Kalen DeBoer addresses costly penalties in loss to Tennessee
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — One of Alabama’s nagging problems this season reared its ugly head once again in Neyland Stadium, and it was wildly costly. The Crimson Tide came into the game as one of the most penalized teams in college football, and after this week’s games, Alabama may come in at No. 1 in an unwanted category.
During the loss to Tennessee, Alabama was called for 15 penalties for 155 total yards. To put it simply, that’s atrocious.
From the beginning, Alabama lacked composure. A false start was called on the Alabama offense in the first 35 seconds of the game, and it was all downhill from there. By halftime, the Crimson Tide had already racked up double-digit penalties, repeatedly killing its chances of sustaining drives offensively and giving the Vols free passes to stay on the field defensively.
The Neyland Stadium crowd played a large part in the lack of composure, just like it did two years ago, when Alabama was called for a program record 17 penalties the last time it played in this building.
Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer addressed the penalty issue following the loss.
“It’s a little bit of everything. It’s false starts, just getting off to a rough start there, and then there was a couple more intermixed in there. There’s some mental mistakes,” DeBoer said. “The two games, right, earlier in the year and this one, you just can’t get over the hump, and it’s going to put you in situations where you got your backs to the wall. And we can’t kill ourselves like that. There’s times where you see like we’re locked in, but we got to be better. There’s no question. You can’t win a football game when you have mistakes like we had out there and all the penalties.”
The penalties were costly early, and they remained costly late.
Late in the fourth quarter, with Alabama trailing by four points, the Crimson Tide went incomplete on third down, setting up a 4th-and-7, which DeBoer was ready to go for as Alabama looked to take back the lead. Wide receiver Kendrick Law got into it with a Tennessee player after the play, drawing a personal foul and a 15-yard penalty, making it 4th-and-22, a nearly impossible conversion.
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Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe gave his thoughts on Law’s penalty, saying he still trusts his wide receiver despite the mistake.
“We play this game with a lot of emotion. A lot is poured into when we play the game that we love. I trust K-Law, I trust in him, I appreciate him for his grind, his work ethic, who he is as a person,” Milroe said. “It’s just an unfortunate situation with the down and distance and where we were on the field, but it’s all about maximizing every opportunity we have when we’re on the field as an offense.”
That play, while it didn’t decide the game, was a microcosm of the evening’s penalty issues, continually shooting Alabama in the foot and ruining chances to set up success.
Now with two losses on the record, if Alabama is going to have any chance of rallying and making a postseason run, cleaning up penalties has to be at the top of the to-do list.
