Taking the field an hour before kickoff Saturday, a focused Terrell Lewis hand a wrist band tucked around his white belt.

“FLIP THE SWITCH” was the message scrawled in black marker before the Alabama outside linebacker warmed up to play Texas A&M. It was fitting since that switch was active the rest of the day in a defensive performance that ran hot and cold in the Tide’s 47-28 win in College Station.

It started by allowing a 15-play, 75-yard march that drained 8:03 off the Kyle Field clock. The slow burn had almost all 106,000 attending in a frenzy and began a peak vs. valley first half.

Alabama responded to that methodical first drive with a three-and-out that included two sacks of Kellen Mond. After then allowing a 10-play, 61-yard field goal drive on the third possession, the Aggies went backward 11 yards on another three-and-out on the fourth try.

“Flip the switch,” reads the message on Terrell Lewis’ waistband. pic.twitter.com/mgHhCE0TFG — Michael Casagrande (@ByCasagrande) October 12, 2019

Both Lewis and Nick Saban explained the different adjustments made after the Aggies knifed through the Tide defense on that opening drive.

“I feel like (it was) anxiety as a defense,” Lewis said. “Young guys on the field, hearing that crowd and all that stuff like that. Kinda had to get guys settled in.”

Saban had the tactical perspective.

“They put the formation in the boundary,” he said. “They were running the ball a little bit out of some formations that we thought might be throwing formations and so we just had to make some adjustments to the formation into the boundary. We made a couple mental errors on the adjustments which left people open. But once our players settled into understanding what they were doing, we at least took those things away.”

For Lewis, this was the first game in a while he’s been fully healthy to get a full week of practice and planning. Saban estimated he played only half the typical snap count two weeks earlier against Ole Miss after hyperextending his knee Week 3 at South Carolina.

The Rebels had more offensive success than Alabama’s defense felt comfortable with so there was a sharpened focus coming off the open week.

“We kinda, basically as a defense, wanted to nut up and come out there with the intensity that we need to make people earn it,” Lewis said. “We have to make people earn everything they get because that’s the Bama way of doing things.”

That first drive didn’t fit that mold.

“They had to earn it after that,” Lewis said. “We were definitely inconsistent at times but definitely stepped up as a defense responsibility-wise.”

Texas A&M finished with 389 yards, the third-most allowed by Alabama’s defense but the big-play allowance was limited. Mond escaped for a 36-yard run in the fourth quarter and a coverage bust led to a walk-in 25-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Wydermyer late in the third.

The longest Aggie passing play went 31 yards thanks in large part to the consistent pressure Lewis, Anfernee Jennings and lineman Christian Barmore put on Mond.

The five sacks bettered Alabama’s previous season-high by two with Lewis getting two.

“Yeah, me and Kellen Mond had a couple conversations,” a grinning Lewis said. “He felt my presence. I know we were kind of getting after him and he knew it too. And even the O-line so I feel like we kind of tried to be consistent in terms of trying to cage him in the pocket.”

And how did those chats go?

“Ask Kellen,” Lewis said, then laughing.

Containing the athletic quarterback was a big part of the plan throughout the week of practice in Tuscaloosa. A walk-on receiver got the pleasure of playing the scout-team role of Mond on Tuesday, sprinting from sideline to sideline to simulate the speed for the Tide front four.

Saban was happy with how the QB was contained most of the day but saw the consistency dip as the gas tank ran low.

“Our plan was to make this guy throw the ball from the pocket,” Saban said. “We did not want him to do what he did last year and he didn’t for a long time. Then he did at the end of the game.”

Mond ran for a net of 98 last year on 18 attempts including 32 negative yards from seven sacks. On Saturday, he finished with a net of 90 yards after losing 20 on the five sacks. His 31-yarder to set up the fourth-quarter touchdown is what will bug Saban and the defense.

Allowing 28 points also pushed Alabama’s scoring defense to No. 14 nationally. In the three SEC wins, the Tide has surrendered an average of 27 points to South Carolina, Ole Miss and Texas A&M.

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.