Alabama shows its Iron will in beating Auburn
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — For a good and vivid while, it seemed the 2014 Iron Bowl wished to keep up with its esteemed and remarkable predecessor. It gushed stunning offensive plays by sterling offensive players. It roared out of the third quarter with 70 total points and 860 combined yards and a heaving array of possibilities.
Then No. 1 Alabama clamped down just enough. It got an interception and a stop in a wild game in which two stops mattered. It followed by preventing an Auburn touchdown from inside the Alabama 10-yard line for the fifth time in the game, probably the most crucial recurring detail in the whole four-hour frenzy.
By the time another zealous Alabama-Auburn Saturday night had ended, Alabama had recovered from a 12-point deficit. It had a 55-44 victory in the highest-scoring Iron Bowl ever. It had a bit of a balm for some of the sourness it has felt since Auburn's unforgettable 34-28 win across the state 364 days earlier. It had a testament to the offensive capability that helped it rebound, including 13 catches for 224 yards and three touchdowns from Heisman Trophy candidate Amari Cooper, whose screaming 75-yard reception late in the third quarter altered momentum.
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And of course, it had more. Alabama often has more. It had an 11-1 record, a berth against Missouri in the Southeastern Conference championship game Saturday in Atlanta and a rational path to a fourth national championship in the last six seasons. By kickoff, it already had the SEC West Division championship after Mississippi State lost at Mississippi.
That last laurel might have meant much to many in other towns, but it would have been puny consolation here had No. 15 Auburn (8-4) run its improbable series record in Tuscaloosa to 6-2 since 2000. For a while, Auburn seemed inclined to do that. By the third quarter, the loathed visitors had sent the 101,821 in Bryant-Denny Stadium into as much of a hush as happens here.
Coach Gus Malzahn's offensive laboratory again had churned out yards and fear. After trailing 14-3 early, Auburn had wrestled away control of the game. It led 33-21 four minutes into the third quarter. It had gained 506 yards by the end of the third quarter. It had senior quarterback Nick Marshall making mighty throws (27 for 43 for 456 yards all told), wide receiver Sammie Coates making five commanding catches for 206 yards and two touchdowns and wide receiver D'haquille Williams stunning with some of his seven catches for 121 yards.
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By the time Auburn had that 12-point lead and Alabama quarterback Blake Sims had thrown three recent interceptions, the only quibble the sliver of Auburn fans in the corner of the stadium could have had was the red-zone roadblock. Auburn got to the Alabama 3-yard line, the Alabama 7, the Alabama 7 again and the Alabama 1, all in the first half, all leading to field goals.
If Auburn wanted touchdowns, it had to get them from elsewhere on the field, so it did, with Coates hauling in 34- and 68-yard touchdown passes, the latter 54 seconds before halftime. Said Alabama Coach Nick Saban: “We haven’t played a lot of games where we give up 42 [sic] points and win. That’s really not our style.” But in the offense-heavy fashion of the game at the moment, “There are going to be games like this, and we’re going to have to win games like this.”
So they did. They got from 33-21 to 36-34 because Cooper found space and Sims rediscovered his touch for some gorgeous deep throws that found Cooper for 39 and 75 yards. Then they got Nick Perry’s interception of Marshall’s first real mistake, leading to Sims’s 11-yard scramble for a 42-36 lead with 14 minutes 33 seconds left.
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From there, they got a three-and-out stop and a 72-yard drive for a touchdown that made it 48-36. Marshall then heaved another gem to Coates, this one for 53 yards to the Alabama 16-yard line. Alabama got yet another stop inside its 10, this one on downs with no field goal, this one also the work of the senior Perry on a fourth-down tackle. Then, of course, Alabama streamed 92 yards in six plays to running back Derrick Henry’s 25-yard touchdown run against a defense gone exhausted.
In that, the defense had joined the chain crew and the stat-keepers.
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