Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
No. 1 Alabama rolls even without Saban Game of the day
Hit by virus, coach sits home, watching on TV Alabama 42, Auburn 13
TUSCLAOOSA, Ala. — Once the Iron Bowl kicked off, Nick Saban was just another passionate, heavily invested fan who was powerless to help his team win. His team still won — big.
Mac Jones passed for 302 yards and a career-high five touchdowns, highlighted by 66 and 58 yarders to DeVonta Smith, as No. 1 Alabama rolled over rival No. 22 Auburn 42-13 on Saturday without Saban.
Alabama (8-0, No. 1 in the playoff rankings) continued a dominating march through its all-Southeastern Conference schedule even without its six-time national champion coach.
Saban tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday and watched the game feed from home, witnessing the usual array of explosive plays with offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian running the show.
Saban said his staff “did a marvelous job.”
“Sark did a nice job of managing things, and I sat here and felt a little helpless,” he said in a postgame Zoom from his home. “I could see things and yell at things and listen to (wife) Miss Terry yell downstairs. It’s a little different. It still feels good to win.”
The result was much of the same against the Tigers (5-3), who suffered the second-most lopsided loss of Gus Malzahn’s coaching tenure. The only bigger margin was Alabama’s 52-21 win in the 2018 Iron Bowl.
“They’re a very, very talented team,” Malzahn said. “We knew that. … To beat a team like that on the road, you’ve got to make plays. We didn’t do that. We didn’t play our best.”
Alabama started a string of three straight touchdowns with Jones’s 66-yard TD to Smith. He later added a 58-yard catch and run on a quick slant, sprinting away from the Tigers.
Smith had seven catches for 171 yards. Najee Smith ran for 96 yards, including a 39-yard touchdown, and John Metchie III caught a pair of scoring passes.
“Not having Coach Saban is difficult, and obviously he did a great job preparing all of us for a situation like this. It was clear we were prepared for this situation,” Jones said.
Bo Nix passed for 227 yards and ran for a late touchdown for the Tigers, but also threw two interceptions.
“It feels pretty terrible,” Nix said. “It just hurts because of everything that I’ve put into it, everything that I’ve done to get to this moment.”