Saban asked the media to write about Bama’s weaknesses. So here are 6 of them.

So Nick Saban wants a list of everything his team does wrong, does he?

After his team ripped another opponent limb from limb — Texas A&M this go-around, 45-23 — Saban said (unprompted):

“One thing I’d like to say to everybody — and I don’t wanna get into the rat poison again — we got a good team, but our team needs to do a lot of things to improve,” Saban said.

“So I’d appreciate it if you would sort of look at some of things we didn’t do so well and write about that, so maybe I can show it to the players and say ‘look here man, here’s something you can do better.’”

This is in a long line of Saban railing that the media thinks his team is too good. Earlier in A&M week, Saban said it was good his team didn’t read the newspaper. And he blamed the media for feeding his team “rat poison” during the title run in 2017.

Therefore, at the behest of Alabama’s leading man, here’s a list of things that Alabama can do better.

Even before Week 4, my colleague Bill Connelly was telling you Alabama could be gotten at via the big play.

The Crimson Tide’s offense is terrifying at the moment, ranking first in efficiency, ninth in explosiveness, and third in overall Off. S&P+. That’s unfair.

But a younger-than-normal defense, with a totally rebuilt secondary, has suffered at least a few glitches. They are only 28th in rushing marginal efficiency, for instance (good, but mortal) and they are 63rd in marginal explosiveness — 83rd against the pass and 83rd on standard downs. Granted, you have to create a lot of big plays to keep up with this offense, but it’s technically possible.

And against A&M, it happened.

Kellen Mond’s 54-yard run in the first quarter was one of only two 50-yard runs the Tide have given up since October 2015.

Alabama’s playing man coverage here, and the QB spy in the middle of the field is unable to defeat the cut block.

Poor downfield tackling extends the play. The Tide players probably should have seen this coming, given the game situation, and been ready. Instead the defensive line allows itself to fly upfield and play right into Mond’s hand.

A different bust occurred on the longest play Alabama has allowed this season. The 75-yard touchdown by Ole Miss on the first play was poorly defended by the Alabama secondary — a unit that is suspect and unproven, relative to the rest of the team.

DB Saivion Smith (at the bottom of the screen) gets himself set up outside and completely turned around with his hips opening up at the snap. In press coverage, Smith can’t allow this to happen.

As one of the preeminent defensive back coaches in the history of college football, Saban cannot be happy with that effort.

Bama had a season-low 40 percent third down conversion rate against the Aggies. They were four of 10 with an average distance to go of 8.8 yards. They only had one third down of less than four yards to gain against A&M.

On the first third down — with 11 yards to gain, the result of a poor first and second down — Alabama failed to execute.

Right guard Alex Leatherwood gets beat to the inside, and it forces Tua Tagovailoa to bail from the pocket — but he is moving to his left, the favored side on a rollout for a lefty QB.

But whether it was a miscommunication between Tagovailoa and receiver Jerry Jeudy, or just the stud QB’s fault, he misses this throw ... badly. Tagovailoa had been 13 of 13 through the air on third downs to this point this season. This was a really long third down, but Jeudy was open.

This has to be a completion.

Here’s a really nice throw by No. 13 — you cannot take that away from him, because he put it exactly where only his receiver could make the play — and I must remind everyone he is still just a sophomore.

But what can be nitpicked here is the timing. Tagovailoa’s got a bit of a hitch while working through progressions on that side of the field. With his skill in ball placement, you know he can put it where it needs to be, but this ball should be out before his receiver has come out of his break, not after.

Alabama’s scored double digits in quarters one, two, and three in each of its first four games. But the Tide have let off the gas in the fourth quarter in each game. The Tide only scored three points in the fourth against Ole Miss, and were held scoreless in the fourth against Texas A&M.

Now, of course, the Tide had hefty leads in each game and were playing backups by then, but to be considered in the rarified air of Saban’s best Tide teams, they must finish the drill each Saturday.

Saban said it himself after the 45-23 win:

“We may throw it as well as anybody that we’ve ever had, but that’s not all there is to it. If you finish the game at the end and run the ball like you’re supposed to, they don’t get the ball back. ... I’m not pleased with the way we finished the game.”

Part of what Saban’s getting at has to do with a control of the game beyond the scoreboard. A&M ran more plays and controlled more of the clock than the Tide did. Saban doesn’t want his defense exposed like that. He wants opposing offenses off the field as much as possible, so his team can kill the game.

The Tide are 107th right now in penalties, and have been flagged 31 times; 7.8 penalties per game and 72 penalty yards per game signals undisciplined play from the Tide.

That’s uncharacteristic for a team that’s ranked in the top 30 at penalty avoidance in almost every year under Saban.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone.

In addition to two missed field goals, Alabama has missed three extra points this season. Only two teams in FBS have missed more through Week 4.

The silver lining is that only one team has attempted more extra points, which means the Tide are still finding the end zone more often than almost any other team.

Maybe this woman can get some run in practice one of these days. It’s certainly worth a shot.

I’m sure during their private film studies, Bama can find dozens of things that are amiss, play-in, play-out.

But, as requested, I’ve listed some of the glaring things that Bama can do better at. Happy now, coach?