WATCH: Nick Saban speaks following Alabama's win over A&M

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 1 Alabama moved to 6-0 (3-0 SEC) on the year following a 24-20 victory over Texas A&M. Once again, the experts in Vegas were wrong on how this game was going to play out, as the Crimson Tide were 24-point favorites heading into Saturday. Still, a win is a win, and the team remains unbeaten going into a top-10 road matchup against Tennessee.

Soon after the win over the Aggies, Alabama coach Nick Saban addressed the media. Below, we’ve included everything he said during that availability.

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Opening statement…

“It’s always great to win when you win games in the SEC. I think the fans were great. I think the fans probably had as much to do with us winning the game as anything. I think the atmosphere they created certainly kept the energy level up with our players, but we did a lot of things that were not winning football. Penalties, four turnovers, didn’t take advantage of opportunities in the red zone, came up empty-handed a couple of times, whether we missed a field goal, didn’t score a touchdown, whatever it might be. So we have a lot of things that we can work on. We got a lot of things we need to improve on.

“I think everybody’s got to make a choice and decision that they’re going to do the things they need to do to play the best that they can play and be the best player that they can be. That was not our best football out there tonight. When you don’t have your quarterback playing and the second-team guy has got to play, everybody has to play better. Everybody on offense has to play better, everybody on defense has to play better. Jalen did some good things, but he obviously had a couple of turnovers. He’s going to live and learn, and we’re going to live and learn with him. And we’ll just see what kind of progress Bryce makes for the next week. But we’re going to play a really good team next week on the road and certainly have to play a lot better to have any chance of being successful.”

On Alabama LB Will Anderson’s impact against Texas A&M…

“I don’t think there’s any question about it. I think the pass rush was really good tonight. I think we had a lot of pressures, we had a few sacks. But I think the pressure on the quarterback was the big thing, and Will did a really, really good job. We had a little deal where we put two guys together so they couldn’t chip him, and they really had a tough time single-blocking him. He’s a good player. He’s a great leader, plays hard out there. He’s a great competitor. And he certainly had a huge impact on the game tonight.”

On how he would assess Alabama’s play at wide receiver…

“We didn’t shake man-to-man very well. But I don’t think they had a whole lot of opportunities either. I don’t think there’s anybody on the team that doesn’t have something that they could improve on, and that’s what we have to do as coaches is to try to get them to do the things they need to do to improve. So they didn’t have a lot of opportunities. We tried to throw the ball early in the game and turned it over three times in the first half and decided that we were gonna go in the bag a little bit and try to run the ball, which we ran it effectively and had some good drives and came up empty-handed twice down in the read zone. Take a sack when we’ve got the ball on the 20-yard line. It’s hot. They’re in blitz zero coverage. We can’t block them all. The quarterback’s gotta get rid of the ball and not take off running with it and take a 15-yard loss and then we miss a field goal. So there’s a lot of things that we can learn from, but I don’t think the receivers had a lot of opportunities and that’s not all their fault. But I think everyone on the team can play better.”

On what he saw during the final play of the game…

“When they scored a touchdown earlier, we were playing them inside out, trapping the flat, thinking that they would run some kind of pick. So as soon as they put four wideouts in the game, we thought they would be similar, so we changed the leverage on the guys and it worked for us. Terrion made a good play and we had the guys covered on the other side pretty well, too. I didn’t get too much of a view on the pass interference, but I guess it was a good call. I wouldn’t say anything other than that.”

On Alabama DB Brian Branch…

“He plays Star and he plays Money when we put six guys in. He’s a playmaker. He’s a very active guy. I thought he played really well tonight, and he keeps continually improving, which is gonna be really important for us. We need to get other guys in the secondary – I think both safeties played really well. Kool-Aid’s played pretty well. Terrion had a couple opportunities he didn’t cash in on, could’ve intercepted a ball that they ended up catching. It was a big play in the game. Got a penalty late in the game. But everybody can play better, everybody needs to play better. We need to play better as a team, and that’s my responsibility and our responsibility as coaches to try to do a better job with the players that we have.”

On Alabama LB Deontae Lawson getting his first start…

“Moody had a bruised kidney. Until he clears, which he’s gradually doing that. We thought it would happen more quickly than it did, but it hasn’t. So hopefully he’ll be back. But I thought Deontae did a pretty good job out there, actually, and he’s a good player and we have a lot of confidence in him.”

On how he would evaluate Jalen Milroe’s performance as a passer…

“I wouldn’t evaluate Jalen as a passer. It’s relative to how did we protect him, how did we run the routes, how did we get open, and without watching the film, I can’t tell you if he made the right reads and had opportunities to make throws that he didn’t make or not or if we just didn’t have anybody open. I think he did a good job making some plays scrambling with his feet, but we had 111 yards passing and that’s certainly not our goal. So something in the passing game needs to get better, and I’m not putting it all on him. I’m just saying we need to do a better job in protection, we need to do a better job route running and we need to do a better job of being able to make good decisions in the pocket so we don’t have negative plays.”

On Alabama’s defense getting a key stop at the end of the game…

“I think two big stops in the game. The fourth-down stop before that was huge. Look, if we’d have played and done things the right way, they wouldn’t have been in that situation. But when you get in that situation, you’ve gotta embrace adversity sometimes and step up and make plays, and I think they did that. And I think that’s really, really important that they have the competitive maturity to be able to do that.”

On Alabama RB Jahmyr Gibbs having quality performance…

“I think he’s OK. He went back in the game. The guy’s a really good runner. He does a great job of stretching plays on the perimeter and sticking his foot in the ground and making cuts and setting up blocks for the offensive line. I thought there was a couple times that they did a good job on defense overloading some things and taking some things away, but I know he had a ton of yards. We ran the ball, statistically, fairly well in the game, which is what we had to do to win the game, and he certainly was a leader of the pack. And he’s also a very talented receiver. They called timeout when we were in empty and he was uncovered and we probably would have made a big play. But we just hope that he can continue to improve and we can continue to improve as an offense and get more guys like him to make plays on offense.”

On starting QB Bryce Young supporting Milroe…

“I think it’s important to have that kind of chemistry on your team. I think that everybody’s gotta make a choice and decision if they’re gonna put the team first. You can’t have self-indulgent behavior and have a good team. So guys can’t put what they feel like doing ahead of anything else. And there’s no question that Bryce is a great competitor. He wants what’s best for the team. He was very supportive, he’s been very supportive all week of helping Jalen every way that he can. But he also wants to play, and he actually wanted to play at the end of the game. But I think it’s really, really good that you have players that support each other. Bryce is a good leader, that’s what good leaders do. They set a good example, which Bryce does, but they also support their teammates and serve other people for their benefit. And I think that kind of reaction to Jalen when he probably wishes that there were a couple things that happened in the game that didn’t happen for him is probably really good for Jalen’s growth and development.”