And yet that’s exactly what Auburn fans will need: patience, and truckloads of it. Auburn lost Saturday’s Iron Bowl 29-13 to relentless rival Alabama thanks to Derrick Henry’s 271 yards on 46 carries, but not before a healthy serving of the strangeness that always characterizes this rivalry.
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Tide coach Nick Saban said Alabama’s defense must be prepared for both because they’ve each “played well at times”. “He didn’t want to come out”. He wanted to go and said that he could, and certainly finished the game like we needed to today.
Adam Griffith kicked five field goals for Alabama (11-1, 7-1) two years after his last-play attempt touched off Auburn’s Kick Six, a 109-yard, game-winning return by Chris Davis.
“I’m up on a box alone in front of all these people”, said Daniel Phillips. Alabama’s Richard Mullaney picked the ball up nine-yards deep in the end zone and rushed it out to the 10-yard-line to prevent a safety.
The Tide clinched a spot in the SEC championship game with the win over the Tigers. But ‘Bama took control down the stretch.
Auburn has not announced who will start at quarterback against Alabama. “I was just doing my job and trying to win games”, Grifftih said. Watson, though, followed series with a 60-yard scoring drive that he ended with a 3-yard burst around the left side. “Since whenever I can remember, I was decked out in crimson and going to football game”, said Phillips. He is 111-32 with a national title.
Named after the role Birmingham had on the steel industry, this game has had it all: great players, coaches and finishes.
With the regular season being over, fans are wondering about possible staff changes on the way.
Before that announcement, players lifted Miles on their shoulders and carried him toward the student section as the crowd chanted “Keep Les Miles!” He was on the hunt for Alabama shirts for his grandchildren Jackson Caylor, 8, and Ella Caylor, 4. Calvin Ridley and ArDarius Stewart have combined for 1,156 receiving yards and seven touchdowns while O.J. Howard has 30 receptions.
The way that ground-and-pound is supposed to work is that the offense is content to gain one or two yards early, knowing that by the fourth quarter those holes will be bigger.
Auburn’s defense allowed Henry to more than 100 yards in the first half, but held the Crimson Tide out of the end zone and trailed just 12-6 entering the locker room. Mississippi State struggled in quarterback Dak Prescott’s final home game at Davis Wade Stadium.
Jeremy Johnson led the Tigers offensive, completing 10 of his 23 passes for 169 yards and one touchdown. Alabama is already securely in the top four so long as it wins its remaining game, and a victory over the now-No.
“Right now, we are hurting over this game”.
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It was reminiscent of Ricardo Louis’s deflected catch for an Auburn touchdown to beat Georgia two years ago.
