What: 2014 Iron Bowl
Who: Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Auburn Tigers
Where: Bryant-Denny Stadium; Tuscaloosa, Alabama
TV: 11.45am Sunday (AEDT) on ESPN2
Regardless of SEC or National Championship implications, the annual and incredibly divisive Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn – played on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, at Alabama’s home in Tuscaloosa on even-numbered years and in Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn on odd-numbered years for the last seventy-eight years – is a can’t-miss college football game that delivers massive television ratings and incredible hype and build-up no matter the surrounding college football landscape.
There’s only one thing that makes the Iron Bowl better, and that’s when the outcome of the game weighs heavily on the national title race. For the sixth straight year, the classic Auburn-Alabama game will play a key role in determining the eventual national champion, and it’s important to note that the winner of the Iron Bowl has won four of the last five BCS National Championship titles.
Alabama, coming into the game atop the College Football Playoff rankings, will doubtless have revenge on their mind, for who can forget the fabled, miraculous, incredible ‘kick-six’ finish when a short Alabama field goal attempt was returned the other way by Chris Davis.
To the absolute disbelief of football fans everywhere, Davis went 109 yards out of his own end zone to break Crimson Tide hearts across the world, and to propel Auburn to the SEC Championship Game and an eventual berth in the final BCS National Championship Game, with a 34-28 win.
A win for Alabama tomorrow would both banish the ghosts that surely must linger from last year’s extraordinary defeat, and push the Tide into the SEC Championship Game. A win there in Atlanta next week would almost certainly see Nick Saban’s men remain atop the national rankings, advance to a College Football Playoff semi-final, drawing the (relatively easier) fourth-ranked team.
To win, Alabama needs to stop Cameron Artis-Payne, the Tigers running back. He’s been the focal point of the Auburn offense in the last few weeks, since QB Nick Marshall, once a Heisman frontrunner, has struggled. Last week, Marshall was held to 171 passing yards and -8 rushing yards against an over-matched Sanford team.
If Alabama’s defense key off against Artis-Payne – as you would assume they will – Marshall will need to significantly improve and climb out of the slump that’s plagued him in losses to Texas A&M and Georgia in recent weeks. He’ll also need to hold onto the football, which won’t be easy.
You might remember that it was a series of costly fumbles that ensured Auburn would lose to A&M. Against a good Alabama defense, Marshall needs to make smart decisions and look after the football. He also needs to discover his running game, as he’s most dangerous as a duel-threat quarterback. That’s how Auburn won so many games this year and last. It’ll be hard, but the Nick Marshall of 2013 and early 2014 is certainly capable of making those big plays. He torched a pretty good ‘Bama defense last year, after all.
For Alabama’s quarterback Blake Sims, life will be significantly easier with news during the week that the sack leader on the Auburn defense Davonte Lambert will not line up. That should give Sims, who has a plethora of great weapons around him, including star receiver Amari Cooper, whose season output has been amongst the very best in school history. The only uncertainty surrounding Sims is that he’s making his first Iron Bowl start. That it is on home turf, with predominantly Tide fans inside Bryant-Denny Stadium, should make his life a little easier.
There’ll be a battle in the trenches as there is every year, and without Lambert on the field, Alabama’s offensive line is going to have an easier job than the might otherwise have had. It’s an advantage not to be sneezed at, and Auburn is going to need someone – anyone – to step up and create some pressure on Sims, or the Tigers defense is going to be in for a long day. Sims can’t be given time in the pocket or he’ll shred them!
For so long, the Iron Bowl has been the game of the quarterback – Cam Newton, AJ McCarron, Nick Marshall recently – and whoever can make big plays and smart decisions with the football is going to carry his team to what’s always a very important win. After all, state-wide bragging rights are on the line.
Prediction: This should be a close game for at least three quarters, but I’m tipping the Tide will pull away in the final stanza and record a comfortable win of somewhere around 2 touchdowns and move on to face Georgia or Missouri in the SEC Championship Game, thanks, largely, I think, to their battle-tested defense.
That said, the Auburn Bowl is known for producing mayhem, craziness and epic finishes, so, more so than in most games, anything – anything at all, as we saw last year! – is possible.
Join The Roar for live coverage of college football’s most historic and heated rivalries on Sunday morning beginning at 11.45am AEDT.
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