There’s something wrong with Jalen Milroe. It feels like confidence.

First, a disclaimer: Not everything is Jalen Milroe’s fault if Alabama’s offense is struggling.

Not the penalties or sacks or lack of support from the running game.

At least most of the penalties and sacks are not his fault.

At the risk of getting too far into chaos, not all of the incompletions are his fault. And I’m not talking about drops, of which there were quite a few. I’m referring to misconceptions – Milroe, for example, assumes that a receiver will run a route one way, and the receiver will run it another way. Maybe he expects to go straight into the end zone and the receiver drops toward the sideline, or a receiver drops into the weak spot in a zone instead of continuing up; A yard or two can be the difference between an explosive play or an incompletion. This is what happens when you’re running a new offense and your two top targets are also new (freshman Ryan Williams, transfer Germie Bernard). The synchronization takes some time.

However, this isn’t a story about why you should let Milroe off the hook, although to be fair, he ranks second among Power 4 players in points responsible (152) and completes a higher percentage of his passes as Kalen DeBoer’s old quarterback. First-round pick Michael Penix Jr. (67.5 to 65.4). So maybe don’t bury the guy.

No, this is a story about what needs to happen to get Milroe back on the right track. Because anyone who has watched him in the last three games knows that he is not quite himself. Against Missouri, Tennessee and South Carolina, he scored five touchdowns (two passing, three rushing) and threw four interceptions. And once again for the record, I asked around and have received no indication that he is dealing with a serious injury.

So what’s going on? Overall, some of his regression can be attributed to an offense that keeps putting itself in bad situations. Penalties, sacks and rushes for negative yards have resulted in far too many second- and third-and-longs; in other words, obvious passing situations. The same goes if Alabama played from behind. Milroe could be at his best and still struggle against a defense that can reliably predict what he will do.

Milroe needs to do a better job of getting himself and the offense out of trouble in terms of protection calls, audibles and which direction to go on the run-pass option. Eliminate the unforced errors and the offense is dramatically better overnight. But most of all, Milroe needs to stop being so perfect. Penix may have completed a lower percentage of his passes than Milroe, but what made him a more effective passer was that he knew when to finish a play and throw the ball away.

DeBoer and his staff stressed to Milroe all season just to play football and find ways to move the chains. Take what the defense gives you in the passing game. And if it doesn’t help you, take off and run.

Hold. It. Simply.