Keelon Russell was low.
The Alabama football quarterback ran for his life, batting off and stiff-arming multiple Texas A&M rushers whose sole focus was to bring Russell to the ground. Russell scampered to the sideline, pointing to Rico Scott, who sat in a curl route with three Aggies defensive backs around him, and threw a missile mid-stride into the hands of defensive back Dezz Ricks.
Russell laid on the ground, his head in the turf. The hero, who extends credit everywhere else on the Crimson Tide's offense when things go right and shoulders every critique and takes the blame on every negative play had fallen from grace.
Russell needed help. And that's where the growth began for a young quarterback, growth that will only help Russell as he leads an Alabama team without any real room for mistakes into an environment in two weeks where mistakes are expected.
The love came from the locker room, Russell said. Three simple words – "We got this" – woke Russell and the offense up, storming back, cementing a 31-20 win against Texas A&M and taking Alabama into the idle week with momentum, with confidence in its offense, in Russell.
"We got confidence, and we need him to continue to do that," Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said of a quarterback who completed each of his last seven pass attempts for 105 yards and two touchdowns. "That's why he's out there for us."
The game is slowing down for Russell, but he admits Georgia and Tennessee sped him up. And with it, Russell shouldered the blame.
"I made the game harder than what it had to be," Russell said. "Not taking the easy, simple stuff. That's what made us fall back. ...There's a lot of stuff going through my head. Just not playing the game at my pace."
That showed up in the first half against Texas A&M, Russell said, and was silenced in the second.
"He kind of just takes on the challenge every week," Alabama wide receiver Rico Scott said. "He plays the hardest position on the field, so just to see him be resilient helps the team because I feel like if he's off mentally, then we're all going to be off."
By the second half, Russell's demeanor was back. Good play, bad play, Russell was the same. The quarterback preached the message he needed to hear minutes before: just finish, stack plays, put drives together.
"And when we get in the red zone, make them pay," Scott remembers Russell saying.
Alabama made the Aggies pay, and Russell celebrated. He rattled through every position on offense, celebrating everyone, from the line and tight ends to his receivers and running backs.
When asked how he was able to turn the switch, Russell, the hero returned.
It was a play-by-play and down-by-down mentality, Russell said. It was one step at a time. But, all in all, Russell felt he controlled Alabama's fate, just like he did on that third-and-long that ended his disaster: the moment he was at his lowest, the moment he felt he needed to grow from.
"It's understanding that I have to be perfect on my end so that the play can get positive yards and not negative yards," Russell said.
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter or Instagram @colingaytnews.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Can Keelon Russell, the hero, lead Alabama football forward after Texas A&M?