lol, it could be called a lot of things. I think it's very likely more people knew about Moore's earlier (?) sexual proclivities than are letting on. Forty years ago, his penchant for dating teenagers was evidently well known.
And it's not as if Republican leadership in Alabama has no options. Yes, it'd be risky, but they could try to get behind a write-in movement for Luther Strange. People who don't want to vote for Moore but also don't want to vote for a Dem might find that appealing. And I see no reason why it should present problems for said leadership; after all, they walked away from Robert Bentley for much less.
Write-in campaigns rarely succeed, but Lisa Murkowski prevailed in Alaska not too many years ago, so victory is not unprecedented.
Or might the problem be that Jones is actually a stronger candidate than most national observers realize? I doubt it, but you never know. It's not as if Moore hasn't done stuff in the past that's been both weird and bad.