With its Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback standing helplessly on the sideline and its standing in the national title picture on the broad shoulders of its raw freshman backup quarterback, top-ranked Alabama had to improvise a little against Texas A&M on Saturday night at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Meaning, it wasn’t going to be pretty and it wasn’t going to be particularly easy. All that mattered to the Crimson Tide was that it survived the bruising, error-filled night, that it finally got its payback from last year’s loss in College Station and that it was 6-0 going into Knoxville next week.

Bama eventually checked all those boxes in a pulsating 24-20 victory that had a lot to do with Jalen Milroe’s mental toughness and a lot more to do with a resilient defense that held down the fort while Bryce Young rested his sprained right shoulder.

Young led his team out of the tunnel for the CBS prime-time game, but he didn’t warm up at all and he kindly and smartly handed the keys over to Milroe, for one night at least. All week, Nick Saban took a wait-and-see approach with Young’s status. Young did some things in practice on Wednesday and was never ruled out of starting Saturday’s game, just 7 days after suffering the injury at Arkansas that seemingly put the rest of his season into question.

Ultimately, after a lot of discussion between Saban, Young, his family and the medical folks, Young was a game-time decision. And, ultimately, cautioned ruled the decision and made Young a vocal spectator, an emotional cheerleader and an important advisor to Milroe on a night the kid from Katy, Texas, easily could’ve wilted against an Aggies team that didn’t play like a 24-point underdog.

After leading the Tide to victory in Fayetteville last week in Young’s absence with his legs and his moxie, Milroe was defiant on Saturday night if not far from perfect. He lost 2 fumbles in the 1st half, and after a scoreless 1st quarter the opportunistic Aggies turned both ugly turnovers into touchdown passes by Haynes King that tied the game at 7 and 14. Milroe gave Texas A&M (3-3) short fields both times and King, starting for the injured Max Johnson, took advantage. Milroe was his own worst enemy in his 1st career start.

On the Tide’s next possession, it got even worse. Milroe threw an interception over the middle, and everything seemed like it was falling apart. But the Tide defense came to his rescue, answering Milroe’s interception with an interception of its own, as freshman Terrion Arnold picked off King and returned it 21 yards to the Aggies’ 28. It didn’t turn into a touchdown, thanks to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Jermaine Burton.

But it was good enough to produce a Will Reichard 50-yard field goal that gave Bama a 17-14 halftime lead despite everything that had gone wrong. Milroe had his moments in the 1st half amid the litany of miscues. He threw touchdown passes to Cameron Latu and Burton, each time giving the Tide a lead that he helped erase with those fumbles. And he was electric at times with his legs, running for 77 yards in that 1st half on 12 carries, including a 33-yard burst to the Aggies’ 12 that led to the 10-yard TD toss to Latu for a 7-0 lead.

Milroe showed resilience after his first fumble, answering Texas A&M’s tying touchdown by hitting Burton for a 35-yard score and a 14-7 lead. The drive took all of 3 plays, with Georgia Tech transfer Jahmyr Gibbs running for 40 yards combined on 2 plays to set up the strike to Burton, the Georgia transfer.

In the 2nd half, Gibbs picked up where he left off, taking some of the heat off the erratic Milroe while showing the nation that he might be the biggest key in whether Alabama gets to Atlanta or not. He ran for 28 yards, taking it into Aggies’ territory. It got the Tide going and led to Milroe’s 3rd touchdown pass, a 29-yard strike to Ja’Corey Brooks with 13:03 left in the 3rd quarter that gave Bama a 2-score lead for the 1st time all night.

Everybody seemed to relax, at last. And a Tide defense that didn’t allow a touchdown all night when the Aggies had to go the full length of the field authored another 3-and-out, giving the ball right back to Milroe.

It cleaned up the mess time after time amid Alabama’s 4 turnovers and 3 lost fumbles, including Jase McClellan’s fumble that led to an Aggies field goal that cut the Tide’s lead to 24-17 in the 3rd quarter.

It had Milroe’s back on a night he and his sloppy offense really needed the help, holding the Aggies to another field goal with 3:32 left in the game that made it 24-20 and making 1 final, heroic stand after Texas A&M drove to the Tide 2-yard line after Bama failed to get a 1st down that would’ve finished off the game.

It answered the bell again and again despite the normally dependable Reichard missing 2 field-goal attempts in the 2nd half, the 2nd one a 35-yarder that went wide right with 9:15 left to keep the Aggies within a touchdown.

And it helped Bama avenge the stunning 41-38 road loss to the Aggies almost a year ago to the night, also a prime-time game and also against a Texas A&M team that was unranked but unfazed. Bama ultimately got to Atlanta and played for the national title despite the loss to Jimbo Fisher on Oct. 9, 2021, but it didn’t want to go that path again, and it won’t.

Bama doesn’t know if it’ll have Young next Saturday against an 8th-ranked Tennessee team eager to make its entrance into the College Football Playoff discussion. But it knows it has a resilient defense, a talented if far from finished product in Milroe and a dazzling backfield option in Gibbs, who finished with 154 yards on 21 carries.

And it knows it can improvise a little — or maybe a lot — on a rocky path to victory.