AUSTIN — For more than a decade, while Nick Saban has built one of the defining dynasties in the history of the sport, Alabama carries an aura of inevitable championships.
As predictable as his classic uniforms and Saban’s sideline growls, the Alabama title fight is as reliable as an annuity. Sure, there have been dips and surprises, but the Tide has reached seven of the eight College Football Playoffs and won six of the past 13 national titles.
Alabama’s place in the sport’s championship talk has simply been accepted as part of the sport’s soundtrack. It will remain there on Saturday after the No. 1 Crimson Tide sputtered through an unusually sloppy and disappointing win over unranked Texas, 20-19.
Any idea to remove Alabama from the national title photo remains ludicrous, as cyberspace is filled with terabytes of premature Alabama obituaries. But simply putting them in the College Football Playoff based on past performance also seems fraught, as this impotent performance takes away the aura of certainty that often surrounds Alabama.
“The perception was that we should walk out and blow ourselves up,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “I don’t care about perceptions.”
The same can be said of the perception of a Big Three in off-season college football, which was Alabama, Georgia, the state of Ohio and everyone else after that.
The Alabama team that escaped Darrell K Royal Stadium has several vulnerabilities. The biggest turned out to be self-inflicted wounds and lack of discipline as Alabama committed 15 penalties for 100 yards, the most during Saban’s tenure.
But perhaps it was more eye-catching where Alabama looked mortal, as their receiving corps is below average in the SEC, their corners will salivate pass-happy offenses and their offensive line showed no signs of being capable of wins. to obtain.
Of Bryce Young’s 27 completions, only 13 went to wide receivers. In an era when stretching the field has become paramount to winning the national title, Alabama has the quarterback with a dynamic arm and a crew of receivers that lacks dynamism. That left Young dancing, clambering and, at the game’s defining game, magically avoiding decapitation to build victory.
Sarkisian compared him to Houdini, but Young really needs more magic from his playmakers. There is a distinct lack of speed that stood out to the trained eyes on Saturday.
“All angles and receivers are in this together,” said an NFL scout. “They’ve played, but never really been the ‘man’ per se. Someone out there needs to get up and make plays.”
“I didn’t see much speed,” added a second NFL scout.
Alabama will get a Texas-sized portion of the opposite of rat poison, the kind of skepticism and negativity that Saban will inevitably use to mold and mold his team.
But looking ahead, it’s not surprising to see Georgia as the clear favorite in the SEC and Alabama at risk of losing multiple regular season games. If you don’t have skill and speed on both sides of the ball on the outside, it’s hard to compete in modern college football.
“This is like playing an SEC game on the go,” Saban said afterwards. “They will be in the SEC. If they were in the SEC now, they would probably be in the top half of the league.”
And that is perhaps the most damning statement of all. Alabama will have its hands full with a league schedule that includes home games against Texas A&M, Mississippi State and Auburn, plus road trips to Arkansas, Tennessee and LSU. There is a long runway for Alabama to get better, which is a specialty of Saban. And college football is a weird game that often shatters perceptions, as Texas A&M found out it lost to Appalachian State, 17-14, on Saturday.
At least for Alabama, there are plenty of speed bumps ahead with the flaws being exposed today.
How much credit goes to Texas for Alabama that looks very un-Alabama-esque? It’s a good question. The Longhorns deserve a lot of credit for how physically they played, which was arguably the biggest surprise of the game. That would be Alabama’s greatest advantage. And there’s plenty of praise for the rattling of the Crimson Tide, which never seemed to feel comfortable.
“I’d like to think we caused some of those accidents too,” Sarkisian said.
How bad were the penalties?
There were six offsides or false starts, including three by star player Will Anderson Jr. and two by right tackle JC Latham. There were a few facemask penalties, and one seemingly uncredited could have changed the game.
There was an obvious personal foul on Anderson, an illegal block in the back and a couple of Kool-Aid McKinstry pass interferences.
Perhaps the most important game in Alabama of the day came via a penalty. Linebacker Dallas Turner was flagged for rough handling of the passer call that sent Quinn Ewers out of the game with what Sarkisian later called a collarbone sprain. (Ewers spun the ball brilliantly at throwing for 134 yards in the first quarter, spinning Texas fans’ imaginations of fun.)
There was a coda in this game from the last time these programs met in the 2010 national title game where Colt McCoy was injured. Depending on which program you follow, that was a great “What If” or a subject of a decade of annoyance.
The legacy of this game will be determined long from now. But in the short term, Alabama’s road to the place they’ve earned atop the sport looks more dangerous than usual.