There was a sequence that was beyond atypical for Tua Tagovailoa.

Alabama fans know what I’m talking about because it probably made their hearts stop during the middle of Saturday’s game against Mississippi State.

Tagovailoa wasn’t able to spin away from Willie Gay Jr., which was a rare occurrence in itself. Tagovailoa came into Saturday’s game having only taken 4 sacks all year. Tagovailoa has gotten up slowly and favored his right knee more than 4 times this year. Everybody remembers the way his day ended against Tennessee, and the hobbled run and ensuing #TentGate in the second half of the Mizzou game was surely fresh on the minds of Tide fans when Tagovailoa was slow to get up following Gay’s sack.

What happened after Tagovailoa’s twisted sack was even troubling.

Tagovailoa entered Week 11 with just 1 interception in 194 pass attempts this year. Gay changed that roughly 30 seconds after Tagovailoa got back on his feet. A Tagovailoa interception is basically national news. Outside of Alabama actually losing, it’s about as stunning of an occurrence as anything Tide-related this year.

And just in case that wasn’t enough, Tagovailoa’s final play of the day was actually a team sack from MSU two series later. The southpaw took a shot to the quad that the CBS broadcast team said was what sidelined him for the fourth quarter.

Add it all up and what do you get? Legitimate concern about Tagovailoa’s health.

Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

I realize that Alabama will do everything in its power to downplay the significance of Tagovailoa’s uneasy finish. They’ll probably call him “day-to-day” without any real insight as to where he’s really at.

Call me crazy, but I’ll put more faith in what we actually see from Tagovailoa. What we’ve seen from him is that the sacks, the scrambles and even the touchdown celebrations that include jumping are all capable of sparking a Tagovailoa limp. That can’t be denied at this point.

That’s not to say that Tagovailoa should mask his pain, and anyone questioning his toughness is obviously off their rocker.

But maybe it just took Tagovailoa getting sacked a career-high 4 times against that loaded Mississippi State front for whatever lingering knee issue he had so resurface. And yeah, it would make me worry if I was an Alabama fan.

As far as I’m concerned, healthy Tagovailoa equals an Alabama national championship. Is that a guarantee? No, but I wouldn’t bet against that notion.

If Tagovailoa is getting knocked out of games or even limited, it changes Alabama. Period. We can tout Jalen Hurts as the best backup in America, which he probably is, but anyone who’s as confident with him as they are with Tagovailoa has apparently not watched the 2018 season.

And yeah, Alabama’s defense is hitting its stride. Consecutive shutouts against ranked teams is darn impressive. That’s huge. Can you imagine the panic right now if the Alabama defense still looked like it did against Arkansas?

But still, I wonder how much Alabama is going to try and protect Tagovailoa until the SEC Championship. I’d expect game plans like what we saw on Saturday, wherein the Tide rely on the run more than they have all year. Designed runs or scrambles for Tagovailoa will be few and far between. At least they should be. Five-step drops that could expose him to a blindside rusher will be something Mike Locksley tries to avoid.

Priority No. 1 is keeping Tagovailoa healthy. If that means sitting him next week, I believe Alabama will do that whether Jalen Hurts is healthy or not. If Mac Jones can’t beat The Citadel, Nick Saban would probably pull his scholarship on the spot.

Speaking of Saban, his response after the game to the CBS broadcast crew was about as predictable as it gets. He said that “Tua was fine” and that he just got a little “beat up.”

I agree with the latter. I’m not sure about the former.

Again, that’s not because Alabama had its worst offensive output of the year. This was the No. 2 scoring defense in America. Of course Tagovailoa was going to have some human moments on Saturday.

But consider this: For the fourth consecutive game, there was at least some in-game concern about Tagovailoa’s right leg. Whether it was the knee or the quad, his plant leg is clearly not at 100 percent, no matter how much downplaying Alabama does.

Saturday’s sequence was the most troubling yet. It seems like Tagovailoa’s health is the only thing capable of slowing down the juggernaut that is Alabama right now. That isn’t lost on anyone in crimson.

Until Tagovailoa can go an entire game without favoring his right leg, it’s fair to have concern. Not “the sky is falling” concern, but at least an uneasy feeling. We don’t know how this will play out, or if Tagovailoa is going to get “banged up” before it’s an appropriate time for him to exit the game (the hit he took to the, um, “midsection” against LSU doesn’t count).

I’m worried about Tagovailoa’s health, and it’s ok if you are, too.