In overtime of the Rose Bowl on Monday night, the Alabama Crimson Tide had one last opportunity to beat the Michigan Wolverines with a touchdown, but they fell well short when quarterback Jalen Milroe was stuffed on a rush up the middle due to a puzzling play call by Nick Saban.
A low snap kept Milroe from looking at running back Roydell Williams, who was running a route to his left, giving the impression that the play was a botched RPO. Milroe was left with no choice but to tuck the ball in and rush it straight up the gut, where the Wolverines’ defense met him.
Following the game, Saban gave an explanation of the play call that went wrong, calling it a “really bad call” because it wasn’t successful.
According to Saban, “We called three plays,” The Next Round reported. “We called one a timeout, they called one, and the last one didn’t work. Therefore, the fact that it failed made it a really poor decision.
We had a bad look, so we called a timeout. They must have known that we looked good on the first one, according to Saban. “Tommy [Rees] thought that a quarterback run would be the best thing to do, but it didn’t work because we didn’t get a block. It didn’t work because we didn’t carry it out very well.
A dump off to Williams might have resulted in a touchdown for the Crimson Tide if the snap had been accurate, but as Saban pointed out, the execution was simply lacking, making it a poor play call with the game on the line.
