Today Gus couldn't find enough plays that would work against this defense. (Photo-Deric Mason)

Despite Headlines, Bama Doesn’t Sleepwalk in Iron Bowl

By: Larry Burton

Despite hearing all week how Alabama could lose this game and still be in the College Football Playoffs, despite entering the game a 17.5 favorite, despite knowing Auburn was entering the contest a bit more beat up than the Crimson Tide, Alabama didn’t take the game for granted or sleepwalk in this edition of the iron bowl. Well, the offense may have for the first half, but the defense didn’t.

While Alabama didn’t try but one “razzle dazzle” play on offense, the game plan worked by simply out-muscling the Tigers from Auburn.

It was obvious that Alabama’s game plan was not to show how much they could score on Auburn, but how little Auburn could score on them. While Saban did manage to rotate more than a few subs in and out on offense to keep them fresh and rested, the main men on defense wanted to stay in and fight every inch the Auburn offense attempted to gain.

And it showed.

Auburn was supposed to able to run on anybody, but Pettway managed just 17 yards and Johnson just 39 to lead all rushers. It was a game of men against boys when Auburn had the ball. It was laughable to the Alabama fans who watched Auburn earn just 7 first downs for the entire day. They were just 15% in converting third and fourth downs for the game. Auburn did manage a couple of pass plays, but if it weren’t for the four Alabama fumbles and one interception, Auburn may have been shut out completely. As it was, Auburn failed to score an offensive touchdown for the fourth straight game. Yes folks, while some are calling this “No Shave November” for the Auburn team, it was “No Touchdown November”. They only managed 182 of total offense while the Tide went for over 500.

It was never as close as the score indicated.

While the defense put a valiant fight for the Tigers, the offense, of which Gus Malzahn is the head genius, looked like it never had a cohesive game plan going into the game and couldn’t figure out how to make adjustments for the second half either.

Yes, Alabama had every reason in the world to take this game lightly, they could have played down to the level of the competition, and while they did for one half on offense, they came alive in the second. The same could be said for the next game in the SEC Championship where they won’t need a win to lock down a playoff position for the post season, but I suspect they won’t sleepwalk through that game either.

If Gus Malzahn was hired for offensive prowess, he should now be fired for the total lack of it now. His offense is the joke of the SEC and is the only school not to score an offensive touchdown during the final month of play when it all counts. That is a team that doesn’t look like a sleepwalker, but a corpse. At least a sleepwalker can move.

So while Auburn fans have much to regret about this game, it was just business as usual for the Crimson Tide. Las Vegas had it picked about right. They said the Tide should win by anywhere from 17.5 to 16.5 points. They took care of business and won by 18, with a final score of 30-12. Nothing really fancy here on either side of the ball, just a team taking care of business and not sleepwalking.

Larry has been published in almost every media outlet for college sports and now primarily writes here for Touchdown Alabama. Follow Larry on Twitter for inside thoughts and game time comments at https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter

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