All the familiar ingredients were there.

Alabama had no room for error on Saturday night and its latest high-wire act ended like the last. A 32-31 overtime loss at LSU ended any national title conversation for a preseason No. 1 whose flaws were exposed on the road again.

From offensive inconsistencies to defensive and disciplinary breakdowns, this Alabama team showed flashes of its August potential before it all crashed down in the final moments.

For all the gut checks and recalibrations, the reality is undeniable. The playoff is off the table with three regular season games to play — a concept foreign to this program dating back to the BCS era.

Now it faces a rested Ole Miss team in Oxford with legitimate questions swirling about the direction of this team.

And unlike the narrow escape at Texas in Week 2, these paradoxical issues are no longer surprising.

This is an Alabama offense that outgained LSU by nearly 100 yards but didn’t score a touchdown until the fourth quarter.

It’s also a Crimson Tide defense that recorded six sacks but couldn’t contain quarterback Jayden Daniels in key moments. His 31-yard scramble set up a late-fourth-quarter touchdown that required a late Alabama field goal to force overtime.

Those final 15 minutes and overtime looked familiar too.

Alabama’s stuck-in-the-mud offense found the right gear in the final quarter to avoid its first touchdown-less game since the 9-6 loss to LSU in 2011. Though wideout play was nearly non-existent outside of Ja’Corey Brooks’ seven catches for 97 yards, Jahmyr Gibbs was that catalyst to give Alabama hope.

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The Tide scored 15 points with 173 fourth-quarter yards after managing just 57 in the third. It had shades of the Texas comeback, just without the happy ending. Gibbs broke off a 34-yard run on the first play of the final 15 minutes, the first of four straight plays he got a handoff or was the target of a Bryce Young pass.

In fact, Gibbs and Brooks were targeted on 29 of Young’s 51 throws as Alabama wideouts continued to struggle to get separation downfield. The position group accounted for just four receptions and 38 yards outside of Brooks’ seven for 97. Tight end Cameron Latu had three catches for 50 yards, each going for first downs.

Still, through the inconsistencies, there were several moments this looked like the Alabama of old. Young’s tackle-breaking scramble to find Brooks for the go-ahead touchdown with 4:44 left was a nod to the Heisman talent of its junior quarterback.

But the defensive response when one stop was required summed up the topsy-turvy ride this 2022 season has been. After standing tall with an aggressive blitzing scheme early, LSU’s offense chipped away late.

The 31-yard Daniels run came on third-and-five on the possession following Young’s wild TD pass to Brooks. But it was another third-and-long conversion on that drive that summed things up perfectly. Down 21-17 and facing third-and-seven at the Alabama 21, Tiger running back Josh Williams rumbled 14 yards through the teeth of this Crimson Tide defense. Missed tacklers littered the field in his wake.

A play later, Mason Taylor’s seven-yard touchdown put LSU up 24-21 with 1:44 left.

And in overtime, Daniels knifed through the Alabama defense on the first offensive snap for the 25-yard touchdown that set up the walk-off two-point conversion. Again, it was to Taylor. The freshman tight end is the son of NFL legend Jason Taylor who played for Saban with the Miami Dolphins after he left LSU following the 2004 season.

Daniels had seven rushing yards on three attempts before halftime but finished with a net of 95 yards after the six sacks were factored in.

“The quarterback ran the ball,” Saban said. “We did a pretty good job of kind of keeping him contained in the first half. He made a couple significant runs in the second half when we didn’t fit it exactly right.”

There were also the four LSU first downs converted via Alabama penalty as the Tide was flagged nine times for 92 yards. LSU also went after former Tiger cornerback Eli Ricks in key moments late as Kayshon Boutte converted a big third down on a third-quarter TD drive. Ricks was flagged for pass interference in the end zone a few plays later to set up an LSU touchdown.

“I don’t think we were locked into what the play calling was,” Alabama linebacker Will Anderson said. “I kinda think we got scattered a little bit, a lot of stuff was happening, a lot of penalties and things like that were taking away the focus of what coach was calling and what our job was.”

Offensively, a number of issues compounded on a night that began like you’d expect for a refreshed team coming off a bye. Alabama was cruising 76 yards on the first seven plays before Young threw a rare interception in the end zone.

It would take four drives to gain another first down as LSU punts had Alabama backed for three straight drives beginning at the 10- or 11-yard line.

“Well, we had bad field position,” Saban said. “We struggled to run it when we tried to run it, and we passed it quite a bit when we were backed up. I’m not gonna second-guess what we did in the game.”

Young finished 25-for-51 (only his second sub-50% completion percentage) for 328 yards a touchdown and an interception. Gibbs ran it 15 times for 99 yards while Roydell Williams converted a pair of fourth downs and scored the overtime touchdown by running it seven times for 11 yards.

Alabama settled for four field goals — the first following a 65-yard catch from running back Jase McClellan after Alabama broke out of the field-position quagmire.

In fact, after those three straight punts, Alabama scored on six of its final seven possessions in regulation but only two were touchdowns.

Of course there isn’t a single factor that decided this loss. And for as sloppy as it was, Alabama was a play away from walking off with a 31-30 win but even the two-point conversion came with dysfunction. After calling a timeout to set the defense, the Tide came out with 12 players in the formation. Defensive back Malachi Moore had to sprint to the sideline before the snap to avoid the penalty on a play LSU executed perfectly anyway.

So, for the first time since 2010, Alabama faces the final three games of the regular season outside of national title contention with a dangerous Lane Kiffin team up next.

But on Saturday night, a familiar blend of issues shoved Alabama straight into a strange new reality with serious questions to be asked.

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