One Final Play Leads to Two Different Paths for Texas A&M, Alabama

It was enough to keep the Tide undefeated, but a thunderous reminder of how much they need Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Bryce Young back in the lineup.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.—Will Anderson kept coming, kept blasting into the Texas A&M backfield, kept hammering quarterback Haynes King. The Alabama linebacker was credited with an incredible eight quarterback hurries, by far the highest single-game total of his All-American career. “He was taking some hits,” Anderson said with a chuckle.

Yet King kept getting up—albeit more and more slowly. He kept bouncing back, kept standing in against the most fearsome pass rusher in college football, knowing the shots to his body were coming. That was the entire last do-or-die drive Saturday night—Anderson attacking, King slinging, the Aggies moving closer and closer to the end zone—until it came down to a final snap in a stadium dripping with unexpected tension.

The Aggies were just two yards away from stealing this from No. 1 Alabama, a chance to win a game that they’d never led. They needed one throw, one catch, and they’d walk out of Bryant-Denny Stadium with a second straight stunning upset of the Crimson Tide.

Texas A&M failed to convert on its last play from the Alabama 2-yard line, a play that would have given the Aggies the win :: Vasha Hunt/Associated Press

They didn’t get it.

A failed final play that was roundly ripped on social media by armchair quarterbacks—including the most famous of all A&M quarterbacks, Johnny Manziel—was more a product of poor execution than a bad call. Receiver Evan Stewart, who played a great game (eight catches for 106 yards), didn’t get enough depth on his “pylon route,” as coach Jimbo Fisher called it. King then threw the pass back into the field of play. The result was a wide throw, short of the goal line, that was defended by Terrion Arnold—a redemptive moment after a pass interference flag gave the Aggies the ball at the 2-yard line. It ended with an incompletion and a 24-20 Alabama escape.

King “battled his tail off,” Fisher said. But, in retrospect, the quarterback who began the season as the starter, then was benched, then returned to the lineup after an injury to Max Johnson, probably doesn’t have the pinpoint accuracy for that throw. Asking him to fire it into what was a small window on the short side of the field was a low-percentage play. Fisher said King made “a perfect read” on the play, given the Alabama coverage, opting to go away from the wide side of the field. 

“Just didn’t get it executed in what we needed to do,” the coach said. “But the decision was right in where we were going with it.”

It was an agonizing loss in what has been an agonizing season for the Aggies (3–3), but it might have been their best performance so far. This didn’t look like the team that lost at home against Appalachian State or was routed by Mississippi State. A season that saw Texas A&M begin within the top five may well dissolve into another 8–4 campaign, but the Aggies at least showed some fight and resolve.

For Alabama, this was the completion of a wobbly Texas Two-Step, beating the Texas Longhorns by a point in September and the Aggies by four Saturday night. It was enough to keep the Tide undefeated (6–0), but also a thunderous reminder of how much they need Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Bryce Young back next week when they visit unbeaten Tennessee.

“Everyone can play better,” coach Nick Saban said. “Everyone needs to play better.”

Alabama committed four turnovers—its most in a game since 2015, an eerily similar contest against Mississippi that ended in a loss instead of a close escape. Backup quarterback Jalen Milroe, who made some nice running plays, only passed for 111 yards, committed three of the four turnovers and took a bad sack that led to one of two missed field goals in the game. It was a sloptastic Alabama effort.

It was also suitably uncomfortable that Young was trying to get himself inserted in the game. Before the game, Saban said Young wanted to play, and wanted to play late. He went under the stands at one point to throw some warmup tosses, but Saban stuck with Milroe. It was a calculated gamble to try to get through this game without Young, saving him for the Volunteers. It paid off by the slimmest margin.

The Tide kept giving Texas A&M chances to steal a win, and King kept withstanding a beating to lead his team into position. The opportunity was gone in an instant, a play call that everyone hated going awry and kept Alabama undefeated. Just barely.

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