ATLANTA – Darkness was approaching in Oxford, Miss., thousands of fans had flooded the field and goalposts were about to be carried away at Alabama’s expense. Nick Saban retreated into a small media room that night in early October and told anyone who would listen what mattered was responding the right way, the way Alabama did in 2011 and 2012 when it lost a game but won the national title anyway.

As good as it sounded, though, the college football world was in a hurry to push Alabama aside, to declare the dynasty over, to find a new power to carry the banner for the SEC in the College Football Playoff era.

Whether it was Lane Kiffin’s playcalling, Blake Sims’ quarterbacking or the way their defensive backs were covering, the critics tried so hard to pick apart the Crimson Tide while Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Auburn all took turns as the flavor of the week.

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But after all the narratives were cleared away and the challengers brushed aside, Saban delivered a reminder to the rest of the SEC over the last month of the season: It’s still Alabama and everyone else.

The Crimson Tide is headed to the College Football Playoff after beating Missouri, 42-13, in a game that must have felt like a day at the spa compared to the November gauntlet of LSU-Mississippi State-Auburn that got them to the Georgia Dome.

“It’s just kind of ironic; we started the season here and we finished the regular season here,” Saban said, referring to Alabama’s shaky 33-23 win against West Virginia back on Aug. 30. “But the amazing thing is if you think about the team then and the team now, that’s what I’m most proud of.”

It was all so customary; the scene on the Georgia Dome floor Saturday night: Streamers falling, players hoisting a trophy, Saban forcing a half-smile. The only thing that was different was the distance traveled to get here; a longer and harder road than any team Saban has coached.

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And after all the noise this fall about how the program was slipping, how the rest of the SEC was catching up, how Saban was struggling to adapt to the world of up-tempo offenses, here we are staring at a familiar reality: Alabama is two wins from its fourth national title in six years and playing its best football of the season.

“I always believed in this group, I just asked them after the Ole Miss game, ‘How are you going to respond to a loss?’ ” Saban said. “We’ve only had one team that didn’t lose a game. That’s a very difficult thing to do, and I think they responded the right way. Obviously we wouldn’t be here now if they didn’t, and they really overcame a lot of adversity and some real tough games to get here. You have to have a lot of appreciation for that kind of competitive character. I’ve never wanted a group to have a chance to be successful more than this one.”

Did we really think Saban was going to let this program slip after one bad day in Oxford against a terrific defense with a first-year starting quarterback and new offensive coordinator still trying to find their footing? Did we really expect that a stretch of three losses in seven games dating back to last year’s Kick Six at Auburn and a lifeless Sugar Bowl performance against Oklahoma was going to undo the selfless, hyper-focused, championship-obsessed culture Saban has built?

Shame on us.

Though it helps Saban’s famous “process” when there’s a transcendent star like Amari Cooper on the roster, the reality is this is not the best or most talented team he has had at Alabama. Even last year, they were better built to win a national title.

But this resurrection wasn’t about talent. This was about self-evaluation, adaptation and survival.

Did you see Alabama slicing up Missouri on that tone-setting first drive Saturday, running the same no-huddle style Saban has repeatedly decried over the past few years? Did you hear him earlier this week talking about how Alabama’s practices this season have shifted the defensive emphasis from technique to tempo as an antidote to the Gus Malzahns and Kevin Sumlins, whose schemes have given him fits? Did you recognize the acceptance in his voice after the Iron Bowl last week, when he basically admitted that winning a game 55-44 one or two times a season was now just something you have to do in this day and age?

“We play that style because of (Sims),” Saban said. “We toyed with it early this season and it was a little bit of a work in progress getting to it, but because he executes it so well and makes really good reads it’s been really beneficial to us. It’s what he does best and the rest of our players kind of fit in that too, and if we didn’t do it I don’t think we’d be here where we are right now.”

This is Alabama football, both a totally different animal and the same as it ever was under Saban. Whether it’s Jim McElwain or Lane Kiffin calling the plays, whether it’s AJ McCarron or the unheralded Sims under center, the job is almost always going to get done one way or another. If it doesn’t, like last year, it’s by the thinnest of margins.

And if you thought the end of the dynasty was near, well, maybe next year.

“We just have to trust the process and go out there and execute when your name is called,” running back Derrick Henry said in a quote that sounds like it could have come from 2009, 2011 or 2012. “We just had to stay focused. We knew what the main goal was and come in week in and week out and prepare right and be a better football team throughout the week.”

None of this means Alabama is a shoe-in to win it all. We’ll find out Sunday who’s waiting for the Crimson Tide in New Orleans on Jan. 1, but it sure as heck won’t be 2012 Notre Dame. Even if they survive that, another great team will be lined up for its shot just 11 days later.

Maybe Sims, who nobody expected to be in this position when fall camp began, will play tight. Maybe someone will expose Alabama’s cornerbacks. Maybe one of Saban’s most vulnerable teams will make enough mistakes to get beat.

But when it matters most, the way it has in so many SEC games this year, Alabama just executes. Better than anyone. Over and over and over, with no end in sight. ​