Rick Neuheisel offers 1 criticism of Nick Saban after Alabama loss

Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Nick Saban lost to Tennessee on Saturday for the first time since taking over Alabama. According to one analyst, the longtime Bama coach made a big mistake at the end of the game.

As CBS was conducting their postgame show following the Volunteers’ 52-49 win over the Crimson Tide, Rick Neuheisel shared the big tactical error Saban made.

Neuheisel thought Saban should have had Alabama run the ball more at the end.

“As good as Nick Saban is, there was a calculated mistake here,” Neuheisel said. “They should have been running the ball when they got to the 32-yard line to force Tennessee to use their timeouts.”

Neuheisel is talking about what happened after Bryce Young completed an 18-yard pass to Ja’Corey Brooks to bring the Tide down to the Tennessee 32 with 45 seconds left. The Vols had all three of their timeouts at that point.

Alabama then threw three straight passes, all of which fell incomplete. That left Will Reichard with a 50-yard field goal attempt with around 20 seconds left that he missed.

The Vols then got the ball back at the 32 with 15 seconds left and two timeouts (they used one on Bama’s possession). Since Tennessee had two timeouts, they were able to stop the clock after throwing two passes, which got them into field goal position.

Chase McGrath then kicked a knuckle-ball field goal from 40 yards to win the game.

If he could do it all over, Saban probably would have run the ball more.