This certainly wasn’t wide-eyed Utah State at friendly Bryant-Denny Stadium. The furthest thing from it.

It was an unranked but insanely fired up and motivated Texas team playing on center stage against the No. 1 team in the land, in front of its sea-of-burnt-orange stadium in college football’s game of the week. And the Longhorns played the first quarter like it was their Super Bowl, because it was, and one play into the second quarter Bijan Robinson’s 1-yard touchdown run made it 10-10 and anything seemed possible on a sun-splashed September Saturday in Austin.

Turns out, it almost was. With Bama’s NCAA-record streak of 53 consecutive wins over nonconference teams in the regular season hanging by a thread, its Heisman Trophy winner stepped up and refused to lose — twice. The Tide, a 19-point favorite when the week began, survived 20-19. It was still undefeated, its national title dreams still alive and well. For a million reasons, those dreams almost died in Austin at the hands of Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, Nick Saban’s former offensive coordinator.

Down 16-10 in the fourth quarter and having punted on 6 possessions in a row, the Tide was teetering. After finally moving the ball into Texas territory helped by Bryce Young’s 17-yard clutch run on 3rd-and-7, Bama faced a 4th-and-3. It went for it, and Young found Ja’Corey Brooks — just like he did when all seemed lost in last season’s Iron Bowl win — for a 14-yard gain to the Texas 23-yard line. He hit Brooks again for 16 yards to the 7 and on the next play juked a Longhorn defender and found Jahmyr Gibbs for a game-tying touchdown with 8:29 left.

Will Reichard knocked the extra point through and suddenly, after everything seemed lost, the Tide had found its footing, for the time being. The defense, on its heels all day, kept the momentum and forced Texas into a 3-and-out, giving the ball right back to Young. But after Roydell Williams was stopped on a 4th-and-1 in Texas territory with a chance to salt the game away, the Horns had 1 more chance and they capitalized, driving the ball down the field into field-goal range. Will Anderson’s sack on 3rd-and-3 backed the Horns up, but Bert Auburn came through, booting a 49-yard field goal and giving Texas a shocking lead with 1:29 left after Bama had seemingly taken the momentum back.

But the Horns left the undaunted Young just a little too much time. He answered, once again, leading the Tide into field-goal range, fighting off a sure sack and taking off for 20 yards down the right sideline to the Texas 17. Four plays later, Reichard knocked a 33-yard field goal through with 10 seconds left, and the Tide had survived a million blows and lived to tell about it.

Alabama was totally flustered in its first trip to Austin in a century. There were breakdowns in the secondary. The all-world Anderson Jr. committed 2 offsides penalties on Texas’ first drive, and Kool-Aid McKinstry probably got away with pass interference in the end zone. The Tide was lucky to limit the Longhorns to only a field goal.

Just 2 minutes into the second quarter Alabama already had committed 7 penalties on a day it would inexplicably pile up 15 of them for 100 yards on the nose. And the announcers on Fox were reminding viewers of the Tide’s road struggles last season at Florida, Texas A&M and Auburn. But Bama managed to win 2 of those games and almost won all 3. It won Saturday, too, despite everything that had gone against it.

With Longhorn alums Kevin Durant and Scottie Scheffler looking on from the Texas sideline and a football-mad state licking its lips in anticipation of an upset for the ages, the Tide weathered the fierce tide well into the third quarter. Amid a litany of first-half penalties, all 11 of them, and a slew of missed assignments and missed tackles at deafening Memorial Stadium, Bama dodged a major bullet at the end of the first half when Auburn hooked a 20-yard field-goal attempt.

After all of that, it was merely 10-10, when it could’ve been a whole lot worse for the mistake-prone Crimson Tide.

With Longhorns starting quarterback Quinn Ewers knocked out of the game late in the first quarter with an apparent left shoulder injury on a sack by Dallas Turner and backup QB Hudson Card limping around on a bad ankle, the Tide was scrambling for traction and found itself down 13-10 midway through the third quarter after Auburn did connect on a 33-yard field goal. It was lucky not to be down by more, after an apparent safety by Texas was reviewed and reversed just before the field goal.

After Reichard’s 52-yard field goal and Jase McClellan’s 81-yard touchdown sprint in the first quarter, Alabama punted on those next 6 possessions and was staring down a shocking early season upset. It looked slow in the Texas heat, on both sides of the ball, and after another Auburn field goal with 12:55 left the Tide found itself down 16-10 and was teetering like it hardly ever does.

It was on the brink. But Young brought the Tide back from certain doom.