Auburn Game 11/29
Since the game ended, I’ve struggled to find a bright spot to take from Friday’s Auburn game, but I can’t. To me, this is the most painful loss I can remember since I’ve been a Bama fan. There have been lots of bad ones, specifically 1989 Auburn, 1994 Florida, and 2008 Florida, but I never felt the sting like I do after this one. Maybe some of you folks that have been into Bama longer than me can chime in and tell me how this one compares to some of the more distant painful losses, like 1986 Auburn, 1972 Auburn, and 1974 Notre Dame (the 1973 season’s Sugar Bowl). Maybe they were just as bad, but this is by far the worst loss that I can remember. Still, avoiding it won’t change anything, so let’s get to it.
This game can really be broken down into three distinct parts. First, there was 1 quarter of complete domination by Alabama, then there was 1 quarter and 1 minute of Alabama still dominating but choking at every opportunity, and finally there was 1 quarter and 14 minutes and Auburn steamrolling us. And the painful thing is that the segment of Auburn dominance never would have occurred had we not choked them back into the game. Going into this game, I was 100% sure that Auburn would beat us, but even I changed my mind after the first quarter. We were leading 21-0, and quite frankly, we were playing better than I’ve ever seen us, and I don’t just mean this year. The Atlanta Journal Constitution actually said it best by stating that Alabama looked like a team that deserved to play for the national championship, even with two losses.
But then the choking started, and when I say choking I mean choking above and beyond anything I’ve ever seen. We made Clint Stoerner, Tom Watson, and Scott Norwood look clutch. We had this game absolutely, positively in control, and then: Ingram fumbled when caught from behind on a screen pass, Richardson dropped a trivially easy walk-in TD pass, Richardson didn’t follow his lead blocker into the end zone, we misaligned on a simple fly pattern giving AU a TD, Carpenter and Warmack let a defensive back run untouched between them to tackle Ingram on what should have been an easy TD, Steen let the man lined up directly in front of him run untouched to the QB, and Barron overran the receiver on what should have been an easy pass defense giving Auburn a 70 yard TD pass. When all that was done, we were only ahead 24-14, when without exaggeration we should have been ahead 42-0. I know I can’t prove this, so you Auburn fans please understand that this is just my opinion, but if we could have simply executed (i.e. not choked) on any single play that I mentioned above, we would have won the game. But we didn’t, and that led us into Part 3 of the game, Auburn domination.
I don’t have to talk about the rest of the game, because after Barron choked Auburn into the end zone to make the score 24-14, we really phoned in the rest of the game. As a matter of fact, once I saw our next offensive possession after the Barron choke, I predicted that the final score would be 42-24. I actually think that would have been accurate if AU didn’t fumble that punt, which took away one of their possessions and gave us a field goal. Yes, we had a mini drive mid-late fourth quarter that should have ended in at least a FG attempt, but after Auburn annihilated our Pansy-sweep, the only question was, well, there were no more questions. And just as a point of order, I have witnesses to verify that before the third and long “attempt”, I stated that we had less than a 1 in 100 chance of even getting the pass off. Of course, we all remember what happened (well, I guess McElroy doesn’t remember it).
So congratulations to Auburn University and its fans. Cam Newton is indeed the greatest player ever. Nick Fairley is better than any lineman in this state in over a decade. Gus Malzahn is the best offensive coordinator in America. You are more physical than we are. Your players do have more on-field heart and character than ours do. Gene Chizik has matched Saban’s performance over the first two years (and will probably surpass it). We can’t dispute any of those things. Had Richardson caught the trivially easy pass, or if Ingram would have protected the ball, or if either Warmack or Carpenter could have blocked a 190-pound defensive back, or if Steen would have just stood in front of the man lined up directly in front of him, or if Barron could have knocked away the ball that was right in front of his face, then maybe we’d have a debate, but since we were unable to do any of those things, all we can do is shut up and take it.
Thus ends the most disappointing season I can remember (I had no expectations for 2000). We beat Arkansas; other than that, we didn’t really do anything. I’ll write another blog in the near future to try to detail what I think went wrong, and if we have the ability to correct our issues. As always, feel free to send me any questions or comments.
Kenny