Upon Further Review: ‘Third and forever’ conversion by Alabama swings momentum

For nearly three quarters, the Florida Gators kept pace with Alabama. They withstood some defensive miscues and big offensive plays for the Crimson Tide and they weathered the physical running of TJ Yeldon, Derrick Henry and Kenyan Drake to keep the game tied at 21 points.

The play under review in this article comes on the snap that turned the tide (no pun intended) for Alabama and put them on their way to defeating the Gators 42-21.

Here’s the play:

Prior to this play, Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper was flagged for offensive pass interference, which pushed the Crimson Tide back to Florida’s 32-yard line. The Gators defense seemingly had held Alabama to at least a field goal or even no points with the struggles of Adam Griffith from earlier in the game.

On 3rd and 23, it’s reasonable to think Alabama wouldn’t risk anything deep because obviously Florida would be ready for a long pass. Smart thinking here would be for the Crimson Tide to play it safe, pick up a conservative amount of yards and set yourself up for a go-ahead field goal. Offensive coordinator decides to go with a slip screen to running back Derrick Henry, a high-percentage play to pick up some yardage.

However, it was more than a high-percentage play to just gain a few yards. Florida ran a man-coverage defense and sent five men to rush Blake Sims. Linebacker Michael Taylor was left to cover the running back. Problem is, Taylor was the only player on that side of the field in position to stop Henry.

Taylor is immediately blocked downfield by offensive lineman Arie Kouandjio. Safety Jabari Gorman was initially on the left side, but now he’s followed tight end OJ Howard across the field on his drag route, leaving Henry all kinds of space to make a play.

Taylor eventually gets free from Kouandjio and gets a shot at Henry, but the Alabama running back cuts back to the middle of the field and Taylor has no shot due to the poor angle he took. Gorman finally recovers and makes an attempt at bringing down Henry, but as everyone saw during the game, it’s virtually impossible to bring Henry down with just one man.

By then, the damage had been done. Henry was passed the first down marker and gained an additional seven yards before being forced out of bounds at the three-yard line.

Head coach Will Muschamp defended the call after the game to the media.

“We had two guys on [Henry] and we didn’t execute,” Muschamp said. “A lack of execution comes back on me. The flare screen hurt us. They pinned the backer and that hurt us. We had a third and forever and we felt like we had the right call. In the right situation, we’d call it again.”

RELATED: Muschamp explains defensive breakdowns against Cooper, Tide

Florida had a lot of defensive breakdowns against Alabama on Saturday, but it was this third down conversion for Alabama that ultimately cost the Gators a chance to upset the Crimson Tide in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Following the screen pass to Henry, Florida could never regain any momentum. Henry punched it in for a touchdown from three yards out one play later and Alabama never looked back, scoring 21 unanswered points.

Ironically enough, the offense was inept for most of the game, but it was the Gators’ defense that cost them in the end.

Drew Laing

Drew Laing will be providing analysis and insight on Florida, Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina.