There are lots of signs on the wall in the Alabama football complex. Some of them serve as reminders of the great Alabama players who have followed their college days with careers in the NFL. Others are reminders of opponents that await. Some are motivational thoughts attributed to great coaches or other famous persons. One of these, is a quote from Coach Saban on the nature of football; it goes something like this: The game of football is not a contact sport. It is a collision sport. A sport of focused, controlled and violent collisions between opposing players each attempting to impose his will on the other. The victor is the person who succeeds in this clash of wills.
The truth of Coach Saban's description of football was on full display in Alabama's 29-13 victory in the 80th meeting between Alabama and Auburn. I may have seen harder hitting games......but for the life of me, I cannot tell you when or where. In the first half, Auburn fought Alabama toe to toe. The Tigers had success running the ball, and stymied the Alabama offense. Auburn denied Alabama the end zone, at one point forcing the Tide to settle for a field goal after having a 2d down and goal from about three inches. At the half, Alabama held a hard-won 12-6 lead, but the outcome of the game was very much in doubt.
In the second half, Alabama absolutely bludgeoned Auburn. The Tide defense smothered the Auburn rushing game and limited the passing attack on all but one flukey play, a one-man tip drill that resulted in a long touchdown; Auburn's only points of the second half. A scrambling Jake Coker found Ardarius Stewart alone in the end zone for the first of two second half TDs. Then Alabama unleashed the wrath of Derrick Henry.
It is nearly impossible to describe what Derrick Henry did in the second half. He was an absolute beast. He netted 103 yards rushing in the first half, and in the second he ran for 168 more. Alabama held the ball for 21:38 of the second half; 10:29 in the 4th quarter. Alabama ran 23 of its 76 total plays in the 4th quarter. Twenty of those plays....twenty....were Derrick Henry runs. Fourteen of those were consecutive.....ten in a row for 60 yards resulting in a turnover on downs....followed by four in a row for 34 yards and Bama's final touchdown.
Henry carried the ball 46 times for 271 net yards. He scored a rushing touchdown for a record setting 17th consecutive game. He joined Bo Jackson and Hershel Walker to become only the third player in SEC history to rush for 200+ yards four times in the same season.
The offensive line did an excellent job blocking, but the grunt work was Henry's. Auburn knew he was coming, and they could not stop him. By the time he broke his final carry around right end and raced 25 yards to the end zone, the Auburn defense was a shambles. Rumor has it that the Tiger defense is circulating a petition complaining that they ought to have been provided a trigger warning about the Alabama rushing game, and demanding that Gus Malzahn provide them with a "safe space" where they will be protected from Derrick Henry's macro-aggression. It may take Gus a while to address his players' concerns, however. It seems the Auburn head coach has his hands full with Will Muschamp breaking into a psychotic episode during the game. At this point it's even-money whether the league fines Muschamp or just sticks him in a straight-jacket and a padded room.
The 80th Iron Bowl is one I will remember for a long time.....I don't think I can say that for the deranged Muschamp; anti-psychotic medications can have an amnestic effect....but I do think there are dozens of Auburn players who, for years to come, will be seeing a white jersey with the crimson number 2 in their nightmares. What a splendid parting gift for the Auburn senior class! So, as part of that Senior Day send-off, here is how I grade the game:
Offense: A+
Alabama gained 465 yards of total offense [286 rushing], earned 24 first downs and controlled the clock of 35:23 of the game.
Jake completed 17 of 26 pass attempts for 179 yards and a touchdown [Ardarius Stewart]. Bama did not turn the ball over except once on downs late in the 4th quarter. Henry did practically all of the infantry work, although Jake did contribute 13 yards on 3 scrambles, and Damien Harris added 2 yards on his lone carry of the game. We ran a few sweeps with the wide receivers carrying the ball, but the statistician has classified those as pass plays.
Stewart caught 8 passes for 81 yards including a splendid, leaping grab of a 31 yard pass Coker threw while fleeing a determined Auburn rush. Jake broke one tackle, eluded another as he scrambled to his right, and heaved a perfect strike to the back of the end zone. Stewart had a bit of an up-and-down day. He dropped a couple of passes in clutch situations, and was penalized for offensive pass interference nullifying what would have been a key first down early in the game, but on the TD play he stepped up BIG. The offensive interference penalty was completely bogus.....more on officiating in due course....Calvin Ridley gained 90 yards on 6 catches. Richard Mullaney added 4 yards on 2 completions and Harris had one receptions for 4 yards.
The passing game supplied some fireworks, but this Iron Bowl was old-school trench warfare on both sides of the ball. The offensive line gave Henry gaps for runs, and surrendered only a single tackle for lost yardage. Jake was not sacked. The Tide offense put together 6 long drives [48, 67, 55, 85, 52, 51] that produced 4 FGs, the passing TD and a turnover on downs. That final sustained drive took 10 plays and consumed 5:03 of game time, leaving the Tigers only 2:46 to play. The defense held the Tigers on downs, setting up the Tide offense at the Auburn 34 yard line. From there it took Henry and the ground-pounders four plays to notch the final score.
