AUBURN | Auburn had the game won. Everything was going right for the Tigers as Alabama continually shot itself in the foot on its last drive. After the Crimson Tide reached the 7-yard line, a fumbled snap set them back 18 yards.

On the next play, Jalen Milroe was past the line of scrimmage when he threw an incomplete. It was 4th and 31, Jordan-Hare Stadium was at a decibel level that your ears are not prepared for, and all the Tigers had to do was keep the Tide out of the end zone.

They didn't. On the 10th anniversary of one of the biggest plays in college football history, Milroe and the Tide made one of their own. The stadium went silent. Faces were stunned. The crowd, just a few seconds earlier elated with the thrill of almost-sure victory, couldn't believe it. No one could.

Walking off the field for the last time in an Auburn uniform, the seniors were despondent. Hugh Freeze precisely put it how the locker room mood was afterward.

"A lot of hurt in that locker room, and it stinks," the head coach said. "The kids gave them a chance to win the Iron Bowl."

It wasn't much different from two seasons ago when an underdog and undermanned Auburn team took the Crimson Tide to the brink of elimination. But this one stung for every Auburn player, coach and staff member on the field. It stung for every fan that made Jordan-Hare Stadium a nightmare for Nick Saban and Alabama once again.

But college football and life are like this sometimes. When everything seems to be going your way, a gut punch comes out of nowhere, striking you that you don't think you will ever recover. That is the feeling these players have right now and will have for days to come. It won't be easy getting over a loss like this, especially when it comes against your biggest rival.

Freeze said there isn't much, if anything, you can say to the players who played their hearts out until the bitter end. A game like this is why these players sign up to come to Auburn, why this game means so much to so many.

Jalen McLeod, a transfer playing in his first Iron Bowl, didn't hesitate and repeatedly said afterward that he knew what this game was about. It's about moments like this where your heart is most broken. The Tigers went toe-to-toe with the Tide and had the game won until they didn't. In postgame interviews, voices trembled, and eyes were wet. The mood somber.

But, like after every excruciating moment that these young men endure as they grow older, the sun will rise tomorrow, and maybe, just maybe, they can take some solace in the fact that on November 25, 2023, they put everything on the line and made everyone connected to Auburn proud.