Too much of anything can be a bad thing, even praise. At least according to Nick Saban, who suggested Saturday that all those adoring headlines might in fact be poisoning his team.

Rat poison.

Alabama didn’t close the way Saban would have liked in the Tide’s 27-19 victory against Texas A&M in College Station, Texas.

Indeed, Alabama led 24-3 in the third quarter before the Aggies closed the gap to get within one score late.

“I’m trying to get our players to listen to me instead of listening to you guys,” he said referring to reporters, who of course have been writing stories about how awesome the Tide have looked in beatdown after beatdown. “All that stuff that you write about how good we are and all that stuff they get on ESPN is like poison.

“It’s like taking poison.

“Like rat poison.

“I’m asking them: ‘Are you going to listen to me or are you going to listen to these guys about how good you are?’ ”