Defense: A+
Auburn was held to fewer yards of total offense, 260, than Derrick Henry gained in rushing [271]. The Tigers had only 12 first downs, converted only 3 of its 15 possession downs, and only managed 3 sustained drives [68, 44, 75]. Their longest drive consisted of only 3 plays, and was the result of a tip-ball catch of a desperation heave on third down and long. Auburn punted twice after only three plays, surrendered a turnover on downs, and ended the game with a lost fumble.
Geno Matias-Smith was the Tide's leading tackler with 8 [6 solo]. Marlon Humphrey and Reuben Foster each accounted for 6 tackles. Reggie Ragland and Jonathan Allen each were credited with 5 stops. Alabama defenders made 5 tackles for lost yardage, 3 of which were sacks. The secondary broke up 4 passes and the front seven hurried the AU quarterback 7 times. On Auburn's last play of the game, Geno Matias-Smith forced a fumble which Maurice Smith recovered. The Smith-Smith fumble combo provides a fitting counterpoint to the 75-yard Johnson to Jason Smith fluke-TD.
Special Teams:
Punting: A JK Scott averaged 48.3 yards on his 3 punts. His longest was 50 yards and two went for touchbacks. Auburn managed 21 yards on a trick return play where one ostensible returner called for the ball to deceive the coverage team while a second return man grabbed the punt. It is noteworthy that Auburn has to rely on trickeration and lucky bounces for its biggest plays.
Place Kicking: A+ Griff was perfect on 5 field goal attempts [26, 40, 26, 50, 47] and both PATs. Who outside the program was confident that Griff would make the improvement he has achieved since the Wisconsin game?
Kickoffs: A Griff averaged 65 yards on 8 kickoffs, all but one of which were touchbacks. The lone kick that was returned only gained 1 yard beyond the touchback line of scrimmage.
Coaching: A+
Alabama gained 508 all-purpose yards against the Tigers. The Tide was penalized 7 times for 65 yards. The participation report lists 51 players who saw action in the game.
The run/pass ratio on Alabama's 76 plays was 50/26. On first down, Alabama ran the ball 22 times and attempted 10 passes. In his post-game comments, Coach Saban remarked on Henry's record-setting day: "He wanted the ball, and he kept getting stronger as the game went along."
Compare the Alabama sideline to the other side of the field. How long do you think Coach Saban would have tolerated Kirby Smart going into a rage reaction and costing his team a 15 yard dead ball foul, added to an existing 15 yard personal foul for a hit out of bounds? There is something wrong with Will Muschamp. This is a man who has been a head coach in the SEC. Is the pressure of coaching in game situations too much for him? Are his unhinged rage-reactions confined to game days, when millions are watching on television? What is he like at practice? Does he experience these episodes in other settings? What does this spectacle say about Malzahn? Coaching a game is challenging enough when your staff is acting like the professionals they are supposed to be. If Malzahn has any sense, he will send Muschamp packing before something worse happens.
The officials did not call a perfect game. But they did not effect the outcome. Could they have ejected Muschamp? Certainly. Was it an abuse of discretion for Tom Ritter to give Malzahn a chance to muzzle Muschamp? In my opinion it was not. The Barners would have only used such a decision as an excuse to mitigate the humiliation of being beaten by Alabama they way they were. This way, there is nowhere for them to hide. This was a physical beating, pure-and-simple.
In some ways, this defeat was worse for Auburn than the 49-0 loss in the 2012 Iron Bowl. Alabama crushed Auburn physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Alabama covered the betting line to defeat Auburn by 16 points. In contrast, the last time Auburn enjoyed a 16 point margin of victory in the Iron Bowl was the first year of the Nixon Administration. Auburn has now lost four of the five Iron Bowls played since the 2010 Cam Newton-fueled comeback game.
The wheels have come off the Gus-Bus. In the SEC, the inability to beat Alabama can shorten a coach's tenure faster than an insufficient deference to political correctness. Firing Muschamp, no matter how smart that decision may be, will not hit the reset button for Gus, who hired Muschamp in the first place. Count me among the folks who hope the current dysfunctional Auburn staff stays in place.
So, it's now on to Atlanta for a show-down with Florida for the SEC Championship. Not since 1998 has a team won back-to-back SEC Championships. Coach Saban told reporters after the Iron Bowl how much he likes this season's team. He complimented their work-ethic and competitive character. "Ever since the Ole Miss game they've had their backs to the wall", Saban said, "and they have responded every possible way that you could ask them to."
Last week's edition of The Grades was devoted to highlighting a special senior class, but this is a special team of players. And you don't need a sign on the wall to see that 2015 is shaping up to be a very special year.
Roll Tide, y'all......
The Commissioner
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