For the third time in 2026, Alabama rebounded from a second-half deficit to win a game and keep itself at least in the chatter for both the final SEC Championship Game and the College Football Playoff – sometimes despite what looked like its best efforts to avoid both conversations.
A frustrating game for most of the day, the Crimson Tide battled injuries (and their consequences) both old and new for the better part of three quarters. But when the chips were down in the fourth quarter, the Tide put up two touchdowns and held Texas A&M scoreless to do what it was unable to do the last two weeks against Tennessee and Georgia: finish.
It probably wasn’t a finish that’s going to show up in any best-of reels or generate any Daniel Moore artwork. Texas A&M is a mediocre team hamstrung by its own decision to put its offense in the hands of an inexperienced offensive coordinator. Alabama has already lost twice, and fortunately for Alabama, there are no elite teams in college football this year; the Crimson Tide wouldn’t be in their company if there were any, anyway.
But what Alabama was able to do Saturday, despite a roster heavily depleted by injury, was survive and advance. It did so without a running game for all but the final drive, and with surprising unreliability from PK Conor Talty. But it did it just the same.
It did so on the backs of QB Keelon Russell, and a host of contributors whose names don’t often fill up the stat sheets around Tuscaloosa: DE Fatutoa Henry, OL Kaden Strayhorn, LB Q.B. Reese, DB Chuck McDonald, and in a case of watching a complementary player fully emerge, WR Rico Scott. It also was a day of redemption of sorts for CB Dijon Lee, and of resurrection for DL London Simmons, who looked all but consigned to injured reserve before returning to the field and playing a key role in stuffing the Texas A&M running game late.
The ebb and flow of the 2026 season was captured in a microcosm that was this game. There was the defense that couldn’t get off the field at times, before stiffening substantially late in the game. There was the running game that was completely absent until Daniel Hill rolled off 28 very, very key yards on 6 carries in the final drive of the fourth quarter. There was injury drama, a bad turnover for Keelon Russell prior to him finding the poise he displayed in the first five games of the season in leading two fourth-quarter drives, and the weekly who-will-step-up-today question that was answered not really by Alabama’s stars, but by some of the lunchpail gang that all good teams need to fill out a roster.
The end result – especially after watching Tennessee and Ole Miss lose – was that Alabama is dead in the thick of things for some hardware at season’s end. A very tough LSU team awaits in two weeks, and Alabama won’t be favored in Baton Rouge. But at least the conversation is still going.
Questions remain for this team, especially on offense and particularly for a running game that all but disappeared in the gullet of a Texas A&M defensive line and linebacker group that was active, swarming and good enough to neutralize the Tide’s ground attack by itself and allow the Aggie secondary to take away downfield options with regularity. This is fast approaching broken-record territory, but Alabama needs to develop the ability to run for at least 90-100 yards each game, as even that small amount of production seems to free up the bulk of Kalen DeBoer’s playbook. When Alabama struggles the way it did against Texas A&M – 28 carries, 68 yards, 2.2 avg. – the amount of pressure it puts on the quarterback position is immense. Yes, the losses of players like Ezavier Crowell and Racin Delgatty matter. But the early-season successes in the running game showed what kind of potential this offense has if the coaches can just crack the code. This goes back to our postgame comments coming off the Tennessee loss: Find something – anything – that you can do halfway decently, and with repeatability.
There are enough positives to come out of this game, though, that we aren’t going to ignore a 31-20 win or the fact that Alabama still has a fair bit of control over its own future. LSU will be a significant challenge for this team, but three second-half comebacks have already proved that burying Alabama prematurely is risky business.
Here’s the Five-Point Breakdown for Alabama-Texas A&M:
1. DE Fatutoa Henry practically turned this game around by himself. It’s not often that we can point to one guy on a defense that plays so many people – particularly when the guy in question is a reserve Bandit end playing mostly because Alabama doesn’t have Desmond Umeozulu at the moment and thus lacks the ability to stack edge linebackers – but anyone who paid attention to the defense in the second half of this game couldn’t help but to see Henry making plays all over the field. And in addition to those plays, there was simply his motor and intensity, which seemed to be infectious to the rest of the defense. Henry’s final stat line was 3 solo tackles, 1 assist, and 2 sacks for a total loss of 17 yards. We swore we also saw another play in which he should have been awarded a QB hurry, but the official scorebook didn’t agree. His final sack of the game was one of the most impressive sacks you’ll ever see: Henry fell down just after the snap, found himself completely under Aggie LT Tyree Adams, yet somehow got himself out from under Adams and tackled QB Marcel Reed before Reed could scramble out of the pocket. Then there was a contribution that was a bit more subtle: Alabama was able to stack him and Devan Thompkins on the same side of the line for much of the fourth quarter, which allowed Alabama to cover up injury-related deficiencies at defensive tackle by having Thompkins play extra snaps there. Henry’s ascension from down-the-depth-chart JUCO transfer to key defender in less than two years is remarkable, and once the other defensive linemen return, having Henry available is like having found money. Kudos to him.
