Fake a field goal in the red zone and get turned away, you’ll hear it. Throw on 3rd-and-short and airmail the pass, you’ll hear it. Play press-man and get burned, you’ll hear it. Play off and get nickel-and-dimed down the field, you’ll hear it. Arm-chair quarterbacking is just part of the territory. Every coach and every coordinator in college football has their decisions questioned when things don’t work out.

Alabama coach Nick Saban was asked about exactly that on Monday when he met with members of the media ahead of the Tide’s upcoming game against Arkansas.

His answer, via BamaOnLine, was rather nuanced.

“I think it’s fine. We criticize ourselves all the time,” the coach began. “We try to close the gap on perfect in everything that we do. I think players try to close the gap on perfect in everything that they do. Is it possible to be perfect all the time? Probably not. That’s why you prepare. That’s why you practice. But when we don’t get the gap closed like we’d like to, we’re very critical of ourselves in terms of identifying what we need to do to try to fix it and how we can try to help players become better, whether it’s physical or psychological, you know, whatever the challenge may be. So we’re always trying to get it right. We’re always trying to be perfectionists and how we go about what we do. I don’t think we’ve ever accomplished that, nor do I think we ever will.

“There’s always going to be something that you can be critical of. And there’s something that I can be critical of. There’s something that every coach can be critical of relative to his players. Every player can be critical of themselves and something that he could have done better. I think getting criticized is kind of a part of the game. I’m not sure anybody gets it wrong. Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. There’s obviously more than one way to skin a cat. So, how you go about trying to win a game, whether it’s the end of the game and you don’t throw it on 3rd down to get a first down and give the other team the ball back with no timeouts with a minute left to go in the game, I mean, we could debate that forever as to what the best way to do that is. But we chose to do it a certain way and it worked.

“So everybody’s entitled to their opinion and what we should have done. But the thing that no one has to deal with, that has an opinion, is the consequences. We have to deal with the consequences of the decisions and choices that we make. And when we make good ones, when they work, they’re usually good ones and you know, when they don’t work, they’re not good ones. So that’s just part of the game.”

The Tide host the Razorbacks at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.