By Jess Nicholas
TideFans.com Editor-In-Chief
Nov. 30, 2014
One of the most beloved moments in Alabama’s pregame video montage is a set of highlights strung together over a symphonic score, while one-word phrases are superimposed over the images.
“Grit,” “Toughness” and “Comebacks” are some of the selections, the video eventually fading out over an image of the late Paul “Bear” Bryant” being carried off the field by his players, with the word “Class” chosen for that final remembrance.
Alabama’s 2014 win over Auburn could give rise to an entire video based around a single word – “Resilience.”
College football games don’t have scripts, as much as some paranoia-affected fans of losing teams would like to believe. Were that true, Mississippi State wouldn’t have lost earlier in the day to Ole Miss, thereby costing the SEC two teams in college football’s final four; the SEC office would have sent instructions down to its officials to prevent it from happening. No, these games are what they are – battles between worthy opponents and sometimes, the finish isn’t what one would expect.
It’s hard to say whether anyone expected this year’s Alabama-Auburn game to play out the way it did – Alabama jumping to a big early lead, Auburn coming back to take a two-score lead in the second half, then Alabama pulling away to lead by as many as three scores before closing out the contest at an improbable 55-44. But if you did expect to see a back-and-forth game with subplots and dramatic storylines, this was the game for you.
As he has been for much of Alabama’s season, quarterback Blake Sims was in the middle of it all. Sims, who had on several occasions in 2014 threw passes directly to defenders only to have them inexplicably drop them, did it again against Auburn – only this time, the defense wasn’t dropping anything. Auburn picked Sims off three times, two of those interceptions the result of particularly poor judgment, and after the third, Jake Coker began warming up on the Alabama sideline and looked to be on his way into the game.
And then – “Resilience.”
From that point forward, Alabama outscored Auburn 34-11, Sims threw three touchdown passes – one more than the number of incompletions down the stretch, two – collected 180 yards through the air, engineered a key 4th-and-3 pass to DeAndrew White, and ran for another touchdown.
But Sims wasn’t the only Alabama player, or players, that displayed resiliency. Oddly enough, even in the face of allowing a total of 630 yards, Alabama’s defense could probably qualify for its own “Resilience” tag. Whereas Alabama scored eight touchdowns in this game, Auburn scored only four. The Tide defense stiffened time and again in the red zone, holding Auburn to five field goals. While 44 points is still far too many, the fact Alabama was able to mitigate the damage allowed its offense to take advantage of a truly terrible Auburn defense and snuff out the Tigers’ hopes.
But the most important accomplishment to come out of this game overall? Alabama finished.
The Crimson Tide had the SEC West in its pocket before the game even kicked off, thanks to Ole Miss. Alabama could have gotten blown out by Auburn and still represented the division against Missouri this Saturday in Atlanta. But any hopes at playing for another national title would have been off the table, and there would have been serious questions raised as to whether Alabama had the right long-term answer for dealing with Auburn and Gus Malzahn’s innovative offensive schemes.
But the late third quarter and the entire fourth quarter – a fourth quarter in which Alabama outlasted Auburn and outscored the Tigers 21-8 – provided the answers Alabama has been seeking ever since Auburn returned a late field goal try for a winning touchdown in this game a year ago. Yes, Alabama is capable of beating Auburn, and by a convincing margin. Yes, Alabama can design a game plan to counteract Malzahn’s groundbreaking ideas. Yes, Alabama can finish.
Alabama will have to engineer a quick turnaround this week and be ready for Missouri, because the Tigers are a good team and Alabama has been vulnerable in the past in weeks following an emotional win like the one over Auburn Saturday.
But one hopes that Nick Saban gave his team the full 24 hours to soak in the feeling of winning this game. Alabama needed to send a message in this series, and it did. The message? Any rumors of Alabama’s possible demise are hereby finished.
Here’s the Five-Point Breakdown for Auburn:
1. Bradley Sylve gets his own moment of redemption. After Eddie Jackson was burned badly twice in the first half, Alabama inserted Bradley Sylve at Jackson’s cornerback position. Sylve was the starter at the beginning of the season but struggled against West Virginia receiver Kevin White in the opener. As it turns out, a cornerback struggling against WVU’s White is pretty much what happens every week, but Sylve didn’t get another chance to reclaim his position. That changed Saturday after Jackson’s second coverage bust. Sylve is Alabama’s fastest player, and while he isn’t as big as Jackson, his body positioning and hand skills proved to be better. Officials stole an interception from him, which was erroneously judged to be a simultaneous catch by Quan Bray and then inexplicably upheld by replay, but the message had been sent at that point. Sylve allowed only a couple of receptions down the stretch and broke up a would-be touchdown pass to D’haquille Williams in the south end zone in the fourth quarter. Nick Saban declined to say whether Jackson or Sylve would start against Missouri, but it’s a good bet the coaches won’t wait as long to try Sylve again if Jackson struggles.
