number-10 in the standings with the win, establishing themselves as one of the best teams in the country. Alabama could get little done in the loss, shut down in nearly every facet on offense, including recording just 38 yards on the round. That total was the third-fewest that the Crimson Tide have registered during the Nick Saban-era, with the last time they scored less being back in their 2009 Sugar Bowl loss to Utah. The inability to establish their offense the way they had in previous weeks led to Saban experimenting more with untested ways of scoring points, and when Alabama failed to convert a fake field goal attempt in the fourth quarter down seven, it seemed as though it signaled the betting end of an era for ‘Bama. Defensively, the Crimson Tide had no answer for Gamecocks’ quarterback Stephen Garcia, who torched them for three touchdowns and over 200 passing yards.

Still, this was Alabama’s third game in a row against a team ranked in the top-20 in the nation, and it may have been the Crimson Tide’s phenomenal early season play that worked against them in this scenario. Saban’s team had played so well that it seemed incredulous that they would lose to South Carolina State, especially given that they were coming off consecutive victories over the Razorbacks and Gators. Either way, Alabama will head in to the weekend of the announcement of the first BCS standings with big question marks on their status, and ranked number-eight in the country. How Saban’s team will rebound against Mississippi will be another interesting storyline, and the Crimson Tide still have another two ranked teams on their NCAAF betting season schedule.