Was it pass interference? Georgia escapes Alabama after no-call sparks outrage from Kalen DeBoer

A pass interference no-call cost the Crimson Tide dearly late in the fourth quarter of Saturday night's loss to Georgia

Oct 10, 2026 at 11:50 pm ET • 1 min read

No. 2 Georgia's 20-17 win at No. 6 Alabama on Saturday night ended with Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer's face turning the color of his hat over a controversial no-call by the officiating crew.

Trailing 20-17 with under four minutes remaining, Alabama reached field goal range for kicker Conor Talty. After getting in range for a potential game-tying kick, the Crimson Tide dialed up a deep shot for quarterback Keelon Russell, who targeted Rico Scott in the end zone on second-and-10.

As Scott turned back to make a play on the football, which was slightly underthrown, Georgia safety KJ Bolden took him out before the ball arrived. It appeared to be an obvious defensive pass interference penalty. But no flag came.

DeBoer lit up the official closest to him on the sideline, protesting the no-call. With a penalty, Alabama would have been inside the red zone. Instead, it faced a third-and-10 from its own 34. Then, the lack of a penalty became an even more glaring issue after Bolden came on a safety blitz and sacked Russell for a loss of nine.

That play knocked Alabama out of Talty's range, and DeBoer decided to punt on fourth-and-19 from his own 43-yard line. The catastrophic sack only seemed to magnify DeBoer's anger and that of a crowd of 100,077, who persisted in a steady chorus of boos.

Here is another look, which appears to support DeBoer's case that Bolden interfered with Scott.

Alabama still had all three timeouts and the two-minute timeout to try and get the football back. But it never did. Ironically, it was a penalty that sealed the Crimson Tide's fate, as Dijon Lee Jr. was whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct while tussling with a Georgia offensive player after a play.

DeBoer shied away from blasting the officials when asked about the no-call afterward.

"We can't put the game in that situation where the officials come into play," he said in his postgame press conference. "We've just got to control the things we can control."

Asked whether he received an explanation from the officials for why there was no call, DeBoer shrugged and explained what he was told.

"I mean, just didn't feel, I guess, it was pass interference," he said. "That's all you're going to get."