It was a tale of two defenses in the 55-44 comeback win over Auburn.
One Alabama defense allowed Auburn whatever yardage got the Tigers into the red zone. The other stood tall and did not allow a red zone touchdown until the third quarter.
“We certainly need to do better,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “We haven’t played a lot of games where we give up [44] points and win. You know, that’s not really been our style, so we obviously need to do a better job with our players in preparing them for the game so that we can play better and put them in a better position that they have a chance to be successful in. And then when we do that, they’ve got to do a good job of executing.”
Auburn scored seven of the eight times it made it to the red zone. Five of those were field goals.
“I think the name of the game really was that when we got in the red zone, we had to kick field goals,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. “We kicked five of them and didn’t score our touchdowns. We had enough yards to score a whole bunch of points and that was probably the name of the game.”
Auburn gained 630 yards on 90 plays and held onto the ball for nearly 34 minutes. Alabama’s defense spent more time on the field than its offense for the first three quarters, not unusual in its SEC play this year. LSU and Mississippi State also spent more time on the field on offense than Alabama too.
Alabama’s secondary was exposed, giving up 456 yards in the air. Alabama was hit hard on vertical routes, where Auburn’s receivers put distance between Alabama’s defensive backs and them.
“Well, they had a lot of success throwing the ball,” Saban said. “There was no ‘seems like it.’ There was 456 yards’ worth, and there was about seven or eight of those that were big plays so you’re not going to hurt my feelings by saying – you know, I’ve got it right here on the paper, 456 yards passing, and a lot of those were big plays, big plays.”
Auburn’s Duke Williams had 121 yards receiving and a team-leading seven receptions. Sammie Coates set a new Auburn Iron Bowl record with 206 yards receiving. He had two touchdowns including a 68-yard touchdown with Alabama corner Eddie Jackson lost in coverage.
Bradley Sylve, long serving in the Crimson Tide’s second team after blowing coverages against West Virginia’s Kevin White, a Biletn ikoff finalist, stepped up to play opposite Cyrus Jones. Through 11 games, he has eight total tackles.
Notably, he was in coverage in the third quarter when Auburn’s Quan Bray caught a 35-yard first down pass. Sylve and Bray went up for the ball and possessed the ball. After review, the pass was ruled complete on a dual possession.
The defense held in the second half, holding the Tigers to 10 points until the last 20 seconds of the game when it was all but over.
“We knew that as the dominant defense that we are, that we had to pull it together and focus on our keys and concepts,” Alabama safety Landon Collins said. “We knew we had to do what we have always done. We prepared for this game consistently, and we just stuck to what we had to do. We had players come in and make big plays, an d we did a fantastic job at the end.”
The last score of the game came on a five-yard run by Auburn running back Corey Grant. It was the first rushing touchdown allowed by Alabama since Oct. 11 against Arkansas. The Crimson Tide’s defense has given up three rushing touchdowns all year, the least by any FBS team.
Alabama’s rush defense ranks second in the nation, allowing 92.5 yards per game.
