Nick Saban headed to church Sunday, the day after his Alabama football team beat Auburn in a 27-24 Iron Bowl thriller at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The No. 8 Crimson Tide had barely survived the challenge, so the head coach wasn’t fully satisfied with its performance.

Still, he was thankful.

“The first thing I said was, ‘Thank God what could have happened, didn’t happen.’” Saban said during his Monday press conference.

The atmosphere in Auburn, as it tends to be for the Iron Bowl, was electric. The Tigers executed well against the Tide, which struggled in spots through the game.

It came down to a fourth-and-goal play from the Auburn 31. Jalen Milroe delivered a clutch throw to Isaiah Bond in the end zone for the winning touchdown.

After the game, Saban called the contest a “reality check” for his team. He repeated that on Monday.

“One of the things we wanted to do in the game was channel our passions and energy into positive execution on the field,” Saban said. “And I think when we did that, we played really, really well. But there were some times where we didn’t, and it was very costly in terms of some of the errors that we made, whether they were penalties or mistakes on defense or whatever it might be. So the reality check part comes from taking the good things and building on them and getting some of these other things corrected.”

Now, Alabama will need to take that reality check and improve, as a matchup in the SEC championship game with No. 1 Georgia arrives Saturday. The No. 8 Crimson Tide needs a win to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive.

“This is a team that doesn’t have a lot of weaknesses,” Saban said. “That’s why they are who they are and what they are. And it’s gonna be really important for us to do a great job of executing and do what we do the best that we can do it.”

The game is scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m. CT Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. It will be aired on CBS.