The fan in the second row was thrilled after a safety gave Alabama football a nine-point lead against Texas A&M in the fourth quarter of the Crimson Tide’s 26-20 victory in College Station on Saturday. The fan, clad in jeans and a Brandon Miller UA basketball jersey, celebrated the moment with the “money” gesture popularized in Kyle Field by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel.

His freshman season, Manziel led the Aggies to a win over a favored Alabama team. On Saturday, there would be no such savior for Texas A&M.

Even though, at times, it appeared the Crimson Tide itself was trying to play that role.

“What do you guys want to talk about first, the good news, or the bad news?” Saban asked media after the game. “Because we got a little bit of both.”

The bad against the Aggies was primarily the penalties. Alabama had 14 of them for a loss of 99 yards.

One of them, a personal foul on Dallas Turner, negated a touchdown from Chris Braswell, who both blocked and ran back a field goal.

“Really gave them opportunities,” Saban said. “We need to be able to fix those things so we don’t help the other team. We helped the other team.”

Beyond the penalties, Alabama had missed tackles, poor game management in the final quarter, dropped passes and six allowed sacks. The crowd at Kyle Field was at full volume to the very end and it seemed the Tide were struggling to focus in the midst of the noise.

“A lot of people really wanted to see us lose,” Alabama receiver Jermaine Burton said. “And they wanted to storm the field.”

But in the end, the Aggie faithful had to leave through the designated exits. Despite all the problems, Alabama found a way to pull it out in the end.

The result had Saban smiling after the game.

“This may be the record game for me in terms of messing up and still winning,” Saban said. “You take the mess-ups and penalties and you add them all together.”

He wasn’t happy about the mistakes. But Saban was extremely pleased in his ability to make it past all the various problems it inflicted upon itself.

“For guys to pull themselves up, to overcome adversity and resiliency, this is a great win for our team,” Saban said. “It was a great one for the program. It was a great win for this team. It was an opportunity to show who they are.”

Alabama will have to improve on the issues if it is to keep winning through the remainder of SEC play. But at least on Saturday, the Crimson Tide showed it could still beat some of the top teams in the conference, even when hampering itself.

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