Alabama has faced some dynamic offenses so far this season, but No. 4 Auburn’s will be one of its biggest challenges of the year.
The Tigers’ strength is their rushing attack, which averages 320.3 yards per game, the second most in the country. Running back Tre Mason leads the team with 1,153 yards, and quarterback Nick Marshall is second with 823.
“They’ve played extremely well all year long, especially their offense,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “All the way around, this is a very, very good team, and I think their record sort of reflects that.”
The success in the running game has come from misdirection plays like the zone read that Ole Miss and Texas A&M ran against Alabama. Marshall has not been asked to pass much because the Tigers have run the ball so effectively.
“They have a real good running game,” junior linebacker Trey DePriest said. “That’s what they do the best. With their running quarterback and him being able to run and throw the ball and it’s an option off everything, a chance to run or throw it off every play, so it’s going to be tough to stop.”
Marshall has only thrown the ball 185 times this season. He completed 108 of those passes for 1,530 yards, nine touchdowns and five interceptions.
Stopping the run and forcing him to throw could be a key for the Crimson Tide.
“That’s very dangerous because they can get the run game going and have us stick down to their run. They can hit us with a deep pass, hit us with a bomb, any type of play that can get us off guard,” sophomore safety Landon Collins said. “If we can contain their run, we got a better chance on the pass.”
Saban has Hail Mary experience
Saban can relate to Auburn’s last game, when the Tigers hit a 73-yard to score the game-winning touchdown pass Georgia with 25 seconds remaining.
In 2002, when Saban coached at LSU, the Tigers were down 30-27 with two seconds left on the road at Kentucky. Quarterback Marcus Randall heaved up a Hail Mary that was deflected into the hands of LSU receiver Devery Henderson for the score as time expired.
Saban, though, was not happy in his post-game interview, saying he felt bad for the Kentucky players.
After last season’s Alabama loss to Texas A&M – which followed an emotional comeback at LSU – Saban called it the “Bluegrass Miracle” phenomenon.
“You play bad, you win the game, then the next week you get your ass kicked because nobody responded to playing bad,” he said.
Saban said the Bluegrass Miracle and Auburn’s late touchdown against Georgia were different.
“First of all, I thought when we played at Kentucky, we didn’t play a very good game,” Saban said. “I think Auburn played a very good game against Georgia. And they made a play at the end of the game that won the game for them. I just felt like we didn’t play a very good game at Kentucky and we got kind of lucky to win, which to me was not a good thing.”
LSU lost the following week to Alabama 31-0.
While wide receiver Kevin Norwood called Auburn’s win “one of the luckiest things I’ve seen,” Saban disagreed.
“In [Auburn’s] case, they played a very good game,” Saban said. “I don’t think they were lucky to win. I’m not saying that at all. They really probably deserved to win the game, based on how they played in the game, and they got rewarded for it in the end by making a big play.”
