Two yards.

Two measly yards.

That was the difference between a giant sigh of relief and a giant meltdown that might’ve cost Alabama a shot at doing anything this season.

Now, the Crimson Tide’s 24-20 high-wire-act win against Texas A&M on Saturday night at Bryant-Denny Stadium could very well cost them their No. 1 rankings in the AP and coaches’ polls.

It probably will and it probably should, and Nick Saban and Jalen Milroe and every Bama fan from Tuscaloosa to Talladega will sleep fine on Sunday night if it does. It would be an insanely small price to pay for what went down at Bryant-Denny on a night when the error-filled Tide were flirting with disaster seemingly from the national anthem.

For a program that prides itself on winning and doing it with dominance and style, it was equal parts infuriating, unfathomable and exhausting. There were 3 lost fumbles, 2 missed field goals, some soul-crushing penalties and an interception for good measure.

But at the end of what seemed like an endless night, there was also a victory, a 6-0 record and that giant sigh of relief that it didn’t all go to pieces when it easily could have. There was also a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback turned cheerleader standing on the sideline who could very well be available next Saturday when the Tide pick up the pieces to all this, pack their bags and head to Knoxville to play a Tennessee team that is the talk of college football.

Because while Bryce Young wouldn’t have cured all of Alabama’s sins on Saturday night, his presence probably would’ve solved a lot, and just knowing that should make everyone feel better about everything that happened. And for all of the bad, there was a ton of good to take from a win that kept Saban from losing to Jimbo Fisher in back-to-back seasons. For this night, when so much happened across the football spectrum, we’ll pick 5 things we liked and 5 things we didn’t instead of the usual 3 on both sides.

5 things I liked

1. Resilience and resolve

When it’s all said and done, this is really all that matters. And while, yes, the pure football aspects are important, the turnovers, the mental errors, the missed assignments, all of that, ultimately Alabama ultimately showed the wherewithal to wipe all of that and in the end dig in and get that last stop at the end of the game to sneak out of there with the win.

Was it pretty? Anything but.

Was it the path to how they can play to win a national title, or an SEC title, or even an SEC West title? Absolutely not.

But at the end of the day, or not, you’re left with the bottom line. And the bottom line is Alabama’s defense overcame all those errors by the offense and special teams, and Milroe overcame his own mistakes to throw 3 touchdown passes in what was his 1st career start.

The point is, Alabama still won, and it showed incredible resilience and resolve in order to do that, and today that’s going to have to be good enough. Was it helped by a ridiculously bad call by Fisher on the game’s final play from the Bama 2-yard line? Yes, of course.

But it won. It had enough. The culture of winning, in whatever way, got the Tide through against a sneaky Aggies team that isn’t ranked now but was a few weeks ago and beat Bama last year in College Station.

Will merely showing resilience and resolve be good enough to overcome a similar performance next week in Knoxville? Likely not. But Bama likely won’t play anything like this next week and, just maybe, they’ll have Young back from his shoulder injury.

2. Jahmyr Gibbs carries the offense

The Georgia Tech transfer continues to be, by far, the Tide’s most consistent offensive threat. With Young out and Milroe struggling with turnovers, Gibbs turned in another stellar performance with 154 yards on 21 carries.

On a night when any sort of offensive rhythm was lacking and Bama was just trying to get by, his presence got the Tide over the top. He didn’t score a touchdown, but time and time again he got Milroe and a porous passing offense in position to score. Gibbs showed he could carry the offense again after last week’s 206-yard rushing explosion at Arkansas. He is gaining momentum by the week, and Saturday night he was Bama’s Bryce Young while the real Young stood on the sideline.

He was The Dynamic One that the defense had no answer for.

Gibbs also caught 3 passes for 13 yards, and he remains a threat out of the backfield, which is what makes it so hard for defenses to deal with him. But these days, it’s his rushing explosiveness that has taken over. It took over again on Saturday night, and without him, the Tide don’t come close to getting through the night unscathed.

