MSST is always a weird game for us. Especially on the road. Yeah they're palookas a lot of the time but games like this, they've got a lot of fight left in them and like a cornered animal can draw blood. They usually get us when we're tired and it's late in the season, too, maybe got a guy nicked up. They catch us sleeping sometimes (2016) and it really puts us on our back foot. Never underestimate the river pirates, for sure.
The kicking woes didn't particularly surprise me. They had barely called on him at all this season and he had already struggled a lot over the course of his career. Plus, kicking during the Saban era has only been consistent in 2 out of 10 seasons - 2008 and 2009. Have to feel a little sorry for Foster, because there was a lot of blame to go around for that loss. The biggest surprise to me was the way Auburn made swiss cheese of the Bama defense. I had not seen anyone run on Bama that way in many years.
What surprised me more was in IB 2014, even though Bama won, the way Nick Marshall carved us up throwing the ball. Bama actually did a decent job stopping the run in the 2014 game, but gave up around 450 in the air.
Oh yes, the kicking game got way too much of the blame. I've always said our offensive line failed us that game. We had 3rd/4th and shorts we could not convert, way too many penalties, and some untimely drops. The defense also looked quite confused and seemed to guess wrong 2/3's of the time on the read option.
14 was the second worst Bama defense of the Saban era, behind only 2007. But Nick Marshall also had the game of his career in terms of passing in that 14 Iron Bowl. It's just crazy that in 2012 Bama could very easily have smashed the record for the biggest Iron Bowl blowout. The record is 55-0 is 1948, and Bama led 49-0 pretty early in the third in 2012. They basically put on a clinic in not running up the score that game. Never would have anticipated they would lose the following season, but I'm never confident against Auburn. Since the 9 game streak between 73 and 81, Bama's only 17-17 against Auburn. I've seen more losses than wins in the Iron Bowl in my lifetime.
Same here. I really started watching in 1984, and I think Bama is right around the .500 mark against Auburn. I was relieved we pushed the streak to 3 in a row in 2016. The only other time I'd seen that was 1990-1992 under Stallings.
Totally missed the Christion Jones mega hit on the opening kickoff of the 2nd half. Bama cared more about hitting Miss St as hard as they could this game. Very physical
This was the game I feared that Alabama started losing the fire they had. It cost them in the last 2 games they played. Tough times but, I'll always don my Crimson Pride through thick and thin. Roll Tide #17 is on the way.
At least the defense never lost the fire. Multiple threatening drives ESPECIALLY the several off turnovers would have demoralized any other defense except the Tide's. But yes as the commentators indicated, Alabama's offense basically kept Miss St. in the game.
I agree, but you just have to wonder what if they'd pulled the Auburn game out? Would they have gotten the fire back? Of course wondering doesn't help or change anything. Bama came out so tight against Auburn, the loosened up in the 2nd quarter. Bama then got the jitters again in the 4th. Very uncharacteristic of a Saban coached team.
They had every opportunity to win that game of course. I actually think the weakness of Saban teams is they tend to tense up in close games and make uncharacteristic mistakes. In games decided by 7 or fewer points, Bama is only 18-14 in the Saban era. And in many of those losses (2007 ULM, 2007 Miss State, 2010 Auburn, 2011 LSU, 2012 A&M, 2013 Auburn, 2014 Ohio State, 2015 Ole Miss, 2016 Clemson), Bama was as responsible as the opponent (sometimes more) for beating Bama. If you look at Saban when he appears in this video, he doesn't look like himself on the sidelines. He's spoken very negatively about this 2013 team after the fact, and I think he was weary of dealing with them by this point.
MSST is always a weird game for us. Especially on the road. Yeah they're palookas a lot of the time but games like this, they've got a lot of fight left in them and like a cornered animal can draw blood. They usually get us when we're tired and it's late in the season, too, maybe got a guy nicked up. They catch us sleeping sometimes (2016) and it really puts us on our back foot. Never underestimate the river pirates, for sure.
Cade Foster...9/10 field goals coming in and hits two more in this game. Didn't predict what was to come two weeks later.
The kicking woes didn't particularly surprise me. They had barely called on him at all this season and he had already struggled a lot over the course of his career. Plus, kicking during the Saban era has only been consistent in 2 out of 10 seasons - 2008 and 2009. Have to feel a little sorry for Foster, because there was a lot of blame to go around for that loss. The biggest surprise to me was the way Auburn made swiss cheese of the Bama defense. I had not seen anyone run on Bama that way in many years.
What surprised me more was in IB 2014, even though Bama won, the way Nick Marshall carved us up throwing the ball. Bama actually did a decent job stopping the run in the 2014 game, but gave up around 450 in the air.
Oh yes, the kicking game got way too much of the blame. I've always said our offensive line failed us that game. We had 3rd/4th and shorts we could not convert, way too many penalties, and some untimely drops. The defense also looked quite confused and seemed to guess wrong 2/3's of the time on the read option.
14 was the second worst Bama defense of the Saban era, behind only 2007. But Nick Marshall also had the game of his career in terms of passing in that 14 Iron Bowl. It's just crazy that in 2012 Bama could very easily have smashed the record for the biggest Iron Bowl blowout. The record is 55-0 is 1948, and Bama led 49-0 pretty early in the third in 2012. They basically put on a clinic in not running up the score that game. Never would have anticipated they would lose the following season, but I'm never confident against Auburn. Since the 9 game streak between 73 and 81, Bama's only 17-17 against Auburn. I've seen more losses than wins in the Iron Bowl in my lifetime.
Same here. I really started watching in 1984, and I think Bama is right around the .500 mark against Auburn. I was relieved we pushed the streak to 3 in a row in 2016. The only other time I'd seen that was 1990-1992 under Stallings.
Totally missed the Christion Jones mega hit on the opening kickoff of the 2nd half. Bama cared more about hitting Miss St as hard as they could this game. Very physical
You're right, I should've had that in there. Probably the most memorable thing from this game.
It was definitely targeting though.
This was the game I feared that Alabama started losing the fire they had. It cost them in the last 2 games they played. Tough times but, I'll always don my Crimson Pride through thick and thin. Roll Tide #17 is on the way.
At least the defense never lost the fire. Multiple threatening drives ESPECIALLY the several off turnovers would have demoralized any other defense except the Tide's.
But yes as the commentators indicated, Alabama's offense basically kept Miss St. in the game.
This team was never the same after beating LSU. That was the high water mark, and they never really played well again.
I agree, but you just have to wonder what if they'd pulled the Auburn game out? Would they have gotten the fire back? Of course wondering doesn't help or change anything. Bama came out so tight against Auburn, the loosened up in the 2nd quarter. Bama then got the jitters again in the 4th. Very uncharacteristic of a Saban coached team.
They had every opportunity to win that game of course. I actually think the weakness of Saban teams is they tend to tense up in close games and make uncharacteristic mistakes. In games decided by 7 or fewer points, Bama is only 18-14 in the Saban era. And in many of those losses (2007 ULM, 2007 Miss State, 2010 Auburn, 2011 LSU, 2012 A&M, 2013 Auburn, 2014 Ohio State, 2015 Ole Miss, 2016 Clemson), Bama was as responsible as the opponent (sometimes more) for beating Bama.
If you look at Saban when he appears in this video, he doesn't look like himself on the sidelines. He's spoken very negatively about this 2013 team after the fact, and I think he was weary of dealing with them by this point.
Similar to the 2010 team. It was especially painful to be on the brink of history. At least the 2010 team was out of it by early November.