Following Auburn football often is compared to riding a rollercoaster.
From year to year and game to game, the Tigers have an unnerving knack for breathtaking highs and crushing lows. Those peaks and valleys tend to follow each other in quick succession.
You’ll rarely see a metaphor brought to life as vividly — and accurately — as we just experienced in the 84th Iron Bowl.
This was an all-time classic in a rivalry studded with memorable games. It had everything: Breathtaking offense, crushing defense, special-teams drama and not one but two stunning turns during the final minutes.
There were no less than 10 lead changes across the course of the game. The second quarter alone had more scoring that many games in the rivalry’s past with 48 combined points.
I feel very safe in assuming that nobody saw this kind of game coming.
Certainly there were 'Bama fans and media figures (please excuse the redundancy) who predicted a high-scoring affair — but only for one side.
Optimistic Auburn fans expected the Tigers to perform well against a Tide defense that did not appear to be up to UA’s recent standards, but nobody on earth, probably not even Gus Malzahn himself, expected this one to be a full-on shootout that would rattle up just south of 100 combined points.
To put it another way, for anyone who actually predicted that Auburn would give up 45 points and still win, my hat is off to you.
Or it would be, if you weren’t lying.
So much football was crammed into those delirious four hours it’s hard to know where to start ... but how about a much-maligned Auburn offense that finally never went out to lunch for long periods of the game.
The Tigers only punted three times, only once in the second half. Bo Nix completed just half of his passes on the biggest stage, but with help from lights-out catches all across the receiving corps, Nix hit everything he needed to, didn’t have a turnover and wasn't sacked.
Auburn continued a season-long inability to run inside, but when running-back-by-committee got outside the tackles, it was able to gash the Tide defense on critical plays. Boobee Whitlow’s 115 yards kept the Tigers on the field for critical long second-half drives.
(Enough with the fumbling though, Boobee.)
And of course we’ll be seeing Shaun Shivers’ near-decapitation of 'Bama defensive back Xavier McKenny on the game-winning touchdown run for decades. What looked like a disaster from afar — McKenny’s helmet was mistaken by a great many observers as a game-killing fumble — instead became instant and permanent addition to Auburn lore.
AuburnSports’ inestimable Jeffrey Lee has often referred to the 2019 Tiger defense as “break but don’t bend,” and the 'Bama game was a textbook example of that unusual combination. The Tigers' secondary conceded Alabama’s signature crossing and slant routes for big yardage and scores, but also showed out when the game was on the line.
Even while allowing all those long scores from Jaylen Waddle, the oft-criticized defensive backfield also provided two of the game’s most exhilarating plays in Smoke Monday and Zakoby McClain’s epic pick sixes.
Auburn’s stellar defensive front rarely was able to fight through uncalled holds from the Tide front, but Derrick Brown and his mates got through enough times to disrupt 'Bama quarterback Mac Jones’ solid performance — forcing a pair of three-and-outs and keeping the Tide far enough from the end zone on their final possession to set up …
... if you’re reading this, you know what they set up. So let’s talk about special teams for a second.
Hardly any Auburn player has been criticized as harshly in 2019 as Anders Carlson. And all he did against 'Bama was nail everything put in front of him, going a perfect 4-for-4 with a long of 53 yards and nothing closer than 42. Unlike 'Bama kicker Joe Bulovas, Carlson never had the luxury of a chip shot.
Speaking of which, I can only think of a couple of times in the past when the decibel level in Jordan-Hare has gone from near-silent to ear-splitting as quickly or as ferociously as on Bulovas’ final field-goal attempt.
Games in this rivalry have come down to kicks entirely too many times for my peace of mind during the past 35-odd years. Auburn finished on the wrong side in both 1984 and 1985, while getting the wins in 1997 and most famously in 2013.
But I don’t recall a moment that was quite like the hush that fell over the crowd Saturday night after Bulovas made contact with two minutes remaining on the clock.
Everyone watched with baited breath as the ball sailed over attempted blocks. It was so quiet that the now-immortal DONK! as it ricocheted off the left upright rang out across the throng — only to be overwhelmed by the home crowd’s roaring celebration.
And there was yet another glorious moment to come. Malzahn played conservative (though a really weird conservative) with Wildcat plays that failed to move the chains, apparently conceding a punt and additional minute to the Tide defense.
When Malzahn and Nix then proceeded to sucker Nick Saban with an “unfair” substitution (note to the Little Man: it wasn’t unfair, you were just dumb and got outcoached) to earn a game-ending substitution penalty, that was about as good as it gets.
Knocking off the Tide, that’s great. Knocking them off in bravura fashion and turning their coach into a petulant little whiny brat in the aftermath? That sublime. It was the perfect last curve in a rollercoaster game that had everything.
* * *
A last word. Auburn’s joy was tempered Sunday with an equal measure of sorrow as the news broke that Pat Sullivan had passed after many years of battling illness.
It’s not possible to convey in a few words how important Auburn’s first Heisman Trophy winner was to the university or the football program.
Sullivan was a giant both on and off the field. As a player he brought fans to their feet from his first appearance in a freshman-team game through to the sport’s pinnacle award as a senior. After his playing days ended, Sullivan helped resurrect Auburn’s offense for a trajectory-changing, multi-championship run as an assistant coach in the late 80’s.
As a head coach Sullivan turned around a moribund TCU program, paving the way for success that the Horned Frogs enjoy to this day. Only fate and a bad agent prevented him from becoming an SEC head coach at LSU in 1994. An old grudge nursed by Paul Bryant Jr.— Sullivan was largely responsible for the greatest margin of victory ever notched against Bryant Sr. at Alabama — later denied him the top job at UAB.
As was his way, Sullivan persevered through those disappointments and severe health issues, going on to become the winningest coach in the history of Samford football, eclipsing the likes of Bobby Bowden.
Sullivan’s playing career was a beacon to Auburn fans struggling through the darkness of the 1970’s. Even though I am a few years too young to remember seeing him play in person, I know I speak for legions when I say that he was my first hero.
Godspeed, #7.
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