Never a doubt, right Alabama football fans? Goodness, it looked like South Carolina was about to post an improbable win over the Tide on Saturday night in Columbia, but the Alabama defense came up HUGE with the game on the line.
In key situations, primetime players are going to make primetime plays and that's exactly what veteran stud Deontae Lawson was able to get done. His forced fumble set the table for Germie Bernard to record his game-winning touchdown.
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It truly was a game-changing moment from Lawson, potentially season-changing too. Right after the final whistle, head man Kalen DeBoer provided his thoughts on that sequence and he understandably could not have been happier for one of his team captains. Matter of fact, he was over the moon with two of his guys on defense.
Deontae Lawson and Tim Keenan III were the heroes for Alabama football in the win over South Carolina
"Yeah, it's huge," DeBoer said about Lawson's forced fumble on LaNorris Sellers. "I mean just again, it's guys that have been in the program - a guy like Deontae, I'm proud of him. I'm proud of TK (Tim Keenan III). Those guys are the heart and soul. They're captains, they've been here forever. These are the moments they've worked so hard for."
As you can see from that quote above, DeBoer could not have been more thrilled with Lawson for forcing the Sellers' fumble and for Keenan to get his body on top of it. The replay showed that Keenan didn't even realize the ball was fumbled, but he was there at the right time to eventually get up with the ball.
With just over two minutes to go, South Carolina was up 22-14 and people were livid with Ryan Grubb. His play-calling had been vanilla throughout the game and some fans online were even calling for him to get fired on social media. He shut those same haters up with some brilliant calls late in the action.
This needs to serve as a lesson for people who doubt Bama. Time and time again, these players find a way to dig deep and get the job done. With the victory, Alabama is now 7-1 on the year and essentially with one foot in for the College Football Playoff. On the other side of the field, South Carolina totally blew it, with Lawson's incredible moment likely going to haunt Gamecocks supporters for quite some time.