What Happened to Alabama in Fourth Quarter? 'We Didn't Finish'

Crimson Tide players were frustrated with a lack of execution in the final minutes of Alabama's loss to Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

PASADENA, Calif. — Alabama had a four-point lead on the second play of the fourth quarter. It pushed that lead to seven points with less than six minutes to go. 

Yet, Michigan was victorious in the Rose Bowl, claiming a spot in the national title game and ending the Crimson Tide's season in the semifinals for the first time since 2014 with a 27-20 overtime victory. 

The Crimson Tide had two opportunities in the fourth quarter to extend its lead to two scores and put the game away. Alabama could have essentially ended the game with a seven-point lead and the Wolverines facing a fourth-and-2 from their own 33 with just over three minutes left. Instead, Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy found Roman Wilson for a 27-yard gain that extended the drive.

The Alabama offense couldn't find the end zone when it needed a touchdown, and the defense couldn't get the key stop. What happened?

"We didn’t finish as a team— on defense or offense," Alabama freshman safety Caleb Downs said. 

Defensively, Alabama was bending, but not breaking for almost the entire game. The Wolverines had two long touchdown drives in the first half, but really struggled to get anything going in the second half. Alabama forced three straight three-and-outs from Michigan out of the break and had not allowed any points in the second half until Michigan's final full drive of regulation. 

Up until that drive, the Crimson Tide defense had given up just 44 yards in the entire second half. But with the game on the line, Alabama let Michigan drive 75 yards down the field in eight plays, taking just 1:34 off the clock to tie the game up at 20-20. 

The Alabama defense had been on the field for the majority of the first half, but had gotten more rest in the second half with the offense executing a little better. Linebacker Chris Braswell said the defense wasn't worn down at the end of the game. 

"We just gotta execute better," Braswell said. "It was nothing they did. It was all on us."

Alabama was on defense first in overtime with the chance to set the tone. Instead, Michigan running back Blake Corum gashed the defense on two straight runs, capped by a 17-yard touchdown run that put the Wolverines up 27-20. When the Alabama offense wasn't able to respond, that ended up being the game-winning touchdown. 

"We just gotta finish, man,"a dejected Malachi Moore said after the game. "We always preach about finishing. We gotta finish.”

On a night where both sides of the ball struggled, the Crimson Tide's special teams came up huge. James Burnip averaged 50.3 yards per punt on seven tries, and the unit recovered a muffed punt that set up Alabama's first touchdown. Will Reichard nailed two field goals of 50+ yards, including the 52-yarder in the fourth quarter that put Alabama up 20-13 with 4:41 to go. 

But outside of the special teams, no one else was able to make a clutch play or step up in a big moment. The drive that led to the final field goal was killed by a penalty and sack on third down. If Alabama had been able to find the end zone on that drive, it would've held a two-score lead with less than five minutes to go.

"Us not finishing a couple drives, and if you really analyze the game, one of the biggest things is we didn't play well enough on defense when we needed to, and the second thing is we had too many drive-stopping plays on offense," Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. "I mean, we shot ourselves in the foot. A sack is a drive-stopping play. Getting a penalty usually is a drive-stopping play."

Overall, Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe was sacked six times and finished 16-of-23 for 116 yards and no touchdowns. After Michigan drove down the field to tie the game, Alabama got the ball back with 1:24 left and a timeout. 

The Tide needed to pick up about 40 yards in that timespan to get into Reichard's range to set up a potential game-winning field goal, or could've won the game with a touchdown. But the offense could only pick up one first down on a pass from Milroe to Jase McClellan and eventually had to punt. 

They didn't fair much better in overtime on the offensive side of the ball. Milroe picked up one first down with his legs, but they needed more. Needing to score a touchdown to extend the game, Alabama came up two yards short. A Milroe quarterback run on fourth-and-goal picked up only one yard, two yards away from the end zone. Even though Alabama appeared to figure out some things in the second half, the Michigan defense gave the Tide fits all day. 

Wide receiver Kobe Prentice said it wasn't the Michigan defense making things tough, but instead Alabama making it difficult on itself with a lack of execution. 

"When you look back on the game, there’s a lot of plays we left out there, a lot of times we didn’t attack the defenses right," Prentice said.

Saban preaches four quarters. It's the name of Alabama's offseason conditioning program. The fourth quarter wins (2023 Iron Bowl) or loses (2023 Texas) games. But when Alabama needed someone to step up in the fourth quarter or overtime on Monday night against Michigan, the Crimson Tide faltered. And with that, the 2023 Alabama football season comes to an end in heartbreaking fashion. 

"We just didn't finish the last four minutes of the game like we would like to, and we're all very disappointed," Saban said. 

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