Jalen Milroe, Jermaine Burton lead No. 11 Alabama past Texas A&M 26-20 to take control of SEC West

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Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe looks to throw a touchdown pass against Texas A&M during the first quarter of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/Sam Craft)

COLLEGE STATION, Texas ā€“ Alabama coach Nick Saban has won 290 games as a college head coach.

This one against Texas A&M stood out.

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ā€œThis may be the record game for me, in terms of messing up and still winning,ā€ Saban said.

Jalen Milroe passed for a career-high 321 yards and Jermaine Burton caught two touchdown passes as No. 11 Alabama overcame a mountain of mistakes beat Texas A&M 26-20 on Saturday to take control of the SEC West.

Burton had nine catches for 197 yards for the Crimson Tide (5-1, 3-0 Southeastern Conference). Milroe, the Texas native, completed 21 of 33 passes and was sacked six times.

The Aggies (4-2, 2-1) got within one score when coach Jimbo Fisher elected to have Randy Bond kick a 20-yard field goal with 2:11 remaining, but Alabama recovered an ensuing onside kick and moved the chains for a first down to run out the clock.

Alabama committed 14 penalties, including nine false starts, for 99 yards and turned the ball over twice.

ā€œWe have a lot of things to clean up, but we have a lot of things to be proud of and Iā€™m really excited about the team effort,ā€ Saban said. ā€œWe werenā€™t at our best in the first half today, but for our guys to pull themselves to overcome adversity and (have) resiliency, this is a great win for our team.ā€

Max Johnson, who took over as the starting quarterback after an injury to Conner Weigman two weeks ago, passed for 239 yards and a touchdown for Texas A&M.

The Aggies upset Alabama in the Tide's last trip to College Station ā€” with a backup quarterback in Zach Calzada ā€” but this time couldn't overcome their own key mistakes.

ā€œItā€™s a hurt locker room because they felt very good about how they were playing in the game,ā€ Fisher said. ā€œThereā€™s still a really good football team in there and we have to regroup. We have six games left ā€¦ Thereā€™s not a game out there we canā€™t have success in, but itā€™s also going to be a tough schedule so we have to line up and go play."

The Crimson Tideā€™s Caleb Downs intercepted a pass in the third quarter two plays after A&M got an interception of its own. Alabamaā€™s Chris Braswell blocked A&Mā€™s 42-yard field goal attempt in the fourth quarter and returned it for an apparent touchdown, only to have the score wiped out by a penalty.

ā€œThere were times in the game where I felt like we lost our poise a little bit,ā€ Saban said, ā€œbut in the second half we competed and did a fantastic job.ā€

The Crimson Tide got a safety to push its lead to 26-17 with 5:48 to play when a heavy pass rush forced Johnson into an intentional grounding foul in the end zone.

The two teams traded field goals in the first quarter. Alabama took a 10-3 lead on the first play of the second quarter on a 52-yard touchdown pass from Milroe to Isaiah Bond.

The Aggies responded with a 22-yard touchdown from Johnson to his brother, Jake, with 9:57 left in the half, and later took a 17-10 lead on Leā€™Veon Mossā€™ 1-yard touchdown run with 3:23 left in the half.

ā€œIt was an opportunity for this team sort of show who they are, in terms of what kind of team we have, and I think we can have a really, really good team,ā€ Saban said. ā€œI just think self-inflicted wounds are going to be something that we can resolve because theyā€™re all fixable and weā€™re certainly going to have to do that if weā€™re going to be able to compete at a high level in the future.ā€

THE TAKEAWAY:

Alabama: The Crimson Tide now controls its own destiny in the SEC West as the only team unbeaten in the conference. Alabama was picked to win the division in the leagueā€™s preseason media poll.

Texas A&M: The Aggiesā€™ three-game winning streak was snapped and again, they'll need help to reach Atlanta for the SEC championship for the first time.

POLL IMPLICATIONS:

Alabama is searching to get back into the top-10 after it dropped from No. 3 in Week 2 to as low as No. 13 in Week 4. A&M was receiving votes in this weekā€™s poll, but will remain outside the Top-25 after a loss.

UP NEXT:

Alabama returns home next Saturday to host Arkansas.

A&M hits the road to face Tennessee.

___

AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll


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