TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- As Alabama overcame one mistake after another Saturday night and avenged its Kick Six loss by beating No. 15 Auburn 55-44, it became clear how the College Football Playoff selection committee could determine the Crimson Tide is the best in the country.

In the year of the flawed, Alabama might be the ideal No. 1. It's a team that gives up 630 yards -- and wins. It's a team that turns the ball over three times -- and wins. It's a team that spots its archrival a 12-point lead, dominates the fourth quarter -- and wins.

"We misexecuted a lot of things," Alabama coach Nick Saban said, creating a word that generally doesn't apply to a coach's potential fifth national champion.

Sing along with me: There She Is, Miss Execution, your ideal.

But, really, find another team that best captures 2014, an exciting season that happens to have two left feet. Florida State, going undefeated while achieving the football equivalent of a 2.0 GPA? The Seminoles skate by so well they might win College Football Playoff and the Frozen Four.

TCU or Baylor (choose one)? What about Ohio State, with its loss to Virginia Tech and its quarterback in a cast? Arizona, which is 0-2 against Los Angeles and 10-0 against the rest of the country?

Only Oregon, playing better every week at just the right time, is beginning to look the part. Alabama is looking like the guy leading the U.S. Open even though he's 4 over par.

"I'm really proud of the way our guys competed in the game," Saban said. "They do a great job of always making plays when they need to make them and seem to always be able to be resilient enough to play through adversity, which we certainly did today."

What does making plays mean? It means dominating the red zone. In eight trips, Auburn scored two touchdowns and kicked five field goals. Alabama, against a team that had allowed touchdowns on barely half the trips opponents made inside the 20 (23 of 45), went into the end zone on each of its five red zone possessions.

Amari Cooper high-stepped his way to 224 yards and three touchdowns receiving against Auburn. John David Mercer/USA TODAY Sports

Opportunism is a good trait for a team that craves adversity like a three-pack-a-day smoker reaching for his Camels. We are entering December, and Alabama allowed Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall to set a school record in total offense (505) and passing yards (456).

You might have noticed that Saban is a perfectionist. He is also a realist.

Someone began a question to Saban, "It seems like they [Auburn] had a lot of success throwing the ball "

"Well, they had a lot of success throwing the ball," Saban said. "It wasn't no 'seems like it.' It was 456 yards worth, and there were seven or eight of those that were big plays. You're not going to hurt my feelings by saying that. I got it right here on paper: 456 yards passing."

Alabama raised its record to 11-1 and won the SEC West for the fourth time in Saban's eight seasons because of guys such as wide receiver Amari Cooper, who caught 13 passes for 224 yards and three touchdowns, adding to his long list of school records.

Blake Sims overcame throwing three interceptions in the first 31 minutes to look more like the quarterback who has led the Crimson Tide this season. After the third pick, which Auburn converted into that aforementioned 33-21 lead, Black Saturday began to mean more than merely the day after Black Friday.

On a day when the ACC won all four intrastate rivalry games against the SEC and Alabama appeared as if it were going down, great cheering could be heard outside of the SEC footprint. It looked entirely possible that the inaugural playoff would roll out without the conference that has dominated the sport since 2006, when Sims was a freshman at Gainesville (Georgia) High.

From that point on, however, Sims completed 10 of 12 passes for 183 yards and three touchdowns, and Alabama outscored Auburn 34-3, at least until the Tigers put up a window-dressing touchdown with 20 seconds left. The game, as well as the memory of last season's devastating defeat, could be tucked away.

"I can't lie. Everybody thought about last year," senior linebacker Trey DePriest said. "You're supposed to say that. But it was personal. It's the Iron Bowl, how we lost this time, we handled what we had to handle, even though we got behind."

Saban sees the flaws, as does his staff, but they see a team that likes each other and plays for each other. That is the kind of makeup that can cover a lot of imperfections.

"Any time we get down, we keep each other fired up," DePriest said. "We tell each other, don't hang our heads. We still got a lot of game to play. When you get in holes like that, don't lose your focus. Don't give up. If you ain't got that, the guys are going to start blaming each other for what happened, and it would probably be worse than what it was."

Instead, Alabama will play No. 17 Missouri in Atlanta next Saturday with the SEC Championship and a College Football Playoff berth at stake.

The Crimson Tide is hardly perfect. But they are No. 1.