TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — There was a moment during Alabama’s 34-24 loss to Texas when Nick Saban considered making a change at quarterback.

The Crimson Tide’s offense slumped its way through most of Saturday’s loss to the Longhorns, failing to find the end zone on each of its first eight drives of the came. Chief among those early struggles was the play of starting quarterback Jalen Milroe, who had just 80 yards through the air in the first half and failed to string together three consecutive completions until the final minute of the second quarter.

However, Saban stuck with his starter the whole game as Milroe rallied a bit late to finish the night 14 of 27 for 255 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions while adding 44 more yards on the ground.

Following the loss, the head coach explained that his decision not to change quarterbacks came after Milroe capped off a five-play 59-yard drive with a 49-yard touchdown to pass to Jermaine Burton to give Alabama a 16-13 lead with 14 seconds left in the third quarter.

"I did [think about making a change], but when he put the drive together to go down the field and score when we got ahead, I thought that gave him a lot of confidence," Saban said of the drive. "But we never, ever discussed [taking out Milroe]. I can't sit here and say the thought doesn't come to mind for any player that is having a difficult time. But he made some good plays at the end of the game, and that was good to see. Obviously, the interception was critical in the game. We're just going to work to try to get all our players better."

After Alabama took the lead, Texas answered back immediately as quarterback Quinn Ewers completed his next three passes for a combined 75 yards, capped off by a 7-yard touchdown to Adonai Mitchell to put the Longhorns back up 20-16 with 14:05 remaining in the game.

Milroe responded by throwing an interception on his first pass of the following possession, allowing defensive back Jerrin Thompson to return the ball to the Alabama 5-yard line. That set up a touchdown run from Johnathan Brooks the following play to increase Texas’ lead to two possessions.

During Alabama’s ensuing possession, Milroe completed 3 of 4 passes for 83 yards, including a 39-yard touchdown to Amari Niblack to keep the Crimson Tide alive. However, after Texas responded with another touchdown, the redshirt sophomore quarterback threw a pair of incompletions before taking a sack on his final possession.

"I've got to do better," Milroe said after the game. "I've got to improve. I've got to protect the ball. I've got to continue to lead. I'm just learning. Learn from it, grow from it, just understand that there's always more work to do."

Milroe beat out Notre Dame transfer Tommy Buchner and redshirt freshman Ty Simpson for Alabama’s starting quarterback job during preseason camp. Both Buchner and Simpson saw limited time in last week’s season-opening win over Middle Tennessee State

Following Saturday’s loss, Alabama will travel to South Florida next weekend for its first road game of the season.