COLLEGE STATION, Texas — On paper, Alabama’s offensive effort should have been enough to earn a victory instead of the 41-38 defeat it suffered to Texas A&M on Saturday night.

The Crimson Tide outgained the Aggies by 143 yards and converted 50 percent of its third-down attempts in a game where quarterback Bryce Young threw for a career-high 369 yards and running back Brian Robinson Jr. accounted for 207 yards of total offense. However, when it mattered most, Alabama’s attack failed to finish drives.

Alabama made six trips to the red zone during Saturday’s shootout, scoring on five of them. Unfortunately for the Tide, two of those drives saw the offense advance inside the Texas A&M 10-yard line only to end up with three points.

Down 31-24 early in the fourth quarter, the Tide was forced to trot out its field-goal unit as it stalled at the Aggies 9-yard line. After forcing a three-and-out the following possession, Alabama drove down the field, giving itself the chance to go ahead with a first-and-goal from the 3-yard line. From there, the Tide was frustrated again as Young’s first-down pass to John Metchie III lost a yard before two consecutive incompletions sent kicker Will Reichard out for another easy try.

“We threw incomplete passes,” Saban said of Alabama’s red-zone struggles. “We had guys open. We ran a bad route. A guy picked the ball off. We had some drops in critical situations. ... So I don’t know that anything went wrong. We just didn’t execute. We didn’t throw and catch the ball like we needed to. We didn’t run it effectively enough.

“Some of those situations, you could say if we could run the ball effectively in those situations maybe we wouldn’t have those issues throwing it. So you could second-guess everything that didn’t work, but the issue is we just didn’t execute.”

There are other reasons for Alabama’s defeat. The Tide allowed four sacks, gave up a special teams touchdown and couldn’t get enough stops on defense. However, had Alabama punched the ball in the end zone just one of those two times, it probably would have wound up on the other side of the scoreboard.

The same can be said about Young’s costly interception in the second quarter. Facing a third-and-goal from the 1-yard line, the quarterback saw his pass to tight end Jahleel Billingsley picked off by Texas A&M’s Demani Richardson, sending the Tide away with nothing to show for a 74-yard drive.

“I’ve just gotta do a better job, make better decisions, better reads, getting us into better plays,” Young said. “That’s something that we talk about a lot. It’s inexcusable. Whenever we are in the red zone, run or pass, we can’t turn it over. That’s something I have to improve on. We wanna score touchdowns. We didn’t do that enough today, and at the end of the day, that’s my fault. That falls on me. There’s a lot of stuff I could have done differently.”

Heading into Saturday, Alabama ranked second in the SEC, converting touchdowns on 20 of 27 (74 percent) of its red-zone appearances.

It wasn’t exactly the butt-whooping Jimbo Fisher promised the Houston Touchdown Club in May, but the Texas A&M head coach did come true on his word that he would beat Saban while he was still at Alabama.

“We’re going to beat his ass when he’s there,” Fisher said at the time. “Don’t worry.”

Sure enough, Fisher became the first former Saban assistant to get the better of his old boss, ending the Alabama head coach’s streak at 24 wins over his former understudies.

“It doesn’t mean anything,” Fisher said following the win. “I don’t mean that in any disrespect. Listen, Nick is one heck of a football coach. I’ve known Nick for years. He’s been a great friend. I’ve coached with him. I’ve got a lot of respect for him. He’s got a great team. The thing that means something to me is that our football team is learning to play this other football team and have success. That’s the motivator to me.

“It was inevitable. Somebody was going to do it, in time. Hey, it had to be us. That’s great. But that doesn’t mean anything to me, because that’s not a goal that I’m trying to talk about or do. I want our organization and program to do well. That’s the only thing I care about.”

Fisher served under Saban as LSU’s offensive coordinator from 2000-04. He is now 1-4 against his old boss.

There’s no such thing as a good defeat. But as far as losses go, this one could have been worse for Alabama. Because Texas A&M has already lost two SEC games, the Tide still controls its destiny in the SEC West — and, for all intents and purposes, the College Football Playoff. With that being said, Saturday’s defeat might serve as the wake-up call Alabama needed as it looks to repeat as national champions.

Earlier this season, Saban warned his team not to “lose respect for winning," stating that “When you win too much, you lose respect for winning because you forget what it's like to lose.” Alabama was reacquainted with that feeling, and by the sound of it, it’s not something Tide players want to get used to.

“We didn’t practice like we usually would,” Alabama safety Jordan Battle said, “and it bit us tonight. We just have to be able to bring the intensity in practice up or things like this will happen again.”

Alabama’s trip to the Lone Star State ultimately proved to be a disappointment. However, there were still some positives to pull from the performance.

For a second straight week, Robinson eclipsed the century mark on the ground, running for 147 yards on 24 carries. Perhaps even more encouraging was the fact that the starting running back pulled in four receptions for 60 yards, providing some of the receiving production lost by Jase McClellan, who suffered a season-ending injury against Ole Miss last weekend. Robinson’s 207 total yards come after he ran for 171 yards and four touchdowns against the Rebels last week.

Alabama also appears to have a new No. 1 receiver as Jameson Williams has been Tide’s biggest aerial threat this season. The speedy wideout recorded a career-high 10 catches for 146 yards and two touchdowns while also reeling in a two-point conversion against the Aggies. Through six games, Williams leads the Tide with 510 yards receiving yards. He’s also tied with tight end Cameron Latu for the team lead with five receiving touchdowns.

Saturday also saw Dallas Turner make his first career start as the five-star freshman filled in for Drew Sanders at Sam linebacker. Turner tallied five tackles, including one for a loss against the Aggies.

“Dallas played pretty well,” safety Jordan Battle said. “He had a pretty great game today. He’s getting comfortable out there, and it’s fun to see him comfortable toward the end of the game and make plays. We hope to see that in the future as well.”

— Alabama snapped its winning streak over Texas A&M at eight games. Before Saturday, the Aggies’ last win over the Tide came in 2012 when Johnny Manziel led a 29-24 upset inside Bryant-Denny Stadium.

— Alabama saw its 19-game overall winning streak snapped.

— Saban saw his perfect run against former assistants snapped at 24 games.

— When Texas A&M went up 3-0 in the first quarter, it marked the first time Alabama has trailed since the first half of last season’s game against Georgia, a span of 57 straight quarters.

— The Tide snapped a 100-game winning streak against unranked opponents, dating back to a 21-14 loss to Louisiana-Monroe in 2007.

— Texas A&M quarterback Zach Calzada completed 21 of 31 passes for 285 yards and three touchdowns with an interception. He is the first quarterback to beat Alabama while throwing an interception since the beginning of the 2015 season

— Alabama turned the ball over twice in the first half against Texas A&M. The Tide hadn’t given up a first-half turnover since last season’s national championship game against Ohio State.