Alabama has spent the better part of the 2022 season living on the edge.

Most of the time, the Crimson Tide have escaped.

Most of the time, they’ve won and survived to fight another day.

But it has all finally caught up to them.

On Saturday night, the Tide’s chances at a national championship died in Death Valley.

An absurd 2nd half of lead changes and more lead changes, of crazy plays and general craziness, left them in overtime and still with a shot to overcome all the missed opportunities, all the penalties (again, on the road), all of what LSU threw at them.

Incredibly, the Tide almost overcame all of it. Again.

They almost overcame it all, like they did at Arkansas on Oct. 1, when Bryce Young went down with a right shoulder injury.

Like they did the following week at home against Texas A&M, when they were 2 yards away from a stunning defeat because they missed 2 field goals and missed a slew of other opportunities to put the Aggies away.

Like they didn’t the week after at Tennessee, in the Game of the Year in college football (maybe surpassed by Saturday night’s game), when they missed another field goal and saw the Volunteers kick them right out of Neyland Stadium with a last-second field goal of their own.

Alabama returned home battered, bruised and once beaten, and with its long-awaited bye week coming up after a home date with Mississippi State. The Tide took care of the Bulldogs, 30-6, allowing a touchdown on the final play of the game to prevent a shutout. They had made it to the bye week at 7-1, in 1 piece, and with all of their big-time goals still in front of them.

All wasn’t right in Bama’s world. But it finally had a chance to rest and recover during the last week of October, to sleep with 1 eye open while glancing at what was to come with the other eye — 2 tough road games at LSU and Ole Miss, 2 chances to go prove that it was the best team in the SEC West after all it had been through, after the close calls, after Young’s untimely injury, after all those penalties on the road and after getting by with such a lack of turnovers forced.

If Bama could do that in Baton Rouge and Oxford, it would be in the clear for a trip to Atlanta, with home games against Austin Peay and the Iron Bowl against a weak Auburn team. It wasn’t going to be easy, but it was doable, and it was against 2 foes in LSU and Ole Miss who were quality teams yet flawed teams. This back-to-back road show wouldn’t be easy, but it was far from impossible to pull off. This was Alabama, after all, and this was Nick Saban, and they’ve pulled off similar stretches too many times to keep track of.

Except it turned out to be too much. For this equally flawed Alabama team, it was too much, and that’s the reality.

It doesn’t mean Bama wasn’t resilient. It was. It was extremely resilient while fighting through the depths in Death Valley. In the end, it just wasn’t good enough.

Twice, the Tide took the lead in the 4th quarter, needing just 1 stop to take control and possibly pull away. And twice, they failed to do that, as LSU took the lead right back before its rambunctious crowd at Tiger Stadium.

And even though Bama managed to get the game to overtime on Will Reichard’s 46-yard field goal with 21 seconds left, showing incredible guts and grit and, yes, resilience, you got the feeling that disaster was ultimately awaiting them in overtime. You got the sense that it had flirted with danger just too many times, and that it was going to eventually catch up to the teetering Tide.

It did.

Bama struck boldly to start the overtime, finding the end zone on Roydell Williams’ 1-yard run. Yet even that score was helped by a pass interference penalty on 3rd and 4 from the LSU 6-yard line. Alabama made LSU pay for the penalty, cashing in with a touchdown and once again needing just 1 stop, for real this time, to sneak out of Death Valley with its SEC and College Football Playoff hopes still alive.

One stop. One defensive stand.

But once again, it failed, on the biggest stage, amid the highest stakes.

On this night, it wasn’t Young, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and college football’s magician, who had the final say, and that in itself is saying something.

Instead, it was LSU’s new quarterback on the scene, Jayden Daniels, its 1st-year starter, who bolted for a 25-yard touchdown run on the Tigers’ 1st play from scrimmage. Suddenly, we were going to a 2nd overtime — except LSU 1st-year head coach Brian Kelly wasn’t interested in a 2nd overtime. He wanted to end it now, for better or for worse. And Bama had 1 more lifeline to either stop LSU on a 2-point conversion or suffer the ultimate death in Death Valley.

And yet again, 1 last time, the Tide failed to get that 1 last stop. Daniels found Mason Taylor in the end zone, LSU had its 2 points, it had a pulsating 32-31 victory, and Bama was out of those lifelines. It was out of time on the scoreboard, literally, which was fitting because its dreams of returning to the Playoff were gone. And now its chances of even returning to Atlanta to defend its SEC title were fading into oblivion.

The Tide were pretty explosive on Saturday night, outgaining the Tigers while piling up 465 total yards.

They were gutsy and, yes, resilient on Saturday night, going 2-for-2 on 4th-down conversions.

They turned the ball over only once on Saturday night, on a Young interception in the 1st quarter that was inconsequential.

Yeah, they had 9 more penalties in a big road spot, but LSU had 7 of its own, so it was almost a wash.

When it came down to it, Alabama just wasn’t good enough. And yeah, that’s stinging, but it’s also true.

Young threw for 328 yards, Jahmyr Gibbs ran for 99 yards (and had 64 yards receiving) and Ja’Corey Brooks had 7 catches for 97 yards. Jase McClellan caught 2 balls for 74 yards and Cameron Latu caught 3 passes for 50 yards.

The stats looked OK. But once again, Bama couldn’t force enough turnovers, or on this night any turnovers.

And it just couldn’t stop Daniels, who threw for only 182 yards but tossed 2 TDs without an interception and added an electrifying 95 yards rushing with 1 score, the very crucial one in overtime.

And still, if Bama could’ve just stopped Daniels 1 last time, on Kelly’s gutsy 2-point conversion call, it would’ve survived and headed to Oxford with all of its goals still in front of it.

But it couldn’t.

Daniels’ 2-point conversion pass was converted, the game was suddenly over and fans were once again rushing the field after a Bama loss, just like they did 3 weeks earlier in Knoxville.

Bama had lived on the edge one too many times.

And now it’s likely forced to play out the string, starting this Saturday in Oxford, with no Playoff plans, likely no trip to Atlanta, a whole slew of questions to answer and a ton of missed opportunities to ponder.