3. Terrion Arnold’s breakout game

The freshman defensive back had the best night of his young career. He had a season-high 8 total tackles, 4 of them solo, and he had the 1st interception of his career at a most opportune time to help the fellow freshman Milroe navigate his way through a mistake-filled night.

Milroe had just thrown his lone interception of the night late in the 2nd quarter, and that came right after his 2nd fumble of the night led to the Aggies’ tying touchdown. It was 14-14, and suddenly Texas A&M had a chance to take the lead into the locker room. But instead, Bama grabbed a 17-14 lead at halftime after Arnold picked off Haynes King and returned it 21 yards to the Aggies’ 28-yard line.

The Tide got backed up because of an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. But Will Reichard drilled a 50-yard field goal with 12 seconds left on an otherwise forgettable night for him to at least get Bama the lead after all those errors in the 1st half. Without Arnold, that doesn’t happen. By game’s end, Arnold was a footnote to this crazy night, but his interception was one of the many things that got the Tide to the finish line.

4. Jermaine Burton finds paydirt, finally

In a 1st season in Tuscaloosa that has mostly been disappointing, Burton wasn’t spectacular on Saturday night, but he did catch 3 passes for 48 yards on a night Alabama was limited through the air. And he did finally score his 1st touchdown since Week 1, when he had 2 TD catches against Utah State and it looked like he would be off and running with Young on a spectacular 2022 after transferring from Georgia.

That hasn’t happened, obviously. But Burton broke loose over the middle in the 2nd quarter on Saturday, and Milroe found him on a 35-yard touchdown connection that gave the Crimson Tide a 14-7 lead with 5:33 left before halftime. Burton has had a hard time getting on the same page with Young this season, and Young being out for most of the past 2 games hasn’t helped Burton’s cause. So it was definitely worth noting that Burton finally found the end zone again on a night that the Tide had only 111 yards passing.

Perhaps this gets Burton going, but that will depend on Young returning and/or Milroe developing.

5. Saban’s willpower

Yes, Saban. On a night when his summer-long feud with Fisher was making headlines right up until their awkward pregame handshake near midfield, Saban ultimately made the key decision to sit Young and let it stay that way. He easily could’ve been sucked in by the moment and the prime-time stage and Young’s youthful exuberance that led him to want to play so badly.

But Saban held steadfast and said no. He said no at the start of the night, and he said no at the end of the game, when Young reportedly wanted to come in for a struggling Milroe. The whole thing was a study in willpower, because it would’ve been easy for Saban to relent, with arguably college football’s most dazzling player standing a few feet away from him and with his offense making mistake after mistake with a freshman making his 1st career start.

Ultimately, the Tide survived without Young, who was still very involved on the sideline with encouraging Milroe throughout. Young still contributed to the night, in other words. He just didn’t play with that cranky right shoulder, and that was the right call, even if the Tide had lost.

5 things I didn’t like

1. Milroe’s miscues

Look, the kid from Katy, Texas, did throw 3 touchdown passes, and amid all of his errors — the 2 lost fumbles that led to 2 tying Texas A&M touchdowns, the interception that almost cost the Tide at the end of the 1st half, the measly 111-yard passing performance that simply wasn’t close to being good enough — that can’t be discounted. He also ran for 83 yards on 17 carries.

Maybe Young comes back next Saturday for the showdown at Tennessee. He almost was back on Saturday night, so it wouldn’t be shocking. But maybe Young isn’t ready, and Milroe has to start in Knoxville against a Volunteers team teeming with confidence. If that’s the case, he’ll have to be light years better than what he was against the Aggies.

You just can’t keep putting your defense in a bad position, and that’s what Milroe did on both of Texas A&M’s 1st-half touchdown drives, when the Aggies had short fields after Milroe’s 2 fumbles. On a night the Aggies had only 323 total yards, they wouldn’t have had a chance at the end if Milroe hadn’t kept giving them chances to stay in the game throughout.

