He was dead because of thirst, the alligator hit west and he automatically struck it, allowing the alligator to redirect to him before thirst autoattack lag wore off. It was inevitable from the start of the log. Otherwise, he could probably have sat in the inner until they attacked it, waited for the alligator to bite him (3 rounds of lag?) and then pincered at the end, for a total of 5 rounds of lag on the alligator while the inner smacks it around.