To beat Alabama, Gus Malzahn knew Auburn needed to capitalize on scoring opportunities.

They failed to do that on Saturday, as the Tigers settled for field goals and crucial mistakes backed them up.

After three drives that accumulated a total of 40 yards, Auburn finally found itself in Alabama territory in the second quarter. The Tigers were down 14-0 but had a third-and-3 from the Alabama 30-yard line.

Bo Nix had an incomplete pass on third down to Anthony Schwartz, and the Tigers settled for a 47-yard field goal, making it 14-3.

While Auburn ultimately opted to kick a field goal, head coach Gus Malzahn says they considered going for it, but valued the points more.

“We did think about going for it there. I just think sometimes you’ve got to, especially early in the game, put points on the board, get a little momentum,” Malzahn said. “That was really our thought. Up to that point, I thought our defense was doing a solid job. There was some talk about it but at the time I thought the best thing to do was get points on the board.”

The Tigers put those points on the board, but the momentum didn’t come with it.

Instead, Alabama scored a touchdown on the next drive and the offense continued to stall in its last two drives; with a punt and an interception on the final two drives of the half.

In the second half, it was much of the same for the Auburn offense.

Down 21-3, now, Auburn’s first drive of the second half similarly stalled out around the Alabama 30-yard line and out trotted Anders Carlson for a 45-yard field goal.

He connected on the kick, but again the Auburn offense failed to generate a touchdown when needed.

“You know a few times we shot ourself in the foot. I think we went backwards a couple times,” Malzahn said. “We had a couple opportunities, but that's the name of the game. When you get in the red zone, you've got to score touchdowns against the No. 1 team in the country on the road. We didn't do that. The frustrating thing for me is we never really got close enough to apply any pressure on them. They could play loose really the entire game.”

Nix, who finished the game 23-of-38 with 227 yards and two interceptions, gave credit to the Alabama defense for the squandered drives.

“I think it has a lot more to do with their defense and how they played us,” Nix said. “I think they did a good job of making us have long drives, and because of that we had to settle for some field goals. Like you said, we didn’t move the ball at times; we just couldn’t get anything really going.”