Alabama football might not have been wise to score the winning touchdown against South Carolina. Serious.

Although it sounds crazy, it may not be. In fact, Germie Bernard scoring the touchdown could have cost the Crimson Tide the game.

No. No. 7 Alabama needed one more first down to beat South Carolina, fresh out of the two-minute warning. The Crimson Tide had a one-point lead and the Gamecocks had used up all their timeouts.

On third-and-10, Jalen Milroe hit a wide-open Bernard near the sideline at the 8-yard line. Bernard took the pass into the end zone for the score.

As a result, Alabama had an eight-point lead with 1:54 remaining.

Then South Carolina responded with a touchdown drive over the next 1:11. The Gamecocks couldn’t convert the two-point conversion to tie the game, but South Carolina recovered the ensuing onside kick and got one last shot to score, down two with :40 seconds left.

It took Alabama cornerback Domani Jackson catching a pass in the end zone with :12 seconds left for Alabama to beat South Carolina 27-25 on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

However, the South Carolina touchdown, subsequent onside kick and Jackson’s interception all didn’t have to happen. If Bernard had gone down instead of scoring a touchdown, Alabama (5-1, 2-1 SEC) could have kneeled on the final few plays to run out the clock.

With less than two minutes left on the clock, Alabama could have taken three knees and the game would have been over.

Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer was asked about the play-calling decision and whether any consideration was given to Bernard going down instead of scoring a touchdown.

“We knew we had to finish first with how much time was on the clock,” DeBoer said. “We knew they didn’t have a timeout, so there’s a risk and a reward with those calls. You’re right on the edge of what it takes to make a field goal. A field goal makes it different in terms of what they need to score. There are a lot of things involved in what we’re trying to do. There were a lot of safe paths and things we discussed during that piece. I think they were aggressive and tried to play a lot of that.”

DeBoer said, like many passing concepts, there was a deeper route. Milroe saw it and hit Bernard for the score against South Carolina (3-3, 1-3).

“Proud of those guys at that execution,” DeBoer said. “That was a big part of the win.”

Bernard said the coaching staff “didn’t say anything about coming at me,” so Bernard just went and scored.

“My job was to catch the ball,” Bernard said. “I didn’t worry about anything other than catching the ball.”

Thanks to Jackson’s interception, it didn’t matter in the end, but Bernard scoring a touchdown was one of the few times a touchdown can actually hurt you. That’s the nature of a clock management battle.

“You try to make them aware that they don’t have timeouts,” DeBoer said. ‘That’s the situation. We’ll talk about that.’

Nick Kelly is a beat writer from Alabama AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X And Instagram.