Nick Saban wants Alabama to learn how to beat opponent, rather than just win

Alabama survived a surprisingly close contest against Arkansas on Saturday, winning 24-21 after opening up an 18-point lead in the contest. Coach Nick Saban wasn’t thrilled.

His team essentially hit a wall in the third quarter and allowed the Razorbacks to get back into it.

“I’ll tell you like I told the team, it’s great to win, it’s great to be where we are in the SEC relative to how we’ve progressed,” Saban said. “But there’s a difference between beating the other team and winning the game. We played pretty well in the game up till 24-6, which was about halfway through the third quarter. And then we didn’t finish.”

Alabama had significant edges in most of the major statistical categories in the game.

The Crimson Tide outgained the Razorbacks 415 to 250, while limiting the Hogs to just 4-of-14 on third down attempts. Arkansas had to play from behind throughout the game.

But after falling behind big, the Razorbacks buckled down and battled back. Some self-inflicted mistakes by the Crimson Tide aided in the comeback attempt.

“We got penalties. I mean the whole momentum of the game is on a third-down stop we get a grabbing a guy by the facemask after the play, which to me is bad,” Nick Saban said. “You can say what you want, but a guy does that he’s putting himself ahead of what’s best for the team. Putting yourself in harm’s way of having a chance to win. And then they go down the field and score. The momentum of the game changes. We go three-and-out on offense, have a couple dropped balls, miss a couple throws and not hitting on all cylinders, let the other team back in the game.”

It was the second straight game that Alabama had won by single-digits, but the fourth time in the last five games that Alabama has been within two scores of an opponent when the game ended.

Nick Saban wants to see his team finish better, plain and simple. Still, he was encouraged with the win.

“Had the resilience to take the clock at the end of the game and not give them the ball back, which was really, I think, important in the game,” he said. “Hopefully we can learn how to beat the other team, not just win the game, but beat the other team, which means you’ve got to play for 60 minutes, you’ve got to execute, do your job, have disciplined, do it one play at a time for 60 minutes in the game.”