Alabama's Defense Plays With Grit, Toughness To Continue Winning Streak

COLUMBIA, S.C. - It wasn't a pretty performance in Williams-Brice Stadium, but No. 4 Alabama football stayed unbeaten in SEC play by knocking off the South Carolina Gamecocks 29-22 on Saturday night. The Crimson Tide's offense took all evening to find its footing and instead the program relied on a spirited performance from its defense to keep the program in striking distance and ultimately improve the team's record to 7-1 on the season.

"We're so resilient," Alabama linebacker Deontae Lawson said. "I feel like we have a lot of grit. We play with toughness, and we play for each other. I think that's the biggest thing. We don't want to come in the locker room after the game and look each other in the eye with disappointment. We knew it was going to be a hostile environment, a tough game for us, but we were talking about it all week, 'We're going to find a way to win', and we earned that confidence for sure."

Alabama's defense held the Gamecocks to just six first-half points, forcing three field attempts and two punts, while generating seven points of their own as DaShawn Jones scored the second defensive touchdown in two weeks to ensure the Crimson Tide went into the halftime locker room with a lead.

The Crimson Tide offense struggled throughout the night, scoring just a single touchdown on its first nine drives. The offensive problems ran so deep that the Alabama offense went three-and-out on three consecutive drives after turning it over on downs on the first four drives of the second half, despite being constantly thrust onto the field, the Crimson Tide defense stood tall.

"We can't control how we get on the field, but we can control how we get off," Alabama defensive lineman Tim Keenan said. "Just keep making them snap it again and get off the field as fast as we can."

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"Super proud of the guys, man," Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson said. "The defense never giving up, never putting us in a bad spot. They were just fighting their balls off."

South Carolina scored a one-play 54-yard touchdown to cut the Crimson Tide's lead to two points in the second half, but couldn't score its two-point conversion attempt to tie the game. Alabama's defense battled throughout the third quarter, forcing two more punts and a field goal as its offensive counterparts continued to struggle.

"Coach DeBoer always says, 'Make them play another play'" Alabama safety Bray Hubbard said. "That's what I said earlier, just keep fighting. That's what we go by. We show it all the time in our meetings and stuff, Muhammad Ali's fight, 15 rounds, heavyweight fight. It's what it's going to be every week in the SEC. So we've got to be prepared to just keep swinging."

The fight continued throughout the game as the home team took a lead and looked to corner the Crimson Tide with a 10-yard touchdown run from LaNorris Sellers to take an eight-point lead in a moment that looked like a knockout blow. Instead, the program got off the mat one more time and mustered a 14-play, 79-yard touchdown drive, complete with a two-point conversion to tie the game, and once again, it was up to the defense to get a stop in a critical moment.

"You just challenge the defense, and I think we're to the point now to where the relationships are so tight," Kalen DeBoer said. "We're in this together, we're in the fight together, but there's also times where you've got to ask more out of them. They realize the occasion and they want it, and so they're going to give you everything they've got."

Alabama's defense allowed South Carolina to gain 322 yards and score 22 points through the first 11 possessions. Kane Wommack's crew scored on a pick-six, but was on the field constantly throughout the game, due to the offense's inability to sustain drives but after seeing the Alabama offense find a way to tie the game it was time to take the intensity to another level.

Crimson Tide captain Deontae Lawson responded on the penultimate Gamecock drive by ripping the football from the South Carolina quarterback's hands on the second play of the drive, and fellow captain Tim Keenan fell on the ball for the defense's second takeaway of the game. Lawson's forced fumble and Keenan's recovery set the offense up with a short field and kept the program unbeaten in SEC play.

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"I'm so proud of that guy [Lawson]," DeBoer said. "He's getting better, too. I don't even know the number of months out from last year, but he's getting better. In practice, you can see it. There's just things he's, he's working so hard to get his body right. It's awesome to see him come through. Just the leadership piece. It's so important to have him out there. I thought from a leadership standpoint TK [Tim Keenan] raised his game, not just on the field but off the field. Those guys are the ones that understand what this fight is all about. We've got a lot of new faces, still. 30-something guys that were new this year, 35 probably that came in last year so there's a lot of roster turnover. So, understanding the circumstances and what you're coming into, you've got to really rely on those guys that have been through it, and those are two workhorses that I'm super proud of. I'm glad we got this moment for them."

So what kept the defense from folding in Williams-Brice Stadium as they were thrust into situation after situation? Trust.

"It's just the trust between each other," Hubbard said. "We fight, we just keep fighting, and that's just having faith in the brother around us. Whoever's next to me, I know he's going to do his job, and he knows I'm going to do my job, and it's just the trust in everything we got with each other."