what did happen


in short, for the first nine minutes and eighteen seconds, auburn won the iron bowl.

oh yeah...

then the rest of the game happened.

let's get to the first ten minutes of the game first. during this stretch, nothing can be taken away from auburn. they stuff alabama, force a three and out and get the ball. no sooner than i am settling down for alabama's defense to answer, the end-around happens. zachery is never touched on the longest play alabama has given up and most likely will give up all season. well, shit. that sucked. i and another alabama fan that works for me pick up each others' jaws off the floor and start to rationalize. "well, auburn is just jacked up." "that's emotion for you!" "i wonder if auburn has run that, that well, all season." "time for 'bama to answer." we aren't even finished yet with our excuses when the most perfect of onside kicks is executed. alabama is caught completely off guard. the kicker is jumping around and into teammates. my stocker leaves the office to go find a dog to kick and i sit, stunned. at this point, i don't know that the defense will step up to the challenge, but i do hope it very much. they don't. auburn's best and only real drive of the game follows the onside kick. alabama has run three plays. they are down 14-0. dammit.

my phone, e-mail inbox and facebook home page is lighting up with auburn fans that have been under a rock for weeks. "overrated", they chant. "this is the number two team in the nation???", they snicker. kiker is catastrophizing from texas. "bama looks asleep." "malzahn is owning saban." "fuck." i can't find a good comeback...

except for this...

i tell rondell, "wait 'til it turns into back into a football game (and not some boise st.-ish gimmick-fest). then get back with me." turns out i was right. thank god.

for the remainder of the game, the last fifty-plus minutes to be exact, alabama looks like the number two team in the country that is on the road against their biggest rival and may not be playing their best game. ingram is not getting off, but give credit to auburn for loading up the box to stop him (also give some of the blame to bama's offensive coordinator for some terribly vanilla play-calling in the first three quarters). bama's defense settles in and figures out all the misdirection. they give up one big play (and boy, was it a big play) the rest of the game. even having to scratch and claw to find offense and move the ball down the field, alabama outscores auburn 26-7 over the last 5/6th's of the game. am i discounting the first ten minutes? absolutely not. those first ten minutes to me, though, made the last three quarters that much more impressive. any self-respecting alabama fan knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that a shula-era bama team would have folded and lost friday somewhere in the realm of 31-7. not now. not this team. not with this talent and depth. and not with this coach.

is saban a dick? yep.

is he the most media-savvy of coaches? nope.

can he recruit? um, yes.

can he coach? looks as though he can.

and did alabama just go 12-0 for the second straight year? i do believe they did.

what did happen friday was unexpected, sure. i wasn't predicting a 36-0 blowout again, but i could've seen 36-14. that didn't happen. but, three days removed, what did happen makes me feel better about saturday than i did before the iron bowl.

this alabama team that wasn't playing with passion (according to their coach) spotted a good team 14 points, caught the tigers by their tails and won anyway.

you would be kidding yourself if you didn't think this team will be emotionally ready before the game on saturday. more on what will happen later today or later this week.

what did happen? auburn played very hard and gave us the best iron bowl we've had in ten years. they are still two years away from beating alabama.

alabama is now two wins away from something very special and very fun.

to be continued...