The Texas A&M Aggies were two yards away from upsetting Alabama for the second consecutive season. 

With three seconds on the clock, the Aggies (3-3) had one play to get into the end zone from two yards out. Quarterback Haynes King threw a pass to Evan Stewart as time expired, but Crimson Tide cornerback Terrion Arnold broke it up to seal Alabama’s 24-20 victory on Saturday night at Bryant-Denny Stadium. 

“You come to Bama for games like this,” quarterback Jalen Milroe said. “At the end of the day, we’re trying to have fun. It was definitely an enjoyable experience.” 

Milroe said that he remained calm during the chaos of the final minutes while watching from the sideline. 

“I was calm,” Milroe said. “It falls back to our level of training. I was happy, because I knew exactly what was going to go down.” 

“It’s always great to win — when you win games in the SEC,” head coach Nick Saban said. “The fans were great. I think the fans probably had as much to do with us winning the game as anything. We did a lot of things that were not winning football — penalties, four turnovers. We’ve got a lot of things we need to work on. That was not our best football out there tonight.” 

Saban said that had his team performed better, it wouldn’t have been in the situation it was at the end. 

“If we’d played and done things the right way, we wouldn’t have been in that situation,” Saban said. “When you get in that situation, you got to embrace adversity sometimes — step up and make plays. And they did that. I think that’s really, really important.” 

The top-ranked Crimson Tide (6-0) was without starting quarterback Bryce Young, and it showed. Alabama was never able to get the passing game going. Milroe was tasked with running the offense — he struggled a little while also showing some promise. Milroe finished 12-for-19 with 111 yards, throwing three touchdowns and one interception. He also ran for 83 yards on 17 attempts but fumbled the ball three times. 

“Jalen did some good things, but obviously a couple of turnovers — but he’s going to live and learn, and we’re going to live and learn with him,” Saban said. 

Alabama’s four turnovers were the most the team has had in a game since 2015 — a 43-37 loss to Ole Miss. Seventeen of Texas A&M’s 20 points came off a Crimson Tide turnover. 

The Crimson Tide made up for it on the ground. Alabama totaled 288 rushing yards, including 154 from Jahmyr Gibbs. Of the Crimson Tide’s 70 offensive plays, 51 were runs. 

“We ran the ball, statistically, fairly well,” Saban said. “[It] was what we had to do to win the game.” 

After dropping out of the rankings and losing their starting quarterback, the Aggies still came ready to play. Similar to last season’s win over Alabama, Texas A&M had the odds stacked against it and it played up to its competition. This time, the Aggies came up two yards short of another upset.  

King showed a lot of grit on Saturday night, passing for 253 yards and two scores. 

The Crimson Tide defense harassed King all night, sacking him three times, and hurrying him 14 times. Eight of those hurries were courtesy of linebacker Will Anderson Jr. Dallas Turner had two sacks. 

“[King is] a great player — had a good offensive line,” Anderson said. “He was taking some hits. He was getting back up every time. But he was taking some hits.” 

“I think the pass rush was really good tonight,” Saban said. 

Possibly the toughest task of the entire season awaits the Crimson Tide next. Alabama will travel to Knoxville to take on the undefeated No. 8 Tennessee Volunteers (5-0) at Neyland Stadium. 

“[We] certainly have to play a lot better to have any chance of being successful,” Saban said. 

The annual “Third Saturday in October” rivalry game will kick off on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 2:30 p.m. CT on CBS.

Questions or comments? Email Austin Hannon (Sports Editor) at [email protected]