11/29/11 Auburn Game
Before I start with the Iron Bowl, let me first address the fact that I haven’t blogged since my LSU blog. Actually, I did write blogs for the MSU and Georgia Southern games, as well as a preview of the Iron Bowl, but I figured you guys have had enough of my McCarron bashing, so I decided not to post them. Just so you won’t feel like you missed anything, here is a summary of those three: 1) Mississippi State – Unbelievable performance by our defense. Should have been a shutout. Our special teams are horrible. McCarron simply cannot read a defense. 2) Georgia Southern – Don’t worry about it. We obviously didn’t play well, but I’m sure we spent about 5 minutes preparing for this game. We never should have scheduled a triple option team the week before Auburn. 3) Iron Bowl Preview: This game will be closer than the experts think because AU will shut down our rushing game like they always do, and McCarron isn’t good enough to move it consistently without the running game to prop him up. I predicted we’d win 24-14.
Obviously, I was wrong about the AU game, because we absolutely annihilated the Tigers on Saturday afternoon. It’s not often that a 42-14 game is not as close as the score indicated, but that was the case on Saturday. Neither of Auburn’s TDs were scored on our defense. One was on a fumble recovery in the end zone on a play where AJ took entirely too long to throw the ball, and the second was on a kickoff return to start the second half. Both of their TDs artificially made it seem like AU was in the game, but in retrospect, they never really had a chance. Auburn only totaled 140 yards of total offense for the game, and the vast majority of those (94 to be exact) were on their last two drives when the game was already over. Still, I have to admit that I had a few nervous and angry moments after both of those scores. They just hit a little too close to home after last year’s debacle.
We clearly had the superior team this year, but I have to take my hat off to the play-calling of our offensive coordinator Jim McElwain. Early in the game, they were stuffing our run just like I had predicted, but McElwain drew up some plays that were extremely effective in getting our receivers open and not forcing AJ to read the defense. On the first one, AJ missed a wide-open Michael Williams, but later in that same drive, we ran a flea-flicker that completely fooled the AU defense, and AJ hit a wide open Kenny Bell in the end zone to give us a 7-0 lead. On the first play of our next drive, we ran a misdirection throwback to our TE Brad Smelley who was so open, I described it as being “as open as a wide receiver playing the 2010 Alabama defense on a 3rd and 13.” Now *that’s* open! After those two plays, we seemed to get our bearings, and started running the ball more effectively. When all was said and done, Trent Richardson had over 200 yards rushing, and put himself right in the middle of the Heisman talk. Overall, this was an extremely satisfying Iron Bowl, and even though I know we’ve had bigger blowouts, this was probably the most one-sided Bama-Auburn matchup that I can remember.
So where does this leave us? As of this writing, we are Number 2 in the BCS poll, and unless something tragic happens, we should be playing LSU for the BCS Championship. I won’t believe it until next week’s final BCS poll comes out, because I do think that there are some vulnerabilities that could allow Oklahoma State to pass us. Just to be safe, let’s root for LSU, Oklahoma, and Virginia Tech next week (a VT win would keep some voters from moving Oklahoma State up in the polls). Man, how sweet would a rematch with LSU be?
So congratulations to the Bama program, including players, coaches, and fans. We’ve had a remarkable run, and we should really savor these times. For the AU fans out there, keep your chins up. You knew this would be a down year after losing basically your whole team after last year, and next year will be much better for you on both offense and defense (Lemonier is a future All American). But that’s for another time. For now, order is restored in the state of Alabama, and the Crimson Tide is once again state champions. We’ll find out next week if we have a chance at a much bigger prize.
That’s it for now. As always, feel free to contact me with any questions or comments. Roll Tide!
Kenny
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