Saturday night marked another thrilling edition of the Iron Bowl.
Facing a 17-point deficit with over 11 minutes to play in the second quarter, Auburn stormed back and evened things up at 20 before giving up a touchdown with under four minutes to go, ultimately leading to a 27-20 loss to No. 10 Alabama at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
But one defining factor in all of Auburn’s losses this season – all coming by 10 points or less – was the self-inflicted wounds. And they reared their ugly heads again on Saturday night.
Simply put, Auburn didn’t make the necessary plays to spoil its archrivals' College Football Playoff aspirations.
“We had a chance to win the game, and you can’t turn the ball over in a game like this,” said Auburn interim head coach DJ Durkin after the game. “We started slow. We picked it up. And really, we doubled the ball, the rest of the game, and outgained them. It was just critical turnovers.”
After the Crimson Tide’s last scoring drive, which put them up by seven, Auburn was marching downfield with a last-minute chance to knot things up. With 40 seconds remaining, Ashton Daniels found Cam Coleman on a screen pass, which Coleman coughed up for the Tigers’ second turnover of the night.
“Cam is a great player for this program,” Durkin said of Coleman. “He was obviously trying to get yards, and it happened. We have to do better with ball security, for sure. Cam is a great, great player, and even better person.”
On top of the Tigers owning a -2 turnover margin – after coming into this one ranked ninth in FBS with a +11 turnover margin – they dropped an insurmountable amount of passes (eight unofficial). It was a large part of the reason Auburn started off the game with three straight punts and one yard on nine plays.
Auburn had five drops in the first half alone, which was already a season high, with many of them coming on crucial downs.
“Those are guys that need to make those catches,” Durkin said of the Tigers’ pass catchers. “Those guys are fighting like crazy. I think sometimes you strain so hard, little things, routine, things like that, and you don't execute them in the game.”
The Tigers’ mistakes don’t stop there, however, as they were called for 10 penalties for 84 yards – one resulting in a touchdown that was called back moments before halftime.
On Alabama’s final scoring drive, Auburn forced it into four third-down situations. On two of those, Auburn got a stop – which led to an eventual fourth-down conversion for the Crimson Tide – and on the other two, it was called for penalties to give them a fresh set of downs.
Saturday night marked the fifth time this season Auburn has been flagged 10+ times in a single game, and it was the seventh time committing eight or more.
“Our guys are there to play aggressively, but we'll never change that or stop that. We're always going to be the one swing,” Durkin said. “Stuff happens. It happens.”
The Tigers’ season has now come to a close after falling in their sixth straight Iron Bowl and finishing with their fifth consecutive losing campaign. Auburn did not win a home game in conference play this season for the first time since 2012.
Auburn is set to name its permanent head coach in the coming days.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email [email protected].
