Alabama Football: How everything changed in College Station

For Alabama Football and Nick Saban, things changed in College Station. Three of the least important things that changed were all streaks. The Crimson Tide win streak over the Aggies ended at eight games. The Alabama Football win streak of 100 games against unranked opponents ended. Nick Saban’s 24-0 streak against former assistants ended. A fourth streak of 19 straight wins also ended. That one stings. The result of the 41-38 loss to the Aggies means the Crimson Tide must now run the table through the remaining regular season and in an SEC Championship game.

A new streak of seven wins will get the Alabama Crimson Tide into the College Football Playoffs again. There is no margin for error. A two-loss Tide would limp into a bowl game, not having come close to competing for Alabama Football’s every season goal of a National Championship.

The A&M game had very different halves, that almost evened out, but not quite. Many numbers favored the Crimson Tide. Compared to 58 plays for the Aggies, the Tide ran 82 offensive plays. The extra Alabama Football possessions allowed the Tide to outgain the Aggies 522-379 yards. The Crimson Tide was an efficient 5-for-6 in the red zone. Such numbers will almost always guarantee a Tide victory.

There were other numbers though that favored the Aggies. Two of the five red zone possessions ended in field goals rather than touchdowns. The Tide had eight penalties, two more than the Aggies and causing 82 minus-yards for the Tide compared to 50 for A&M. The Aggies had four sacks and five tackles-for-loss, compared to zero sacks and four TFLs by the Tide defense. The Aggies were plus-one in turnovers. The Aggies were credited with five quarterback hurries to zero for the Crimson Tide. No stats for pass drops were available Saturday night but the Crimson Tide had more than a few and one took away a touchdown.

Much credit deservedly goes to Jimbo Fisher and Mike Elko for calling great games. And to Zach Calzada, who played the best game of his career; 21-for-31 for 385 yards and three touchdowns. The Aggies’ coaching staff also negated the talents of Will Anderson Jr. who finished with one solo tackle and no sacks or TFLs.

Alabama Football: Nick Saban Post-Game

After the game, explaining what he means when he often talks about having respect for winning, Nick Saban advised his players,

"Everyone needs to remember how they feel about losing and what did you do to contribute to losing."

He repeated his frequent admonition that games are won and lost before the actual contests. He added unless his Alabama Football team does what is necessary to prepare, other teams will be a challenge.

"If we don’t play well, we’ll struggle with anyone we come up against."

Most importantly Saban said,

"We still can accomplish everything we want to accomplish, but we’ve gotta play better than we did tonight."

The full post-game comments can be seen below.

Alabama football fans are disappointed. Nick Saban wants his players to learn from the loss. Maybe as fans, we should as well – and remember nothing is ever guaranteed.