Alabama Football: 3 Takeaways from heart-stopping win vs. Texas

This game was a lot closer than anyone expected it to be and it came down to the final seconds, but it was an Alabama win. What did we learn about the Tide?

Just like when they took on LSU in 2019, Texas played up to their competition and it gave Alabama fits. They struggled from the start and it showed, but they got the 20-19 victory thanks to the leg of Will Reichard. Overall, it wasn’t horrible play, but it wasn’t the Alabama standard as Nick Saban would say. There is a lot to unpack here, but let’s start at the big problem: penalties.

3. Penalties almost got in Alabama’s way.

Alabama normally plays clean football from start to finish and that is what wins them football games. However, they had quite a few penalties through this game with Texas and it accounted for the most in the Nick Saban era. In my opinion, there even could be a few more that weren’t called against the Tide as well.

The “best defender in college football” in Will Anderson had at least four of his own penalties and looked like he could be part of the reason that Alabama came out as the loser in this one. He is lucky that Texas left enough time on the clock and Bryce Young looked cool and collected as he went down the field to win the game, but he cannot play like that through the rest of the season. Alabama has got to clean this up if they want to be undefeated this season and head back to the SEC Championship.