2. Offensive players who made a difference: Shepherd, Sims, Howard, Fowler. Sims has already been touched on in the main body of this article, but the fact that he was able to shake off the surely demoralizing effects of throwing three interceptions was a huge advantage for Alabama by itself, to say nothing of his play. Sims completed all but seven of his passes and his mobility kept Auburn from exposing the injury issues along Alabama’s offensive line. Those issues came to a head in the fourth quarter when LT Cam Robinson, who was playing yet another solid game at that point, left with a shoulder injury, which was a new addition to his medical chart. Austin Shepherd moved from right tackle to left tackle and Grant Hill entered at right tackle, and Alabama didn’t miss a lick. Despite not having played left tackle much in his career, Shepherd looked right at home, and threw a key block on Derrick Henry’s game-icing touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Helping on that same play was FB Jalston Fowler, who has improved as much as any Alabama player over the last year. Fowler’s fullback skills were erratic at best in 2013, when his blocking left much to be desired. With TE Brian Vogler out for Saturday’s game, Fowler drew the TE/H-back duties as often as not and responded admirably. He also had a couple of key runs from the fullback position. And when Fowler wasn’t manning the Y or H, that role was typically filled by O.J. Howard, who had probably his best game so far at Alabama as a blocker. There were several others who deserved praise, notably DeAndrew White for a solid game opposite Amari Cooper, but the foursome mentioned here deserve special consideration this week.
3. Despite the 44 points allowed, the defensive line had as much to do with this win as anyone. Big difference between 2013 Alabama and 2014 Alabama has been the ability dominate the trenches, especially when Alabama is on defense. Alabama’s rotation strategy in 2014 against spread teams has made a big difference in outcomes. Alabama was without OLB Denzel Devall for this game; Devall often plays end in Alabama’s four-down alignment. Then, his replacement, Ryan Anderson, was knocked out of the game for some time. Alabama responded with speed rushers Tim Williams and Rashaan Evans on the outside; both players played more in key times of this game than they had all year to this point. The change in looks seemed to confuse Auburn’s outside protection schemes and Alabama was able to affect QB Nick Marshall because of it. Alabama also got a good inside push from an unlikely source, as NT Brandon Ivory atoned for earlier struggles with spread teams by clogging the middle and utilizing solid, quick footwork. Dalvin Tomlinson, D.J. Pettway, A’Shawn Robinson and others contributed as well. Marshall, who hurt Alabama as a runner in 2013, was held to 49 yards on 13 carries and was generally a non-factor in the Tiger running game.
4. Nick Perry continues to excel in his senior season, while Jabriel Washington also improves. Washington, who was involved in the key final play at LSU, helped Bradley Sylve break up a potential touchdown pass to D’haquille Williams and made several other plays in the game. Both he and Geno Smith have been invaluable as anti-spread safeties. But Nick Perry’s transformation from a run-stopping specialist who played only sparingly his first three seasons into a do-everything center fielder has been one of the most amazing developments of 2014. It’s not all that rare for a player to suddenly emerge in his senior season – Blake Sims and Jalston Fowler are also doing the same for Alabama this year – but it’s extremely rare for it to happen somewhere around the midseason point, like it has in Perry’s case. Perry notched 13 tackles in this game, 2 for losses, and made perhaps the single-most important play of the game with an interception of Nick Marshall and subsequent 23-yard return. Alabama gave up 456 passing yards in the game, so it’s hard to throw a lot of credit to any defensive back, but Perry and Washington, along with Sylve in the second half, were key to this win.
5. The HUNH effect wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Auburn has been unable to combine even a decent defense with Gus Malzahn’s offense, dating back to his time as Gene Chizik’s offensive coordinator. Malzahn seems to give only a passing thought to the concept of defense anyway, which by itself passes for heresy in the SEC. Auburn’s struggles seem to have cost Ellis Johnson his job as defensive coordinator, but it might not matter who Auburn hires next. Teams that practice against tempo spread teams typically see their effectiveness wane, especially when they get into games against power opponents like Alabama and Georgia. It’s too early to say Malzahn will struggle in future years, but if he continues to view defense as a necessary evil rather than a core part of his overall strategy, he’ll set himself up for a lot of heartache. Despite having a defense dotted with high-level recruits, Alabama blew Auburn off the ball when the Tide was on offense, and limited Auburn’s running game significantly. While Auburn collected 174 rushing yards on offense, Cameron Artis-Payne was held to 3.1 yards per carry and almost a fifth of Auburn’s total rushing came on four speed plays to Corey Grant. Auburn held close to Alabama thanks to Blake Sims’ interceptions and a couple of big gainers the Tigers hit in the passing game. Like it did late against Mississippi State, Alabama played collection defense against Auburn and forced the Tigers to take up too much time in the fourth quarter to move the football. The HUNH system tends to struggle in the red zone and when the offense is behind two or more scores; Auburn got hit from both those sides Saturday.
Follow Jess Nicholas on Twitter at @TideFansJessN
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