It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.

Alabama wasn’t supposed to go more than 59 minutes without a touchdown against Auburn. Not the Tide. Not the 3-score favorite. Not the team who had a 10-year stretch between losses to non-top 15 teams. Not the Heisman Trophy candidate.

Bryce Young didn’t read that script. Instead, he rolled with the bizarre, disjointed one he was handed.

But as we’re finding out with each roller coaster Alabama victory, Young isn’t conventional. After all, not many players take over from their own 3-yard line, still in search of the team’s first touchdown, with the season on the line and have a calm mindset.

Young? Let’s just say he’s not built like the rest of us.

“Really, when we got the ball (with 97 yards to go) … I was kinda happy about it,” Young told the CBS broadcast crew after Alabama’s 4-overtime win against Auburn. “I knew it was going to be a great moment for us.”

Oh. So maybe Young did know the script.

Like, he knew that he’d connect with Ja’Corey Brooks — a true freshman with 2 career catches entering Saturday — for a 28-yard dime to tie the game with 27 seconds left to silence Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Casual stuff.

No. Check that.

That’s Heisman stuff.

That’s the “ice water in the veins” moment you hope and pray your quarterback has when your team is in search of any form of offensive life. It’s the type of thing you hope your quarterback has when you’re down to 1 scholarship running back, your best receiver is ejected and your offensive line is in shambles.

The box score won’t tell that story. It will, however, show that both times when Young needed to trust his receivers to make a play in the end zone in overtime, he did just that. One was a rifle to Slade Bolden, who had a bad drop in a similar spot earlier in the season. The other, the walk-off, was to John Metchie.

It was Metchie who found a way to find the soft spot in zone coverage when Young had to throw out of his own end zone facing 3rd and 10 with 78 seconds to play. Later that drive, Young needed to convert on 4th and 7 from Auburn’s 42-yard line, so who did he target? Jahleel Billingsley, AKA the guy who hadn’t had a catch all day and spent the better part of the season in Nick Saban’s doghouse.

A lack of trust? Nah. There wasn’t any of that from Young. Even with an offensive line that held up like a tissue under a faucet, Young still managed to keep his eyes downfield during that final drive of regulation.

Again, that’s Heisman stuff.

Young and Alabama had no business winning that game. That was sitting there for the taking for Auburn, who will certainly look back on Saturday’s historic thriller as a golden opportunity missed. It had a chance to potentially end Alabama’s Playoff hopes and perhaps end Young’s Heisman campaign with 1 fell swoop.

Instead, Young pulled a rabbit out of his magical hat. On a day when seemingly nothing went right, having No. 9 under center was about the only thing that could’ve saved the Tide.

(Well, and perhaps some questionable Auburn decisions at the end helped the cause. I’m not gonna do the Gary Danielson thing and blast Tank Bigsby for not staying in bounds, but why on EARTH did Bryan Harsin not go for the 2-point conversion in the first overtime? For shame.)

Young had his Heisman moment, and perhaps of equal significance, fellow Heisman frontrunner CJ Stroud lost to Michigan. His regular season is over. Young, on the other hand, still gets a Georgia matchup to help or hurt his case.

But let’s be honest here. Young shouldn’t have a make-or-break Heisman game against Georgia. Not against a defense who just became the first FBS team to hold every regular season opponent to 17 points or less since 1979 Texas. Stroud won’t have to face Georgia. Young will.

Barring a total collapse, that shouldn’t be held against him.

And some would say, “well, Young wouldn’t have needed those late heroics if he had been better earlier in the Iron Bowl.” It’s true that Young wasn’t the Arkansas version of himself. He mishandled a snap on 4th down, he ended his streak of 227 passes without an interception and again, he didn’t have a touchdown in the first 59 minutes and 31 seconds.

Still, though. Young was hardly at fault for Alabama being in such a hole late. Brian Robinson dropped a wide open third-down conversion attempt before leaving the game with an ankle injury, Jameson Williams got ejected for targeting on punt coverage and again, his offensive line was beat like a drum all game.

Without Young, Alabama has 2 losses.

No, that’s not right.

Without Young, Alabama has several losses. I mean, last week the guy had set the single-game Alabama passing record and he was staring at a 1-score lead in the 4th quarter.

Alabama played in 1-score games in the 4th quarter a total of 6 times in 8 SEC games. That’s stunning. That’s also another reason why Young’s 2021 season deserves praise. Texas A&M happened. Everyone else, though? They couldn’t make plays late like Young.

That’s not gonna show up when the lazy group of Heisman voters sit down and study box scores. In case you were wondering, Young is up to 42 total touchdowns and 3,892 scrimmage yards. Those might not quite be 2019 Joe Burrow numbers, but then again, nobody has ever had 2019 Joe Burrow numbers. There surely isn’t anyone at the Power 5 level who has been quite as good and as clutch as Young.

Saturday’s matchup against Georgia will be unlike anything Young has ever experienced. If his offensive line isn’t able to execute at a higher level, there won’t be enough ice water in those veins to overcome the Dawgs. But even if that’s the case and Young walks off the Mercedes-Benz Stadium field without an SEC Championship, don’t forget about his brilliance in the Iron Bowl.

A lesser quarterback would’ve crumbled under the mounting pressure of falling behind at Jordan-Hare Stadium. At a place where weird things happen, that game had “Auburn-ing” written all over it. Instead, though, Young changed the script with a word of his own.

“Heisman.”