Early Kalen DeBoer gamble backfires and now Alabama is in deep trouble in Rose Bowl

Kalen DeBoer rolled the dice early in the second quarter of the Rose Bowl against No. 1 Indiana and it came up snake eyes.

Trailing 3-0, DeBoer chose to go for a 4th-and-1 from Alabama's own 34-yard line. Off a wildcat snap to Daniel Hill, Hill gave a pop pass to WR Germie Bernard and the Indiana defense swarmed to keep him short of the marker.

Four plays later, Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza hit Charlie Becker for a 21-yard touchdown to stretch Indiana's early lead to 10-0.

Against one of the soundest teams in college football, one that rarely makes any mistakes, getting behind double digits early in the game could be a death blow. Indiana doesn't beat itself, and will now have less of a reason to put the ball into any sort of conflict.

Kalen DeBoer's early 4th down gamble puts Alabama in big trouble

The decision to go for it wasn't completely indefensible. Indiana had just gone on a 16-play, 84-yard scoring drive that netted a field goal. A quick 3-and-out puts Alabama's defense right back on the field without much of a break after the long previous drive.

But the process was poor, and so was the play call. Alabama lined up with Hill in the wildcat initially, but Curt Cignetti called a timeout to gather his defense. The Crimson Tide came back out in punt formation, but snuck Ty Simpson onto the field as one of the upmen. Cignetti and the Hoosiers weren't fooled.

After a formation shift, Simpson ran up under center and tried to draw Indiana offside, but it didn't work. After an Alabama timeout, DeBoer went back to the wildcat formation with Hill, but instead of plunging forward with his 240-pound running back, he and Ryan Grubb decided to call the pop pass to Bernard that was stuffed by a stout Indiana defense.

Alabama will spend the rest of the game swimming upstream. Hopefully, they can generate the magic that allowed it to come from behind and beat Oklahoma two weeks ago.