COLUMN: Rewrites were plentiful with crazy ending at Jordan-Hare Stadium

As Alabama quarterback Bryce Young provided the example, a lot of prayers were answered for the Crimson Tide in the 24-22 4-overtime win Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium. (Unv. Alabama Media Relations)

BY TIM GAYLE

AUBURN -- It was a little amusing to watch the Iron Bowl end at 10-10 with the two teams meeting in the middle of the field for overtime and every writer in the press box erasing what they had written and starting over again.

Alabama rewrote the script that Auburn had so brilliantly written for nearly four quarters. The Tigers owned a 10-0 lead that, quite frankly, seemed more like 30-0 at the time. Yet, if you were an Auburn fan, you have lived the final chapter over and over, much like “Groundhog Day,” for the previous three weeks. Dealing with late-game collapses are almost second nature.

When Alabama tailback Trey Sanders was stopped for no gain on a fourth-and-one run with two minutes remaining, the rest was just a formality, wasn’t it? Bryan Harsin had won his first Iron Bowl battle, the Tigers had won again in Jordan-Hare and evil Alabama had been vanquished once more.

After all, there’s three Auburn plays and just two Alabama timeouts. But wait a minute. How did Tank Bigsby run out of bounds on one play, Alabama stopped the clock on the other two runs and Auburn is punting after 25 seconds?

Alabama took over on its 3-yard line. Ninety-seven yards, 95 seconds, no timeouts. 

“You work all year long to put yourself in this position,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “Now you have an opportunity. This is the drive.”

“When we got put in that situation, I kind of got a little excited, just knowing what we’re capable of,” Alabama quarterback Bryce Young said.

Young, harassed all day by the Auburn defense, working behind a couple of replacement linemen without his top receiver and only his fourth-string tailback, put together a masterpiece that should roll on the screen behind the podium as he walks to the stage in a couple of weeks to accept his Heisman Trophy.

It won’t, simply because he won’t win it, but rarely has a leading candidate made a more convincing statement to voters late in the season. Against your archrival, with every card in the deck stacked against you, a sophomore answers the call. You have one proven receiver, no experienced running backs, your line is performing dismally, you’ve been sacked seven times.

But this time, down to your last gasp, you answer on third and 10 with a 22-yard strike to John Metchie; come back again to Ja’Corey Brooks for 21 yards; keep the drive alive with a 14-yard pass to Jahleel Billingsley on a fourth-and-seven pass; and drop a third-and-10 pass over the shoulder of Brooks as he crosses the goal with 24 seconds left.

You remember Ja’Corey Brooks, don’t you? The highly touted freshman from IMG Academy that entered the game with two career collegiate catches and had two on the final drive in regulation, including the one that earns him the prominent role in the next Daniel Moore print?

“You cannot ever imagine players competing in a game any better than what they competed in this game,” Saban said. “After halftime, it just seemed like everybody was all in. We were fighting like I’ve never seen us fight all year long.”

Then it was time for the first overtime in Iron Bowl history. Both teams score touchdowns, then both kick field goals. Are we really going to settle the biggest game of the year on two-point conversions? Who invented these stupid rules? I mean, two-point conversions can settle the Egg Bowl or a game between Kentucky and South Carolina, but the Iron Bowl?

Young threw a strike on a curl pattern to Metchie. T.J. Finley countered by rolling right and throwing back left to John Samuel Shenker. On to the fourth overtime.

This time, Finley was first and spotted Shedrick Jackson crossing the back of the end zone. As he fired, Kool-Aid McKinstry closed the gap and swatted the ball away. Then it was Young’s turn and a quick strike to Metchie accounted for the game’s final two points. 

“Should you equate what you accomplish in this profession from how many games you win?” Saban asked. “Or how many winners you helped to develop so that they have a chance to be not only winners on the field but winners in life? 

“The way these guys sort of overcame adversity in this game and showed great resiliency in the way they performed … this is something you should always remember, that when you put your best foot forward and you fight and you really believe in something and you do it together as a group, what you can accomplish.”

Like the other writers in the Jordan-Hare pressbox, I tore up everything I was writing and started over in overtime. Saturday was a moment of reflection as those of us who have been doing this for a while have lost Charles Hollis and Cecil Hurt recently, two crafty ‘ole writers I would have loved to have talked with on Saturday as the most unlikely of Iron Bowls unfolded.

I tried to think of what they would think of this game. Remember all the times you watched the Iron Bowl and thought, well, the fans act childish and sometimes like jerks, but the players are always respectful of the other team. Not on Saturday, when one team (Alabama) talked a lot more than they should considering what they were doing on the field and the other (Auburn) acted like some mid-major team on the verge of the upset of the decade.

This doesn’t seem like the Iron Bowl. Alabama, quit acting cocky. If not for Derrick Henry in 2015, you would have lost every trip to Jordan-Hare in the last 10 years. Auburn, quit acting like Boise State. You’re one of the better programs in the country. Start acting like it.

And just like that, the final minutes of regulation and four overtimes turned the 2021 Iron Bowl into an instant classic. Not one that Auburn fans will want to remember, but one they might appreciate as the years ease the sting of losing.

“You barely beat our backup,” one female Auburn student loudly proclaimed as she exited the stadium.

I can hear Charles or Cecil now. All of us that have had the pleasure of covering dozens of Iron Bowls can answer that one. It never matters which team is favored or how many points they score. The only thing that matters is who won.