Alabama football had a chance to beat Georgia on Saturday night, but too many mistakes in the second half and some crucial missed calls cost them in the end. But the final mistake, made by cornerback Dijon Lee Jr., was the fatal blow in a 20-17 loss to Georgia.

Alabama had a chance to get a stop and get the ball back to Keelon Russell and the offense with less than two minutes remaining. However, Lee committed an unsportsmanlike like conduct penalty after the whistle, giving Georgia 15 free yards an automatic first down. From there, Gunner Stockton and company were able to run the clock out and secure the win.

As Lee ran off the field after the penalty, he was met by a rightfully irate Kalen DeBoer on the sideline.

Shoutout to Ha Ha for making Dijon turn around and face Coach DeBoer pic.twitter.com/fZGJisn4l9

— SPG (@SPG9814) October 11, 2026

After the game, DeBoer was asked about Lee's penalty.

“We preach emotional maturity, and I really feel strong that across the board we had that with our team and would've never expected that to happen,” DeBoer said, via Alex Scarborough of ESPN. “You got to give yourself a chance.

“You're out there giving everything you got. You just got to give yourself a chance. And so, emotional maturity is what it comes down to. And we've been pretty good at that going on the last two years. Obviously, the moment comes up like we had just now, we didn't respond the right way.”

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That penalty at the end was just the latest in a string of mistakes by Lee during this loss. Earlier in the game, he committed a costly pass interference penalty on third-and-long that put Georgia in scoring position.

Despite the loss, Alabama clearly has a team that can contend with the very best teams in the country, and Crimson Tide fans will argue that they should have won this game if not for some unfortunate missed calls in the second half.

The Tide have a chance to get back on track in a week, but they will have to turn the tide quickly. Alabama heads to Knoxville next to take on No. 15 Tennessee.