2. Marcel Reed’s regression has been something to behold, and Bama was able to adjust to make it worse. Reed was intercepted on consecutive throws in the first quarter, and things didn’t get much better for him after that point. His final stat line: 14-of-21, 163 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT, and 17 carries for 23 yards (1.4 avg.). In modern football, that’s called getting shut down. Other than Reed’s touchdown pass – which was one of Kane Wommack’s few true gaffes Saturday; Alabama lined up in zero coverage and didn’t bail a safety into the hole to cut off the slant route – his biggest contribution was handing the ball off. And even that didn’t always go smoothly; Reed nearly lost an RPO gone wrong to Fatutoa Henry, and then fumbled on a critical fourth-down play where Alabama held. Want to know how much Alabama dominated defensively as the game went on? Texas A&M had three fourth-quarter drives; those drives produced 9 offensive snaps, 5 total yards and 3 punts. Add in the last Aggie drive of the third quarter, and those numbers go shooting up to 16 offensive snaps, 26 yards, 3 punts and a fumble recovered by Alabama’s Q.B. Reese.
3. Bama’s secondary played a solid game, especially while losing personnel, and stiffened in the red zone. Outside of the touchdown referenced in the point above, which was almost wholly due to an unnecessarily risky call from the sideline, Alabama’s secondary outplayed Texas A&M in every way. The hits to the roster kept coming, too; S Dre Kirkpatrick Jr. was suspended for the second time in as many years for a violation of team rules just before game time, then Alabama lost S Red Morgan to a questionable targeting call late in the first half. CB Dijon Lee was banged up during the game as well. But Alabama was able to deploy CB/S Chuck McDonald, first as a reserve cornerback and then as Morgan’s replacement, and true freshman CB Zyan Gibson got his first snaps that really mattered with a game still on the line. Texas A&M was the beneficiary of a late add from the injury list when WR Mario Craver went from being out to catching 6 passes in the game, but most were of the short variety and he was never allowed downfield. Alabama also managed former Tider Isaiah Horton well, giving up 3 passes for 34 yards there. The secondary allowed only one truly explosive play downfield, a 31-yard pass to Aaron Gregory. It’s crazy to think that without Zabien Brown, Alabama actually got better, but Brown’s absence did seem to make Dijon Lee focus up a bit. This could be a corner-turning moment for the Alabama secondary if they can build on what they learned.
4. Rico Scott and Lotzeir Brooks rose to the challenge of replacing Ryan Coleman-Williams. Scott caught 6 passes for 156 yards and Brooks 3 passes for 73 yards. That’s an average of 25.4 yards per catch between the two, meaning they both averaged an explosive reception every time either one of them touched the ball, a total of nine times combined in this game. We’re quite sure the Aggie secondary didn’t have that result in mind when they studied tape of the Tennessee game. Alabama is hoping to get Coleman-Williams back for the LSU game, and with Keelon Russell becoming increasingly confident in the abilities of Scott and Brooks, it should open up options a bit for Alabama’s playcallers. Scott’s long catch on the final play of the third quarter, which set up a touchdown pass to TE Marshall Pritchett on the following play, looked like something out of DeVonta Smith’s bag.
5. Keelon Russell deserves credit for finding a rhythm, without benefit of a running game. We have been critical of Russell for two weeks now, but aside from the ill-conceived throw that resulted in an interception just before the half, he did a remarkably good job slowing the world down and calmly making plays down the stretch given the lack of any real rushing attack prior to the game’s final drive. Part of that was due to better protection from the OL – Alabama yielded only 2 sacks on the day, despite playing without Racin Delgatty at center and for most of the game without LG Will Sanders – although the line did give up 6 QB hurries. Russell was 19-of-30 (63.3%) for 311 yards, 3 touchdowns and the one pick. But most of all, he was generally accurate with his deep shots, patient, and kept his footwork quieter than at any point in the past two games. Alabama also did a better job with pass play design in this game, attacking the midrange levels and using routes we hadn’t seen as much of prior to this week. There were also individual plays that deserve praise, not the least of which was the touchdown pass to Pritchett, which used an effective fake toss to the running back and a false block from Pritchett before releasing into so much wide-open space in the end zone, one had to briefly wonder whether Texas A&M heard a whistle and stopped playing. The lack of a cohesive running game stands out when discussing play design but that almost makes what Russell was able to accomplish without a complementary running game even that much more impressive. This was a step-forward game for the young quarterback.
Follow Jess Nicholas on X at @TideFansJessN