'Was that hard or what?' — Nick Saban and Alabama are finding ways to win, but is this sustainable?

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — If you were close enough, mere feet away, just outside of the circle of security that surrounded Nick Saban, you could hear the words he uttered to his wife.

As he paced off Kyle Field on Saturday evening, his Alabama team 26-20 victors over Texas A&M in an ugly slobberknocker, he embraced Terry Saban with a look of astonishment, almost amazement, dumbfounded even.

He whispered the words to her, “Was that hard or what?” as he shook his head in disbelief.

And then, just moments later, tucked in what must be the smallest room within one of the country’s most mammoth stadiums, he told the media, in so many words, the same.

“This may be the record game for me in terms of messing up and still winning,” he said through a smirk, arms crossed and eyes bloodshot.

This isn’t the best Bama team, far from it. In fact, it may be the most problematic (excluding Saban’s first squad in 2007).

The starting quarterback is woefully inconsistent, a yo-yo on the playing surface, up one minute and down the next. The offensive line struggled enough to trigger a midseason lineup change. The defense is spotty. The running game can be dreadful, and the self-inflicted wounds — penalties, clock management and turnovers — are mounting.

And yet, a month after Texas embarrassed the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa — the biggest home loss in the Saban Era — and after so many again proclaimed the dynasty to be dead, Alabama is 5-1 and in the SEC West lead. The Tide have beaten two top-25 teams, one here on the road in a rocking environment like no other — horses, cadets and cowboy boots — and have a schedule before it that, while difficult, is manageable (Tennessee and LSU at home; Kentucky and Auburn on the road).

On this sunny crisp day in Texas, Saban needed a sizzling third-quarter performance from his quarterback, Jalen Milroe, and his top target, Jermaine Burton. He needed a defense to roll up four sacks in the fourth quarter, one of them resulting in a safety for what felt like a game-securing, two-score lead in the final minutes. And he needed his old protégé, A&M coach Jimbo Fisher, to make a handful of questionable calls.

He needed so many other things for his Tide to overcome the mistakes, of which there were plenty.

“What do you guys want to talk about?” Saban said upon entering the news conference. “The good news or the bad news? We’ve got a little bit of both.”

The good news, for him:

- Alabama won.

- Milroe, in a crucial stretch in the third quarter, with Alabama down 17-10, completed five of seven attempts and threw for the tying and then go-ahead touchdown.

- Defensively, the Tide came up with several massive plays: forced the blocked field goal after a Burton fumble; Terrion Arnold’s pass-breakup of a would-be touchdown catch; an interception by freshman defensive back Caleb Downs early in the third quarter that set up the Tide’s 16-0 run — from down seven to up nine.

- And then there was Fisher’s decisions. In a tied game in the third quarter, he punted on fourth-and-1 at the Alabama 45. Alabama scored the go-ahead touchdown on the ensuing drive.

While trailing by seven, he chose to kick a 41-yard field goal on fourth-and-5. Alabama blocked it.

The bad news, for the Tide:

- Alabama had 14 penalties for 99 yards.

- It finished with 23 yards rushing.

- It relinquished five sacks.

- It had two turnovers.

“We have a lot of things to clean up, but we’ve got a lot of things to be proud of,” Saban said. “If we can fix it, I think we can be a very good team.”

Notice that he did not use the word “great.” A great team. Can 2023 Alabama be great? Unlikely. This team will have to win games like no other under Saban over the last decade. While talented, they are not clean or crisp. Gritty and gutsy? Sure.

They’re having to gut games out — South Florida, Ole Miss, now here at Texas A&M — and the Tide aren't quite used to that.

On Saturday, an Alabama staff member was walking to the team busses and muttered quietly, “Boy is this what it’s like for every other team on a normal basis?”

Why, yes, it is. Not everyone wins 45-7.

But maybe, eventually, this one can?

“We are nowhere near the finish line,” Milroe said in the final line of his news conference. “I’m excited for the future. Roll Tide!”

So, no, the Tide aren't yet dead. The King hasn’t yet fallen.

Alabama isn’t perfect. Alabama isn’t pretty.

Ugly or not, here they come.