Alabama No. 1 avoided a massive surprise display from Texans on Saturday as Heisman Award-winning quarterback Bryce Young engineered in two late pushes that yielded 10 points in the fourth quarter to win the Crimson Tide 20-19 road. Kicker Will Reichard drilled a 33-yard field goal with 10 seconds left to send the tides over the Longhorns at Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas.
With the victory, Bama avoided dropping for the second time in as many years against an unranked opponent from Texas and dropping a regular-season game without conferences for the first time since 2007. The win marked the start of the 19th consecutive 2–0 season. Coach Nick Saban, continues the longest active streak in the country.
Despite losing on the start, Quinn Ewers late in the first quarter, the Longhorns used four field goals by Bert Auburn – including a 49-yard touch with less than two minutes remaining – to jump before the tide until Young’s final scoring drive. Ewers suffered an upper body injury As a result of a late kick from Bama’s quarterback, Dallas Turner, is in the red and hasn’t returned. Ewers moved the attack with ease, scoring a 134-yard pass to start the game. From that point on, however, the ‘Horns’ attack struggled to generate consistent opportunities.
Alabama allowed Texas to stay in the game thanks to the most disciplined game of the Saban era. Tide posted 15 penalty kicks, an amount never seen in a single game by either Saban teams in Alabama or LSU. All-American linebacker Will Anderson Jr., touted as the best player in college football to start the season, was notably far from his game, contributing four hefty penalties in just five tackles total.
The Backup Texas QB Hudson Card took advantage of a 158-yard pass, including a massive 29-yard connection with a wide receiver Casey Cain to jump into the field goal area in the final minutes of the game. Auburn’s 49-yard field goal seemed to put the “horns” ahead for good, but he failed to win the game. Texas running back Beagan Robinson also had several massive runs and grabs, finishing with 131 all-purpose yards.
The Texas defense played a great game with six tackles to lose and a pair of sacks on Young. The Horns’ team almost had another safety sack on Young in the third quarter that would have changed the game, but he was flipped and ruled for an incomplete pass. Linebacker Jaylan Ford played a great game with 10 tackles and two tackles for a loss.
Young completed 27 of 39 passes for 213 yards, engineering a massive fourth-quarter touchdown drive and a bright field goal movement with 10 seconds left. His pass catchers picked up the stretch, but one of the reasons Alabama struggled for most of the game was due to falls from that unit, which only collected three receptions for 14 yards entering the fourth quarter.
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