Milroe knows this. His 62.1 QBR told the story on the stat sheet, but 2 eyes told you all you needed to know. Milroe is in a tough spot here, replacing a Heisman Trophy winner in the middle of the season amid an SEC gauntlet of games. He’s not a seasoned passer yet, not even close. But he must take care of the ball going forward, if he’s in fact in there, for Bama to have any shot of surviving that gaunlet unscathed.

2. Reichard’s woes

Throughout Saban’s glorious reign in Tuscaloosa, 1 thing the Tide haven’t had an abundance of is good kickers. They’ve been mostly forgettable and, well, Bama has mostly kicked extra points through the past 15 years because field goals haven’t been needed.

But they were on Saturday night, and the normally dependable Reichard nearly cost the Crimson Tide the game by missing 2 attempts in the 2nd half. First, it was a 47-yarder that was off target late in the 3rd quarter that would’ve given Bama its 10-point cushion back. Yes, Milroe didn’t help the cause by getting sacked for a 12-yard loss, making Reichard’s job more difficult. But Reichard has made longer kicks than 47 yards, including near the end of the 1st half on Saturday when he banged through a 50-yarder. In other words, a 47-yarder isn’t out of his range at all.

On Bama’s next possession, it got worse for Reichard. He blew a 35-yard attempt, again failing to increase Bama’s lead to 10 with 9:15 left in the game, which would’ve probably salted things away and prevented all the dramatics at the end.

Reichard’s 2 missed kicks were on drives of 11 plays and 10 plays, so not only did he leave 6 points on the field and not on the scoreboard, but he prevented Bama from reaping the rewards of some offensive rhythm. Points were hard to come by overall for Bama, and Reichard’s uncharacteristically bad night compounded all the problems.

3. Where was Will Anderson Jr.?

On a night when Young was injured and out, it was up to the team’s other rock-star player to step up, and Anderson just didn’t do it. In fact, he was mostly and strangely invisible. Anderson somehow piled up 8 quarterback hurries but didn’t have 1 sack. Quarterback hurries are great, but ultimately, he wasn’t getting to King, and doing that a time or 2 might’ve made life easier for the Tide on Saturday.

Anderson had only 2 tackles, 1 solo, and 1 tackle for loss, and for somebody of his stature and status that’s not nearly good enough. He’s so much better than that, and he knows that better than anyone. His performance was appropriately confusing on a weird night for Bama.

4. Where was Kool-Aid?

Another weird one. Kool-Aid McKinstry has been electrifying on punt returns for most of this season, but on Saturday, he was silent. McKinstry had only 1 punt return for minus-2 yards, and it’s not like the Aggies didn’t punt much — they punted 7 times.

Some big punt returns, or even decent ones, could’ve helped Milroe’s cause on a night the offense needed all the help it could get. But McKinstry couldn’t find any room when he wasn’t calling for a fair catch, and Bama really could’ve benefited off some more short fields like the ones Milroe was giving the Aggies with his turnovers.

5. Lack of forced turnovers — again

The turnover margin was a problem, more specifically. While the Tide were turning it over left and right, with 4 turnovers, including 3 lost fumbles, they forced only 1 Texas A&M turnover on a King interception late in the 1st half. Bama turned that pick into a Reichard field goal and a 17-14 halftime lead, but that was it.

For a defense that has the star power on it like Bama has, it’s just inexcusable to not consistently be able to force turnovers. It would help everything — the rhythm of the game, the field position and, of course, the scoreboard. And some timely turnovers on Saturday could’ve really made life easier for Milroe on a night the offense was giving it back to the Aggies plenty.

If the Tide are going to get to Atlanta, never mind the Playoff, they are going to have to start forcing those turnovers and in key moments — and next week in Knoxville would be a good place to start, no matter who the quarterback is.