Tears stained Will Anderson’s cheeks Saturday afternoon. There were hugs with Bryce Young’s parents and various Alabama VIPs but the waterworks flowed when Charles Kelly came in for the real thing.

They embraced amid the sea of fallen confetti on what was supposed to be a consolation prize. The appetizer for Saturday’s two playoff games, the 11 a.m. CT Sugar Bowl apparently wasn’t quite so as insignificant as outsiders perceived. The emotional postgame scene between the All-American linebacker and Kelly, the outgoing Crimson Tide secondary coach bound for Colorado made that clear.

Alabama’s 35-20 pounding of Kansas State punctuated an oddly inconsistent 2022 season with the one thing it had been chasing since September: A complete-game win.

Or something pretty close.

Season-long weaknesses became strengths.

The 116th-best takeaway creators took two from a Kansas State team that was No. 4 in turnover margin.

And the No. 126th most penalized team in the nation drew just five flags Saturday for 45 yards — well below the season average of 71.

“Y’all didn’t think we deserved to be in the playoffs,” Alabama starting right tackle JC Latham said, “so we’re going to show what we can do.”

And they did.

In what was all but certainly the final game for Anderson and 2021 Heisman winner Bryce Young, Alabama played to the potential that made them the preseason No. 1 team. Young threw for five touchdowns, earning a fourth-quarter curtain call after torching the Wildcat defense in his final act in Crimson.

Anderson, the national defensive player of the year, was oddly missing from the postgame stat sheet. He wasn’t credited with a tackle or assist but contributed to the harassment of K-State quarterback and his 18-for-35 passing line. Anderson hit Will Howard just as he released an early third-quarter pass intercepted by Brian Branch in the thick of Alabama’s onslaught.

But because the path to victory was never linear in 2022, Saturday began with a stumble. Falling behind 10-0 saw Kansas State outgain the Tide 170-26 in the early stages Saturday. Deuce Vaughn broke off an 88-yard touchdown run to take the two-score lead with 3:26 left in the first quarter.

“I would say they were feeling confident,” Alabama defensive lineman Byron Young would later say in the locker room, “but that didn’t last too long.”

It was the Alabama defensive response to Vaughn’s long score that changed the math as Young’s passing game did its damage.

He managed just 27 yards on the 19 carries that followed. Four were stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage as the slippery 5-foot-6 back didn’t have a run longer than seven yards the rest of the way.

Offensively, it all turned on a simple third-down play. After a first-down pass incompletion to a tripping Jermaine Burton and Jase McClellan’s run stuffed for no gain, Young found Jahmyr Gibbs across the middle. After a key block, he was tackled 60 yards later.

“We had them in third and 10, and maybe get off the field again,” Kansas State coach Chris Klieman said. “And they throw it to a really good running back. Makes the kid miss. We kind of lose the cup, and he takes it for a huge gain to make it 10‑7 really fast. I thought if we had gotten off the field, but we didn’t.”

Indeed.

And it got savage from there.

The 6-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Bond began a string of five straight Alabama drives that ended with Young scoring passes. He completed 12 of 13 passes after a 1-for-4 start as everyone got involved. Burton, the Georgia transfer who struggled at times early in the season, continued his hot finish with three huge catches. A 47-yarder set up the go-ahead touchdown pass to Cameron Latu.

But it was a 2-minute and 51-second span late in the second and early in the third quarter when things got ugly and Alabama made its point.

It began with the ultimate bend-but-don’t-break stop on a marathon K-State drive. This thing spanned 18 plays (two third-and-11 conversions and two fourth-down conversions), 73 yards and 10:32 off the second-quarter clock. But a fourth-and-goal pass from the 2 fell incomplete and Alabama boat race began.

It took Crimson Tide just 51 seconds to span 98 yards and take a 21-10 lead. Burton’s 28-yard catch crossed the 50. Latu’s 22-yarder put them at the 12 before Burton finished it off with the final 12.

The K-State attempt to snatch momentum back with an onside kick to open the second half backfired. Alabama needed just three plays to make it 28-10 on a perfect pass Young dropped in the bucket for Ja’Corey Brooks.

And after Branch’s interception, McClellan’s 17-yard touchdown came on the next play. Alabama 35, Kansas State 10 just three minutes after the Wildcats came two yards from taking the lead.

The rest was academic.

Alabama’s point was proven 28 minutes before the final seconds ticked down.

The “SEC, SEC, SEC” chants began to serenade the Superdome in the third quarter. Byron Young said effectively the same thing in the postgame locker room.

“Not to knock any other conferences, but it’s different when you play in the SEC,” said the Alabama defensive end playing his final collegiate game. “We play for four quarters. I’m sure they play four quarters all year but I don’t think they played anybody like us.”

Young got his fourth-quarter curtain call before Jalen Milroe relieved him to a standing ovation.

More tears.

“Yeah, it was definitely a moment for both of us,” Milroe said. “Just to have that moment with him. It was definitely teary eyes, for sure. That’s my brother. We had a relationship beyond football so just to have that moment with him, that one final time, it meant a lot to me.”

Freshman running back Jamarion Miller had the final punch, a 38-yard run on the second-to-last play. Alabama finished with a 496-401 yardage edge — or 470-231 in the aftermath of Vaughn’s 88-yard scamper.

“I think we had a little bit of a taste in our mouth that if we had a dominant performance,” Saban said, “it would show people that we probably did deserve to do a little better than we did in terms of the playoff picture.”

A performance like this in Knoxville or Baton Rouge and this would be a different story.

So a bookend 25-point win over the Big 12 champ will have to do for a Crimson Tide team that finished 11-2.

The postgame scene was fitting for the moment and the setting.

It was a place to take a bow and say a tearful goodbye.

Because on the final day of 2022, this Crimson Tide put it all together. A team hounded by season-long inconsistency salvaged some pride and rode a tailwind into the next chapter.

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