Blake Sims was floundering. All doubts about the fifth-year senior were coming home to roost after three interceptions in a little over half of the Iron Bowl. Backup quarterback Jake Coker, favored in the summer for the starting job that now belonged to Sims, was warming up on the sideline, and Auburn held a 26-21 advantage with 14:10 left in the third, and seven more points were soon to come. After so many games as one of the top quarterbacks in the nation, after being so dependable for the entire season, after leading several desperate drives to bring his team to victory, Alabama’s quarterback was failing his team.
From that point on, Sims was unbeatable, going 10-12 for 168 passing yards and three passing touchdowns, rushing for 23 yards and another score. Sims led five consecutive touchdown drives to end the game, leading No. 1 Alabama to a 55-44 comeback victory over No. 15 Auburn in the highest scoring Iron Bowl of the rivalry’s 121-year history.
“When Blake is Blake and he’s just a calm guy that’s out there taking what the defense gives and making good decisions, he gets in a comfort zone,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “Sometimes, when it’s a big game, he starts to put a lot of pressure on himself and gets a little anxious, and I don’t think he really processes and makes as good decisions when he gets like that. But when he plays with his instincts and executes our offense and goes through his reads the way he’s supposed to, with confidence, he plays extremely well. I think in the second half he kind of got that way. … He’s a very instinctive guy and has a lot of capability to make plays. He’s played extremely well for us all year and he’s gotten in that mode a little bit sometimes and it was good to see him snap out of it today.”
Amari Cooper put in yet another record performance, breaking the Alabama record for career receptions with his 195th reception, the first of the game. The record now stands at 207. Cooper also matched his own record for yards in a single game. The Biletnikoff finalist finished with 224 yards and three touchdowns on 13 receptions. Cooper’s performance helped kickstart the Alabama comeback, with Sims finding Cooper on the first play of one of those scoring drives for a 75 yard touchdown pass to cut Auburn’s lead down to two.
“Coop has been great for us all year,” Saban said. “He certainly had a great game today. The guy played through a lot of injuries today. He was really kind of hurt, and he did a great job competing out there. He had 13 catches for [224] yards and made some extremely big plays in the game.”
The Tigers, led by Nick Marshall, moved the ball largely at will against the vaunted Crimson Tide defense, accumulating 630 yards on 90 plays, including 456 passing yards on Marshall’s 27-43 passing. The Crimson Tide’s salvation was its red zone defense. After the Tigers turned the ball over on their first play from scrimmage, Auburn had first downs inside Alabama’s 20 yard line on three straight drives in the first quarter, coming away with only a field goal each time.
After allowing Auburn to score on six of eight first-half drives, the Crimson Tide conceded on the first two drives of the third quarter. On the next drive, Nick Perry intercepted a scrambling Marshall’s pass back over the middle. On the following drive, the first of the fourth quarter, Auburn went three and out. After that, on their penultimate drive, the Tigers turned the ball over on downs. Alabama would concede one more touchdown, inconsequential by the time the Tigers scored.
“We knew that as the dominant defense that we are, that we had to pull it together and focus on our keys and concepts,” 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, and we did a fantastic job at the end.”
With Mississippi State’s loss to Ole Miss earlier in the day, Alabama was headed to Atlanta for the SEC Championship regardless of Saturday night’s result, but at the intermission of the Iron Bowl, hopes for the national title were fading.
“I just told the players at halftime, ‘We have 30 minutes. A lot of you guys have a lot of goals and aspirations. This is a gut-check as to what kind of heart you have, what kind of character you have and what kind of competitor you are in how you go out and play the second half of this game. I believe in you, I think we can win and I think we will win if everybody makes a commitment to doing their best in the second half,’” Saban said.
After exorcising some of the Kick Six demons in a four-Rammer Jammer victory on Saturday night, Alabama will take the field in the Georgia Dome next Saturday against Missouri.
“We have a 24-hour rule,” Collins said. “Once that 24-hour rule is up, we go on to the next team, Missouri. We’ll get ready for the SEC Championship, and we want to play a dominant four quarters in that game.”
