IRON BOWL 2020: Saban-less Tide tramples Auburn

By TIM GAYLE

Before the kickoff, there was nothing normal about the 2020 Iron Bowl. 

The game itself sort of restored the normalcy as top-ranked Alabama rolled to a 42-13 win over Auburn for their fifth consecutive home win in the series at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday.

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that there is no such thing as normal. The Crimson Tide was a 23.5-point favorite over the Tigers, but were playing in front of a “sellout” crowd of 19,424, reduced for social distancing purposes and removing a lot of the home-field advantage. And they were playing without their head coach as Nick Saban was quarantined at home with coronavirus symptoms and offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian was assuming head coaching duties in his place.

“This is an unusual circumstance for me to be in, to be watching from afar, to see our team play from afar,” Saban said after the game through a Zoom conference. “‘Sark’ did a nice job of managing things. I sat here and felt a little helpless, but I could see things and, you know, yell at things and listen to Miss Terry cheer downstairs. It’s a little different, but it still feels good to win.”

Alabama (8-0) rolled with big plays from quarterback Mac Jones, who tied an Iron Bowl record with five touchdown passes and set an Iron Bowl record with a pass efficiency rating of 230.26.

After a couple of misses early, Jones was nearly flawless, connecting with DeVonta Smith on a double-move route that left the senior receiver all alone behind the defense for a 66-yard touchdown score, then with John Metchie on a pinpoint pass in the back of the end zone for a 14-0 lead a minute into the second quarter. 

Later in the quarter, he hit tight end Jahleel Billingsley with a 24-yard touchdown pass and early in the third quarter he found Smith again on a quick slant that Smith took 58 yards to the end zone for a 28-6 lead that ended any hopes of an Auburn upset.

“Last week I didn’t feel like I played as well as I could have and just tried to improve on the little things throughout the week,” Jones said. “But all that other stuff just goes to my teammates. They’re always going to do their job, so I have to match them and do my job as well, so they make it easy.”

There was a little pre-game controversy earlier in the week when Auburn quarterback Bo Nix called Jones a “game manager” and intimated his success came because of the weapons around him. Smith, who finished the game with 171 receiving yards and two touchdowns on seven catches, said that comparison gave him a little motivation entering the game. 

“When I saw it, I sent it to Mac and showed him,” Smith said. “It was just funny seeing that. But at the end of the day, people are going to talk and do what they want and we’re just going to show up and execute the game plan and do what we’ve got to do.” 

Nagee Harris, who added 96 rushing yards on 11 carries, sprinted 39 yards to the end zone and Metchie added another touchdown reception before the reserves entered the game. Auburn salvaged a little pride late in the game with a 12-play, 96-yard drive capped by Nix’s 1-yard plunge.

That touchdown snapped a 12-quarter streak by the Alabama defense of not allowing a touchdown, the longest streak in the nation. Despite the late touchdown, Saban was proud of his defense that allowed 233 yards and a pair of field goals before Auburn’s final two possessions.

“Our entire defense has improved and jelled together as a unit,” he said. “I think we play a little better in the back end than what we were playing in the beginning (of the season). I think we’ve got a little better pass rush. We made a couple of mistakes in the secondary that could have been costly. The guy (Seth Williams) drops the ball when he’s 20 yards behind everybody in the second quarter, which was a bust on defense. There were a couple of others on third down that we needed to get off the field on and didn’t because of a couple mental errors. But Auburn does a really, really good job offensively. They use a lot of formations, a lot of motions and you have to be on your toes in terms of how you adjust.”

Before the game, athletic director Greg Byrne filled it for Saban and honored 17 seniors playing their final game at home, including Smith, center Landon Dickerson, tight end Miller Forristall, left tackle Alex Leatherwood, Harris, linebacker Dylan Moses and a pair of graduate transfers in tight end Carl Tucker and punter Charlie Scott.

Jones said he thought Sarkisian did a good job blocking out the distractions as Alabama piled up 445 total yards in routing their arch rival.

“Obviously, we want Coach Saban to be out there,” Jones said. “Him talking to me on the sideline keeps me calm but at the same time ‘Sark’ did a good job. It’s not easy going in there, calling plays, managing a rivalry game and I think he obviously did a good job. Kudos to him. We were really fired up before the game and I thought our energy was good so everything seemed decently normal.”   

Maybe it was normal to Jones, but it was anything but normal for Saban. 

“I think I did yell at the TV a couple of times today,” he said, “a couple of times when we made some mistakes in coverage, a couple of times when we missed some tackles, a couple of times when Mac didn’t throw the ball to the guy that I thought he should have thrown it to. I guess it was more than a couple.”

But Alabama (8-0) improved to 3-0 against ranked teams this season and extended its streak of scoring 35 or more points to a national record 21 straight games. When asked if Sarkisian had to make any in-game decisions on his own, Saban was at a loss to find any.

“I didn’t think there was a lot of those real tough situations that came up,” he said. “I thought he was well prepared for what he needed to do and I think he did a really good job.”