The No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide 8-3 played their state rivals, the No. 15 Auburn Tigers 11-1, in the Iron Bowl on Saturday. Alabama won the game 55-44. At half-time, the score was Alabama 21, Auburn 26, but Alabama came back in the 2nd half and outscored Auburn 34-18.
The Auburn Tigers won the game according to the statistics, but unfortunately the final score on the scoreboard determines the winner. Statistically Auburn had 28 -1st downs for 628 total yards, with 456 passing and 172 rushing yards, with 2 turnovers, while possessing the ball for some 33:54 minutes of the game. The Crimson Tide had 24- 1st downs for 529 total yards, with 312 yards passing and 212 rushing yards, with 3 turnovers, and possessed the ball for 26:36 minutes of the 60 minute game.
The offensive leaders for Auburn in the game were the QB Marshall, who completed 27 of 43 passes for 456 yards, with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. RB Artis-Payne & QB Marshall combined for 38 carries for 126 yards with no touchdowns. Receivers Coates & Williams had 12 receptions for a combined 327 yards, with Coates scoring 1 TD.
Leading offensive for Alabama in this game were QB Sims who completed 20 of 27 passes for 312 yards, with 4 touchdowns while being intercepted some 3 times. RB’s Yeldon & Henry combined for 24 carries for 199 yards, with Yeldon scoring 2 touchdowns and Henry scoring 1 touchdowns. Receivers Cooper & Jones combined for 14 receptions for 245 yards with Cooper scoring 3 touchdowns.
The scoring saw Alabama score 14 points in the 1st quarter and 7 points in the 2nd, while Auburn scored 6 points in the 1st and 20 points in the 2nd quarter, to take the half-time lead with Auburn 26 and Alabama 21. The second half saw Auburn score 10 points in the 3rd and 8 points in the 4th quarter, while Alabama scored 13 points in the 3rd and 21 points in the final 4th quarter to win the game 55-44.
Alabama in the first half, played some of their worst football of 2014 according to Coach Saban, but his team was able to comeback in the 2nd half with their program of comeback, by throwing to receiver Cooper and then do it again and win the Iron Bowl Classic. Tide receiver Cooper managed 224 yards tying his own school record and 3 TD catches in the Iron Bow Classic with and all time scoring record for the game.
At a point in the 3rd quarter, Auburn was leading in the game 36-27 as they had to settle for five field goals as each time they could not score a TD, while in the Red Zone. Auburn in this game was able to amass 630 offensive yards against Alabama’s top SEC defensive unit. Then with Alabama chalking up 539 offensive yards, the game scoring set a record for Iron Bowl Classics for combined yardage in a game.
For those that bet on college football at SBG Global or other online sportsbooks, be advised that the next game for No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide now 11-1 in week 15, is the SEC Championship game against the No. 17 Missouri Tigers now 10-2 with the game on Sat. Dec. 6th at 4 PM ET at the Georgia Dome, in Atlanta Georgia and on CBS TV.