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

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

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 held 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 to get one last shot to score, down two with :40 seconds left.

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

The South Carolina touchdown, ensuing onside kick and Jackson interception all didn’t need to happen, though. Had Bernard 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 under two minutes remaining on the clock, Alabama could have taken three knees and the game would have been over.

Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer was asked about the decision on the play call and if any thought was put into having Bernard go down instead of scoring a touchdown.

“We knew we had to get the first down with how much time was on the clock,” DeBoer said. “We knew they didn’t have a timeout, so there’s a risk, reward, right on those calls. You’re just right on the edge of what it would take to kick a field goal. A field goal makes it different as far as what they need to score. It’s a lot of things that are involved in what we try to do. There were a lot of safe avenues and things that we discussed on that play. I think they were aggressive and trying to play a lot of those.”

DeBoer said like in 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 on that execution,” DeBoer said. “That was a huge part of the win.”

Bernard said the coaching staff “didn’t say anything about getting down to me” so Bernard just went and scored.

“My job was to catch the ball,” Bernard said. “I wasn’t worried about anything else but to catch the ball.”

It didn’t end up mattering thanks to Jackson’s interception, but Bernard scoring a touchdown was one of the rare times when a touchdown can actually hurt you. Such is the nature of being in a clock management battle.

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

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.