Alabama Football: The 3 closest games of Nick Saban’s career

Nick Saban has been in some nail-biters as the head coach of Alabama football.

Over the past few seasons, Alabama football fans have grown accustomed to seeing their beloved Crimson Tide win games by exhaustingly large margins. In each of their 11 victories last year, Alabama won by at least 19 points.

However, there have been some nail-biters over the Nick Saban era. Plenty of games have been settled by one score or less. There was the 6-9 loss to LSU, the 45-40 victory in the National Championship against Clemson, and plenty of others.

However, there have only been three games in Nick Saban’s Alabama football career that have been decided by less than three points. Let’s take a look at what happened in those games.

*All stats and scores found on ESPN.com*

Alabama football’s 3 closest games of the Nick Saban era.

Alabama 12, Tennessee 10

October 24, 2009

Alabama football fans should know which game this was by looking at the score. This was the closest Tennessee game since Nick Saban took over. It came down to a last-second field goal, and Terrence Cody’s blocked it. That one play changed my life.

After this win, the Tide went on a run in the 2009 season that ended with a national championship. The entire Alabama dynasty was built off of this one undefeated run, and we were a blocked field goal away from that not happening.

Alabama 27, Auburn 28

November 26, 2010

Alabama football doesn’t always win their closest games. This is one of Auburn’s two best moments in Iron Bowl history. The iconic Camback happened in the second half, and they ended up winning by just one point. This iconic game from Cam Newton cemented his place at the top of the Heisman Trophy rankings. It would have been nice to have possibly dethroned the Tigers on their championship run, but the Crimson Tide are up four championships to none since 2011.

Alabama 14, Arkansas 13

October 11, 2014

This is the only game of the Nick Saban era that has been decided by one point. It should have been a blowout for the Crimson Tide, but they made mistake after mistake. They lost two fumbles and had no rushing play over 12 yards. Blake Sims only completed 11 passes out of 21 attempts, and Alabama was severely out-gained. They went into the fourth quarter down by six points before they finally scored their second touchdown.

The game was finally put on ice when Landon Collins snagged an impressive interception on Arkansas’s final drive. This adversity helped the Tide later in the year when they had to come back against Auburn in the 2014 Iron Bowl.

These games are some of the best in Alabama football history, even if they were a little too close for comfort. Some fans might disagree, but I would rather just watch the Tide win by at least four touchdowns.