Johnny Manziel turned and scrambled backward, then turned again and scrambled farther backward, then spun around and heaved a pass off his back foot toward, well, toward somewhere. The play was ridiculous, the toss reckless, and so of course it settled into the hands of his receiver, Edward Pope, for a first down.
The play seemed to foretell another season of Manziel mania. It was chaotic and bumpy and fortuitous and sublime. It seemed to say that Alabama could be beaten, would be beaten, as long as Manziel summoned his magic Saturday to knock off the defending national champions again.
Except Alabama answered. It always answered. Its defense intercepted Manziel on that very drive. And that was how the most hyped game of the early college football season unfolded at Kyle Field: Manziel dazzled often and self-destructed occasionally, and Alabama pulled ahead. The methodical machine known as Alabama Football battered the phenomenon known as Johnny Football and his teammates, then hung on for a 49-42 win.
On the field afterward, Alabama coach Nick Saban told Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin, “You just took 10 years off my life.”
This avenged Alabama’s lone defeat in its last 20 contests, but Saban, because he is Saban, showed all the emotion of an accountant afterward, despite the thrilling comeback the Crimson Tide had thwarted. Saban might have smiled. Maybe. Once. There are, as he likes to say, many games to go.
Still, this felt less like an early-season college football contest and more like an event, more like a Southern-styled Super Bowl, as hundreds of thousands descended on College Station, the whole town awash in various shades of red. Hotels here sold out months ago. Scalpers raked in handsome profits.
T-shirts read “NO AUTOGRAPHS,” an allusion to Manziel’s offseason troubles with signatures. Signs said “Roll Tears, Roll” and “Saban Smells Like Mothballs.” There were pictures manipulated to place Manziel next to Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron’s girlfriend, a former Miss Alabama USA. And there were towels, thousands of white towels, that when twirled by the home fans early appeared distracting but later looked more like thousands of white flags.
Manziel assumed the role of defibrillator early, when he gave the assembled a first-quarter jolt. He scrambled for 12 yards on Texas A&M’s first offensive play and played long toss with receiver Mike Evans deep into Alabama territory.
The Aggies scored on that drive and scored again on the next drive to take a 14-0 lead. Alabama’s defense failed to defend much of anything, and Manziel’s offseason troubles seemed like a lifetime ago.
“I thought his play was Johnny-like,” Sumlin said. “That’s about right.”
McCarron spent most of last week and much of last offseason answering questions about Manziel. Perhaps everyone should be asking McCarron about McCarron. All he has done is pilot Alabama to two national championships, and all he did Saturday was carve through Texas A&M’s defense like a knife through a short rib.
In the first half alone, McCarron tossed three touchdown passes. He threw for 251 yards. He found receivers wide toward the sideline and deep toward the end zone.
“He’s played a lot of football,” Mark Snyder, the Texas A&M defensive coordinator, said later. “He’s got a lot of weapons out there.”
Alabama scored 28 unanswered points before halftime, but after the Crimson Tide punted to start the third quarter, Manziel made another critical mistake. He slung a pass into traffic, a catchable ball that bounced off his receiver and into the air, where it was intercepted by Vinnie Sunseri. Sunseri juked Manziel on his way back downfield, then slid around and through would-be tacklers as if conducting his best Manziel impression for a score.
Texas A&M scratched back into it. In the fourth quarter, Alabama running back T.J. Yeldon fumbled near the goal line, and the Aggies recovered, and Manziel again found Mike Evans, a receiver who turned in a career day. Evans shot up the right sideline, stiff-armed and ran away from the nearest defender, and scored a 95-yard touchdown, running his total receiving yards to 247.
There it was: 42-35. A ballgame once again.
The Aggies needed one more stop. Their fans pleaded and screamed and waved all those white towels. Alabama ran the football, mostly straight ahead. By then, Manziel had amassed nearly 500 yards of total offense. (He wound up passing for 464 yards, a career high, and rushing for 98.) But all those gaudy numbers would not be enough as McCarron completed yet more drive by tossing a 5-yard touchdown pass to Jalston Fowler.
Afterward, Aggies receiver Malcolme Kennedy was not discouraged. “There was a lot of hype put into this game,” he said. “It was the third game of the season. It’s not over.”
History suggests that the Crimson Tide should be favored to win another national championship in January, as they were long before Saturday. Six of their next seven games take place at home. Their most difficult contest, on paper anyway, is over.
Manziel dazzled.
Alabama came out ahead.
