Alabama vs. Auburn

 

Hello Friends!

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone!

This week we have the Iron Bowl, the 2009 version.

Auburn  has the pleasure of hosting Alabama this year down on the plains. Although Auburn is already bowl eligible, a win over Alabama would give them bragging rights for 365 days. But unfortunately, their neighbors from Tuscaloosa are coming to town and it ain’t going to be pretty.

Now to the game…

Ok friends! I sat down to watch this game today and from an Alabama point of view, the game didn’t start out all that great. Auburn came out in the 1st quarter with a fast and tricky offensive scheme. Before we knew it, Auburn was up 7-0. Besides Auburn winning the game,the fans were all jacked up tonight. For the most part, the whole first quarter was dominated by Auburn. Alabama seemed to be sleep-walking through the game.

On the other side of the ball, Auburn had a good plan for stopping Alabama because Auburn knew Alabama would come out and run the ball to control the game. So when Alabama lined up with Mark Ingram in the backfield, Auburn lined up with 8-9 people in the box. They stuffed the run so Alabama had to switch to the passing game. Later in the 1st quarter, with Auburn getting close to going up14-0, Todd threw a pass that was picked off by Justin Woodall, which turned out to be no play at all because it was a false start. And what makes this bad for Alabama is that they didn’t get the interception and then Woodall threw the ball down in frustration and the refs called a personal foul putting Auburn ahead 15yds, which led to another Auburn TD, 14-0.

Alabama finally wakes up in the 2nd quarter, with Richardson in the game actually making some yards on the ground and Greg McElroy completing passes to Colin Peek and Julio Jones, Bama gets down in scoring position and Alabama finally scores its first TD. It must have seemed light night and day to Auburn from the 1st quarter to the 2nd quarter because Auburn went from being able to move the ball with free will to being knocked around and unable to move the ball in the 2nd quarter. Alabama got the ball back as the half was running out and Greg McElroy threw a TD pass to Colin Peek tying the score at the half 14-14.

Now let the fireworks continue….

Auburn got the ball to start the 2nd half and Alabama forced them to punt the ball. Alabama still didn’t seem to be able to do to much despite tying the game at the half. Later in the 3rd quarter, Auburn seemed to get their second wind and Todd threw a long pass that ended up in a TD because Bama was out of position. After Auburn goes up 21-14, the Auburn coaches got a brain freeze and Auburn actually kicked the ball to Javier Arenas and it like to have bit them in the @ss because Arenas set Alabama up into good field position.

Alabama still struggling, has to kick a FG. Alabama after kicking off to Auburn stopped them again and then Auburn like a bunch of dummies kicked the ball to Arenas again! This put Alabama in even better scoring position but they again had to settle for a FG. As the 3rd quarter ended and going into the 4th quarter, Auburn tried what ever they could to pull off the upset, but nothing seemed to work, Alabama’s defense was all over them forcing them to punt the ball. Alabama with about 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter started out a game winning drive that lasted 7 minutes.

Greg McElroy drove the ball down the field, mainly with passes to Julio Jones and a few runs by Trent Richardson,

and capped of the TD with a pass to Roy Upchurch making the final score 26-21!

ROLL TIDE ROLL!

In closing, this was an exciting Iron Bowl! Auburn came out and played their hearts out but the better team won today. Now on to the coaches…

Nick Saban got the 0-4 monkey off his back, by beating Auburn @ Auburn. Gene Chizik on the other hand has brought some excitement to the plains by getting the Tigers into a bowl game but from talking to people around the college football world, he is not the coach that most Auburn people wanted. No matter how many games he wins, if he can’t beat Alabama, he will be gone in three years.

So till next week when I cover the SEC championship game, have a nice holiday and don’t eat too much turkey!

ROLL TIDE!