A strange Saturday for Alabama came down to a fourth-and-2 on South Florida’s 21-yard line. The Tide led by a touchdown and wanted more. Or did it?

With minutes to go and a chip-shot kick on the table for a 13-point lead, the UA surprised some when its offense, led by Ty Simpson, walked onto the field at Raymond James Stadium. But before the ball could be snapped, USF defender DJ Gordon IV got too eager and bumped into the Tide offensive line.

Gordon’s offsides penalty gifted a fresh set of downs for the struggling offense, and more importantly, extra time to burn. Simpson snuck into the endzone minutes later in the eventual 17-3 victory.

After turning the ball over with 6:29 remaining, the Bulls (1-2) wouldn’t see the ball until 33 seconds remained. But postgame, one reporter was still curious. Was No. 10 Alabama (2-1) going to forgo easy points?

“What do you think?” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said when asked about the decision, triggering a laugh in the room. “Yeah, we were gonna kick a field goal. We had to get up two scores in the game, so.”

It was the final score on an ugly day of football in Tampa. Alabama’s offense sputtered with two quarterbacks and the offensive line allowed five sacks. But Simpson was able to mount a pair of second-half touchdown drives behind a strong ground game.

The Tide managed 310 yards of offense, compared to 264 for USF. Alabama’s final drive ate 5:56 of the clock, its longest drive of the game by nearly three minutes and three plays. It featured a 48-yard run by Roydell Williams and a 16-yard touchdown by Williams negated by a holding penalty on Kadyn Proctor.

Seventy-three of Alabama’s 93 rushing yards came on its final possession.

“Guys came through when they needed to. It was a great drive. With 6:29 to go in the game I challenged the offensive line. I said, ‘Don’t give them the ball back, take the clock and the game.’ That’s exactly what they did and I thought they dominated the line of scrimmage,” Saban said.

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Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].