This is an opinion column.

The wave crested with 12:24 left in the first half of Alabama’s win over No. 2 Georgia two weeks earlier.

Quarterback Jalen Milroe’s 36-yard touchdown run put the Crimson Tide up four touchdowns. The celebration was on. Nick Saban who?

Well, the tidal shifts since that momentous peak have been staggering at best.

Sobering.

Stunning.

Name the adjective as the universe turned upside down in the span of two weeks.

Mathematically, Alabama scored more than South Carolina on Saturday. Twenty-seven is still more than twenty five.

But saying the Crimson Tide won that game is as close to inaccurate as 27-25 gets.

Truly. Even the game-ending interception came a few inches from Domani Jackson taking a knee in the end zone for what would have been a game-tying safety with six seconds on the clock.

Watch the replay. The Alabama DB intercepted the ball at the 2-yard line, carried it into the end zone and almost took a knee before Malachi Moore pointed him out of danger as he ran out the clock. That followed a failed attempt to recover an onside kick, surviving a two-point conversion that followed a 31-yard touchdown pass that could’ve tied it with 1:11 to play.

Yet, a last second kneel-down safety would’ve been the most appropriate way for Alabama to wrestle the continued threat of defeat from the cusp of victory on a day to forget in Tuscaloosa.

And to think the final 1:37 of the first half was briefly the ugliest brand of football imaginable.

It set the tone for the most disorienting outcome that’s a cousin of a win.

From Milroe’s scamper sprung by a crushing Jam Miller block two weeks ago to walking off the field for halftime this Saturday in an absolute daze.

It’s almost hard to remember the sequence of events that sent the game to intermission with Alabama up 14-12 but that abstract football continued until the fourth-quarter clock hit zero.

Recall, the Tide led 14-0, not dominating but without a real threat until South Carolina lined up for fourth-and-nine from the Tide 36 with 1:43 on the clock. Here’s how it went.

Busted covered, and 36-yard Gamecock touchdown catch occurred with 1:37 on the click.

Personal foul on the ensuing kickoff. Alabama started on its own 10-yard line when Jalen Milroe’s low-energy attempt to throw one away amid the crushing pass rush occurred in the end zone.

Safety.

Then after South Carolina fumbled, Alabama took over near midfield. Two negative rushing plays later, Milroe was picked off to set up a 36-yard field goal as time expired. A shell-shocked Alabama team walked to the locker room amid a whiplash collapse that looked pretty bad through a microscope.

Even worse from the telescope.

It revealed major, gaping flaws from all aspects of a Crimson Tide program riding high 14 days earlier but crashing to earth ever since. That, of course, includes last week’s stunner at Vanderbilt.

But this “win” over South Carolina felt worse.

Alabama was sloppier against South Carolina. It looked low-effort, low-energy at times. They got manhandled for spans by a team that shouldn’t be in contention against a team like the Crimson Tide.

It’s hard to imagine the last time a team surrendered a touchdown, a safety, and a field goal in the duration of 97 seconds. Almost seems impossible to be that inept in all phases of the game.

Explaining the feeling Alabama took to halftime to anyone in a champagne coma from the second quarter of the Georgia game is, frankly, impossible.

The Crimson Tide went from emasculating its superpower peer early on to surviving a disastrous second half and then getting punked by Vanderbilt and then South Carolina was inconceivable amid the Bryant-Denny flashing lights of Sept. 28.

It actually got worse, a few times, before Alabama avoided a second straight historic upset.

South Carolina took a 19-14 lead after bleeding the first 8:35 of the second half in a 16-play, 85-play molasses march to the end zone. The Gamecocks were bodying Alabama, playing the kind of physical football that was once the trademark in Tuscaloosa.

No more.

Alabama was outscored 93-62 when Milroe made it 28-0 against Georgia and South Carolina’s 1-yard touchdown run with 6:20 left in the third quarter Saturday.

The Gamecocks, fresh off a 27-3 loss to Ole Miss, was outgaining Alabama 257-142 at that point. And it finished with a 374-313 yardage edge.

South Carolina sacked Milroe four times among its nine tackles for loss.

A Gamecock team that was among the worst in the nation on third downs converted 5 of 6 in the third quarter and a season-high 7 of 15 in the game.

Two weeks ago, Milroe was a Heisman front-runner. On Saturday, he threw two costly interceptions. He still completed 16 of 23 passes for 209 yards and the game-winning touchdown, but his stock is in a much different place two weeks later.

Perhaps this is rock bottom for a team standing on the mountaintop 14 days earlier.

Or it’s just the next step in the steady and shocking decline because it’s hard to take much positivity away from another day of endless adjectives.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.