Tide Up, Tide Down From Alabama's 20-17 Loss To Georgia

The positives and negatives from the Crimson Tide's three-point loss to the Bulldogs.

Oct 10, 2026; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Georgia defensive back KJ Bolden (4) hits Alabama wide receiver Rico Scott (7) well before the ball arrives at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. No penalty was called. Mandatory Credit: Gary Cosby Jr.-Imagn Images | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — What comes up, must come down.

That's been a common theme of this column through six weeks. Numerous players and positions have shown up in both "Tide Up" and "Tide Down" already, and that will continue throughout the remainder of the season.

Alabama came down as a whole in its 20-17 loss to Georgia. A team that had scored at least 45 points in every game while winning by multiple scores every week struggled to put together complete drives while sealing its fate with a devastating mental lapse. We'll get into that and more in this week's edition of Tide Up, Tide Down, BamaCentral's reactionary postgame series that evaluates some of the best and worst players, moments, and trends from Alabama's season.

Tide Up: Yhonzae Pierre

Pierre feasted. He recorded a sack, tackle for a loss, forced fumble, and four solo tackles, a consistent game-wrecker throughout the contest. He hasn't put up the individual numbers many expected him to, but this is by no means a reflection of his play. Pierre has been one of the most important players for this Alabama defense through six games, and his stock has risen in many scouts' mock drafts.

Tide Up: EJ Crowell

Crowell rushed five times for 11 yards. That's an average of 2.2 yards per carry for a player who had averaged 7.8 entering the game. Not ideal.

But with three seconds on the clock in the second quarter, from the one-yard line, Ryan Grubb put the ball into Crowell's hands on the single highest-pressure moment of Alabama's season thus far. That says everything you could want to know about the way the coaching staff views the freshman, and the fact that he found the end zone validates the decision.

Crowell will one day be the lead back in Tuscaloosa. It could be in two weeks, it could be in two months, it could be in two years. The fact that he is getting these opportunities this early (after missing almost all of fall camp, too) speaks to how high his ceiling is.

Tide Up: Alabama's National Championship Odds

This column is formatted intentionally. The expectation is that you, the reader, will care more about the negatives than the positives. As a result, we put the positives first to ensure people read all the way through. This piece is about to say some negative things, and, before that happens, I want to drive home the point that there was a lot of good from this game.

Alabama sits at 5-1, with road wins over two teams that will be ranked in the top-25 next week, and a three-point loss to the soon-to-be No. 1 team in the nation. The back-half of the schedule, thought to be a "gauntlet," suddenly looks easier than ever. Tennessee was just in a dogfight with Arkansas, Texas A&M is reeling with three losses, and LSU just lost to Kentucky. The expecation be that the Crimson Tide makes the playoff, and the team has an inside track to end up in the SEC Championship Game.

Kalen DeBoer's team went toe-to-toe with maybe the best team in the country, has a quarterback that is a Heisman favorite, and a bevy of fixable flaws. That's a position almost every program would kill to be in.

Tide Down: Dijon Lee Jr.

Lee is the headliner of the "Tide Down" section of this column for the second straight week. Last week's appearance marked the culmination of three straight weeks of on-field struggles. This week's appearance is entirely because of his performance in this game.

Lee was awful. There is no sugarcoating his day. This is the only framework we have for the way the game went for the sophomore. He got beat multiple times for big gains, committed a costly pass interference on a third-and-21 that gave Georgia a first down, and, overall, failed once again to play up to his talent level.

Carmelo O'Neal played the most snaps he has in weeks, and Alabama's defense looked better for it. All of this would have been enough to earn Lee a mention in this category, but he then took things from very bad to awful with a game-sealing unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the final minutes.

With Georgia about to line up for a third-and-two, Lee was unable to control his emotions, hitting freshman Craig Dandridge after the second-down play was over. Georgia got a fresh set of downs, and three kneels was all it took from there.

Lee is spiraling, and his starting spot may be gone. This is not a point we should have ever reached — just two months ago, this guy was being talked about as a 2028 first-round NFL Draft pick. The ceiling of Alabama's defense is significantly higher if Lee is able to play anywhere near his potential. It's appearing more and more likely that will not happen this season.

Tide Down: SEC Officiating

Officiating is difficult. I am in no way denying that, and I am generally somebody who believes referees get too much criticism.

But there is no world in which this is not a flag.

Should a flag have been thrown on this play? pic.twitter.com/KoLYWtvzAh

— Theodore Fernandez (@TheoFernandez__) October 11, 2026

This evicts memories of the 2018 NFC Championship Game — a game that featured a no-call so awful that it is still talked about to this day. The early contact on Rico Scott resembles that infamous moment, and while the stakes are nowhere near as high as they were for the Saints at the time, the anger from Crimson Tide fans is bound to reach similar levels.

Hey, at least the conference will put out a press release saying that they got the call wrong. Hooray for moral victories.

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