Bumbling Bama falls to Auburn
Host of mistakes likely ends Tide’s slim playoff hopes
Alabama has unlimited depth where it chooses to. Its backup quarterback, Mac Jones, threw for 335 yards and four touchdowns (and two pick-6s) against Auburn in the Iron Bowl. Its No. 4 wide receiver, Jaylen Weddle caught three of those touchdowns and had a fourth kick return TD. But Nick Saban’s kickers have long been worse than even the NCAA average, possibly because of his insistence that a quarterback work as the holder.
That struck again Saturday, when Joseph Bulovas missed a 30yarder that would have tied the game. Auburn held on for the 48-45 win Sat- urday night, dropping Alabama to 10-2 and probably killing off its already very slim playoff hopes.
Bulovas doinked the ball off the left upright, giving Auburn the ball back with two minutes and two timeouts for Alabama. The Tide got the two stops it needed, but then lined up 12 men on third down, clinching the game for Auburn. It was a dumb penalty in a game full of them for Alabama, which was called for 13 penalties and racked up 96 yards.
Auburn deserves ample credit too. Its two pick-6s were decisive, including a 100-yarder that created a two-score swing. Alabama was leading 31-30 in the second half, had scored touchdowns on four out its five previous drives, and was knocking on the door of a fifth. On first down from the 2-yard line, Mac Jones threw a pass behind Najee Harris. It deflected off Harris’ hands and back and linebacker Zakoby McClain returned it 100 yards for a touchdown.
While a 100-yard touchdown and gut-wrenching missed field goal in the Iron Bowl are not new territory for Alabama, plenty of history was made Saturday night. It’s the first time Alabama has lost multiple regular season games in nine years. They’ll almost cer
AUBURN 48 ALABAMA 45
tainly miss the playoff for the first time ever. And it's the first time in 20 years that one of Saban's teams has given up 48 points in a game.
The final 12-men penalty came against a devilishly tricky Auburn formation where the Tigers lined up their punter as a wide receiver. Saban, who had earlier gotten furious about the refs leaving a second on the clock at the end of the first half, did not take it magnanimously. “I really feel that it was a pretty unfair play at the end of the game,” he said. “They substituted the punter as a wide receiver, so we put the punt team in. And then when the quarterback was still in there we tried to put the defense back in.”
Sorry, Nick. Outsmarting you isn't against the rules. It's just felt that way for a decade; that's over now.