Auburn Decides Iron Bowl Upset Not So Important After All

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That was not what Gene Chizik had in mind. It couldn't possibly have been. He didn't really mean to call a draw play with under a minute remaining and 15 yards to a first down, did he? Alabama won the game with a gutsy, season-defining type of drive, but not without plenty of help from the Auburn coaching staff, secondary, and time management skills.

Check out the play-by-play from Auburn's final drive. There are problems all over this play calling. A short pass to Ontario McCalebb was dropped after hitting the freshman back directly in the chest—and that may have been a good thing, as the pass was short of a first down and in the middle of the field.

Another pass for a 9-yard completion runs even more valuable clock, and anyone watching on TV was no doubt pulling their hair out by Todd's apparent ignorance of the time crunch.

None of the play calls were designed to get an Auburn ballcarrier out of bounds, which would have stopped the clock without restarting. Indeed, with that soon-to-be-infamous draw call, Chizik was lucky that Auburn even had time left for a Hail Mary—and a poorly executed one at that.

This game was lost before the final offensive "drive" (offensive in more than one sense of the word). Auburn's defense appeared unable to stop a 79-yard touchdown drive filled with seemingly predictable calls. 'Bama went to its best receiver, the outstanding Julio Jones, four times on their final drive, and on each of the four passes, Jones appeared to be uncovered.

The Tiger cornerbacks gave Jones so much cushion that all he had to do was run short crossing, or curl routes in order to get a pair of key first downs to prolong the drive. On one crossing route, the cornerback assigned to cover Jones didn't even bother checking the receiver at the line of scrimmage, instead allowing the potential All-American to run free in open space across the field.

Coming into the game, it was no doubt Auburn's game plan to stop Mark Ingram on the ground, Julio Jones in the passing game, and to force the somewhat inconsistent Greg McElroy to win the game with his arm.

For the better part of three and a half quarters, this plan worked. Auburn clung to a slim 21-20 lead when Alabama took over the ball for the final time. Yet on the final drive, the Tigers let Jones run loose for easy catches and important gains, failing to force McElroy into any challenging throws.

With 'Bama facing 3rd-and-3 from the Auburn 4-yard line, Nick Saban called a timeout to talk over strategy. The Tide had just run with minimal success for two straight plays, and had been pounding it on the ground hoping for a breakthrough. With this in mind, I was sure that Alabama would run a play action rollout and then have McElroy dish to a tight end, or running back in the endzone.

This play is called over and over on Saturdays on short, goaline situations, but Auburn completely sold out in expecting the run. There was no one to cover senior running back Roy Upchurch who rolled free to the right for the winning catch.

Thus unfolded one of the classic Iron Bowls in recent memory. With the way the game played out in the closing minutes, one can't help but wonder if there are Auburn fans left wondering what Tommy Tuberville is up to.

Check out Salter's blog at www.saltsports.blogspot.com.

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