This is an opinion column.

There was blood and rebirth.

Agony and joy.

The prequels to this Iron Bowl threw a few twists into an already non-lineal plot line that went straight to the shredder after the sun set Saturday.

How deep is the SEC?

Two teams entering with 1-5 league records threw the whole conference and national title hunt into chaos.

Still think this is scripted? The SEC should fire, tar and feather the writers for devaluing the stakes one of the great rivalries and nearly another on a Saturday that saw blood.

Not only did Oklahoma wreck Alabama’s bid for a fifth straight Iron Bowl win as a prelude to an SEC title game but Auburn nearly took a 43-41 sledgehammer to Texas A&M’s playoff track that ran through a revenge reunion with blood rival Texas. Thanks to the twisted web of tiebreakers, three-loss A&M can still play in Atlanta with a win over the Longhorns.

The Crimson Tide no longer has visions of Atlanta in December (or January for the national title game) dancing through its heads now. Just a pounding hangover with their least-favorite neighbors waiting for Thanksgiving leftovers.

It jarred Alabama off its recent track of building momentum in violent sudden lurch. Jalen Milroe, the quarterback who ran the Crimson Tide back into title contention at LSU threw the season to Oklahoma two Saturdays later.

The stunning 24-3 final was Alabama’s first touchdown-free game since the 2011 classic with LSU. There will likely be no mulligan like the one it received after the 9-6 overtime loss 13 years ago, though nothing is completely settled in this new playoff world.

A shocking reversal from the 42-14 humiliation of LSU two weeks ago was as ugly of a scene as this program has felt in recent memory.

A second loss as a double-digit favorite folds into its first three-loss regular season since 2010.

And another plunge into unfamiliar depths for a program that’s felt bumps along an unprecedented run of success but none that felt as catastrophic as this. Losing a game in which the opponent managed just 68 passing yards, throwing it just 12 times melts the brain of a modern football observer.

Alabama’s 234 total yards were its fewest since a 2014 win at Arkansas, a 14-13 slog it ultimately survived. Only 16 games since 1998 saw Alabama gain fewer — only three since Nick Saban was hired. The three interceptions thrown by Alabama were the most since the 2011 opener with Kent State.

There’s just not much of any positivity Alabama can carry out of Norman and into Bryant-Denny Stadium next Saturday.

The opposite is true for an Auburn program that’s felt nothing but gut-wrenching pain in Jordan-Hare Stadium this season. They were on track for perhaps its greatest failure after sprinting to a 21-0 lead before finding itself trailing in the closing moments.

Not another fourth-quarter tease.

Instead, the kicking game that failed the Tigers so spectacularly in the first 10 games became a savior in the 11th. A 29-yarder sent the game to overtime and a 41-yarder was needed for a third overtime before the much-maligned passing game supplied the fourth-overtime winner (with the help of a game-ending Aggie dropped pass).

Payton Throne completed 19 of his 31 throws for 301 yards, two touchdowns and a single interception.

Receiver Cam Coleman caught seven balls for 128 yards — a second straight triple-digit game for the five-star prospect who symbolized Hugh Freeze’s recruiting prowess now hitting his groove as his freshman season winds down. He’s the first Tiger since Sammie Coates in 2013 to have consecutive 100-yard games in an Auburn uniform.

That’s the story of an Auburn offense with SEC-contender talent at running back and receiver besieged by blunders that ruined a season that dawned with hope of renewal.

Instead, success was redefined in the closing weeks as bowl eligibility and SEC wrecking ball status replaced contention for meaningful postseason play on the goal sheet.

A late-night field storming was the emotional release of a few angsty seasons where a new bottom came almost every Saturday.

The same was essentially true this season for Oklahoma, a proud program that was stumbling in the SEC darkness until Saturday night.

Two 1-5 teams that threw paint on the SEC tiebreaker scenarios along with the pencil sketches of playoff brackets. The same was true of Florida, left for the scrap bin in September only to hand Mississippi a third loss earlier in the day.

The SEC’s upwardly mobile middle to lower classes flexed the league’s depth on the pre-holiday weekend traditionally decorated by cupcakes.

Oh, there was blood Saturday.

With it, the future of uncertainty and subsequent disaster has painted on a season when nobody is safe because rebirth can be a kickoff away.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.