Initial Impressions: 5 observations from the Iron Bowl

Style points don’t really matter anymore in this modern era and for that, Alabama should be thankful. It’s never easy for the Tide to win on the pasture, and things get particularly chippy when those critters have nothing to lose and an opportunity to ruin Alabama’s season. Auburn’s season is now over, so they can turn to a debate over whether DJ Durkin will be the latest coach of abhorrent moral character to be hired over there.

A few impressions:

It was Alabama’s turn to be opportunistic on defense.

Auburn turned the ball over twice, on a tip drill interception by Bray Hubbard and a late fumble forced by Hubbard. This was a poetic end to the reguar season since Hubbard became the poster child for dogging it during the opener, fairly or unfairly depending on your perspective. Those two turnovers were critical in the game, and provided the difference since Auburn was unable to generate turnovers of their own.

Alabama missed at least one huge opportunity to create more comfortable situation when Zay Mincey let an interception go through his hands in the fourth quarter. That would have given Alabama the ball in Auburn territory with a seven point lead, and two plays later Mincey missed the tackle on Simmons that allowed a 64-yard catch and run to set up the tying score.

Auburn put the ball on the turf four times and Alabama only managed to recover the last one, so it could have been much worse. If Alabama is to make a postseason run this season, the defense will have to get some takeaways. Last night was a step in the right direction.

Handling prosperity continues to be a problem.

Kalen DeBoer praised the way his team fought in the game, and that’s something that we all should be proud of. In reality, however, they made things harder on themselves than they had to be, as we’ve seen so often this season.

When you get up by 17 points in a game, there simply has to be an ability to finish the job and remove all hope from the opponent. This team has shown resilience in spades when it comes to handling adversity, but absolutely cannot seem to handle prosperity. The failed flea flicker call by Ryan Grubb got plenty of criticism, and in his defense he was going for the kill shot. Still, running a trick play in that spot could be perceived as doubting your offense’s ability to provide such a kill shot without resorting to trickery. After scoring on three straight possessions to get the lead, Alabama ended the half with two feeble three play possessions to allow Auburn back into the game and hope to remain.

The success rate on defense will likely look great in this one. Take away the two plays from Simmons and the Tide allowed less than four yards per play. Unfortunately those plays did happen to continue Alabama’s trend of giving up too many explosives, and they very nearly cost them their season.

Trading a functional passing game for a decent run game is a bad deal.

Alabama’s running game looked downright competent for much of the night, as even Ty Simpson got in on the action. Jam Miller ran like a man possessed on Alabama’s second touchdown drive, and the Tide finished with 4.2 yards per carry including sacks. It was great to see some running lanes.

Unfortunately, for at least this game, the trade-off was a putrid performance through the air. Simpson threw for all of 122 yards on 35 tosses. He did throw the three short touchdown passes to Horton, and Alabama ended up needing all three. Still, in this modern era you have to be able to pass the football. It’s much easier to generate explosives through the air, and as Auburn showed last night explosives are a much simpler way to score than running it down the field.

Auburn came after Simpson hard, sacking him three times and keeping him under duress all night. He did make a couple of big time throws just before getting hit, but he also missed a wide open Germie Bernard on an opening possession deep post. Hit that pass and Auburn may well approach the rest of the game differently, but based on what we saw last night I’d expect Georgia to send heat and make Ty prove he will beat them deep.

Michael Carroll appeared to have a strong game at right tackle.

The right side has been a revolving door for much of the season. That wasn’t the case last night, as Wilkin Formby and Michael Carroll manned right guard and tackle, respectively, for the entire game. Jaeden Roberts didn’t appear on the injury report but stayed on the sideline, and Geno VanDeMark was rotating in at center for the banged up Parker Brailsford.

In general, the pressure on Simpson came from the A gaps and the left side. Kadyn Proctor continues to be inconsistent in pass protection, particularly against the speed rush that has plagued him for his entire career. Brailsford definitely didn’t look like himself in the middle, and that may have been a major reason for the poor passing output. But, Carroll acquitted himself quite well and looks to be the solution at right tackle. Daniel Hill was even able to rip off two nice runs behind him on Alabama’s final scoring drive.

Conor Talty deserves his flowers.

I’m certain that all of you were very confident when Talty lined up for his 45-yarder to open the scoring. Alabama’s kicking woes in that house of horrors are well documented, but Talty was nails last night. May that continue for the rest of his time at Alabama.

This Alabama team was written off by many after that season opening disaster, and while they haven’t exactly blown the doors off of the competition, going 7-1 in this SEC is a feat. They now get to face a Georgia team that they have terrorized, and a win will punch a playoff ticket with a top 5 seed.

It will be very interesting to see what the committee does on Tuesday. There will be much discussion about conference championship games, and specifically whether a team should be “punished” for losing one. The easiest solution for the committee to avoid such a discussion would be for Miami, on the back of a blowout win at what was a still-ranked Pitt squad, to move ahead of Alabama and BYU.

Miami will not be playing in a conference championship game, so putting them at 10 avoids that controversy entirely. If Alabama and BYU both lose, they stay at 11 and 12 so nobody was “punished,” and in that scenario the ACC gets two bids plus Notre Dame. If Alabama and BYU both win, then the Irish and ‘Canes are out of luck. What has already been a heated debate between those would reach an apex should Alabama win while BYU loses to Texas Tech. The Texas A&M loss to Texas takes a bit of shine off of Notre Dame’s “signature loss,” and Miami owns the head to head over them.

Let’s just knock off the Dawgs again, shall we? Hope for the best.

Roll Tide.