This is an opinion column.

Everyone was thinking it.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban said it, kinda paused for the chuckles, and kept going in the postgame press room Saturday evening. In the same seat he made “rat poison” a household name, a different Nick Saban spoke honestly.

“This may be a record game for me in terms of messing up and still winning,” Saban said. “Might be a record”.

The 26-20 white-knuckle ride of a win at Texas A&M was yet another note in Alabama’s imperfect 2023 symphony. Off-key and slightly out of tune, this was the Crimson Tide’s best work of a season of recalibrating the instrument.

But considering the pregame chatter, few wins at unranked teams mean more than Saturday’s.

And while Saban acknowledged the faults (we’ll get to that), he opened his postgame thoughts with genuine happiness.

“I could never be more proud of a group of guys for the way they competed in the game,” Saban said to open his postgame comments.

That, of course, is notable given what happened on that same field two years ago. Alabama arrived with a No. 1 ranking as A&M’s preseason hype yielding to two early losses. So a sleep-walking Crimson Tide stumbled into Kyle Field, fell behind 24-10, came back but couldn’t finish the job. That 41-38 loss was the first real indication the generation that followed the 2020 national title cakewalk might lack that internal canine.

A year later, Alabama survived late scares from Texas A&M and Ole Miss but couldn’t finish the job in hostile environments at Tennessee and LSU. Those moments felt too big.

Down 17-10 at halftime Saturday, a promising third-quarter drive ended in an interception. Staring straight into the fork in the road, Alabama this time veered away from the abyss.

That’s what made Saban smile.

Alabama came back, scored consecutive touchdowns and, unlike in 2021, never surrendered the lead again.

That said …

The route to victory was non-linear at best.

Abstract if we’re being descriptive.

Ugly if we’re being honest.

Count them, nine pre-snap penalties were called on seven different offensive players. Kyle Field is one of the loudest environments, but nine?

And the ground game that carried the offense last week didn’t make the trip to College Station. Jase McClellan’s 15-yard run in the third quarter was the highlight as the tailbacks ran it 18 times for 54 yards. Jalen Milroe was sacked six times and finished on the negative side of the rushing ledger for the first time as a starter (-31 yards).

So he threw it.

After Alabama recorded its fewest passing attempts in 14 years last week in Starkville, Milroe paired up with Jermaine Burton and Isiah Bond to find this week’s solution. The QB from just down the Texas road was 21-for-33 with 321 yards and three touchdowns split between his favorite targets. The interception was bad but that will continue to be the price of admission with this offense.

It won’t come easy and there will be an interception tax. The other end of the spectrum is reason for optimism as the chemistry with Burton produced deep balls of 45 and 46 yards while Bonds hauled in a 52-yard touchdown.

At one point this Alabama offense had three passing plays that produced 118 yards while the other 16 netted a negative-5.

All or nothing, but Saturday, it was just enough.

Even the final moments were messy.

After a McClellan magic act saw him convert a third down on a pas, he bobbled just long enough to get his knee off the ground for a run to the sticks, things got weirder than normal.

And that’s saying something for College Station.

Alabama snapped the ball with 1:39 left up six and Texas A&M out of timeouts. Mathematically eligible for three knees and handshakes and yet Milroe took a shotgun snap and fired an incomplete pass. Malik Benson was uncovered because why would Alabama even consider throwing a football in that moment?

That led to a few runs into the pile and a fourth-down throwaway on a snap that shouldn’t have been necessary. The lob to the Texas A&M sideline very nearly left Alabama with a soul-chilling 0:01 moment.

That’s probably why Saban almost smirked about the game management issues.

“Well,” Saban said, “if we can fix it, I think that we can be a very good team.”

Perhaps.

If so, this imperfect composition holds the keys as the only SEC West team without a league loss. Suddenly defenseless LSU comes to Tuscaloosa for an early-November showdown and in a normal year, that date should be circled.

In this anything-but-conventional season, hold up. Without Vanderbilt on the schedule, no win can be taken for granted this fall.

At least for this season, the time for winning pretty and/or big in games like this, is at least paused.

Not great for the collective blood pressure in the state of Alabama.

Instead, Saban and Co., invite you to an anxiety-fueled terror ride through October and November with what could be the strangest Iron Bowl pairing in memory to top things off.

Medication sold separately.

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