This Iron Bowl Helped Alabama Straighten the Numbers

From the year 1998 to 2008 - Earlier this year Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville said these were the 'Glory Years' of Auburn football.  He pointed to the six-game winning streak against Alabama and said, "We're not finished yet, I don't know when this streak will end."

Well we do, coach, it ended this past Saturday, November 29th, 2008, and it put a definite period at the end of the so-called 'Glory Years.'  And if you must point to the six-game streak, and you should, let's be fair and look at the years you claim to be so great and just how dominating you've been in those Iron Bowls.

Total number of points scored in the Iron Bowl from 1998 to 2008...

Auburn - 183 points or 16 points a game

Alabama - 212 points or 19 points a game

Number of wins by double digits 1998 to 2008...

Auburn - 2 wins, both by 10 points

Alabama - 4 wins, all by more than 10.  One by 24 points, one by 36.

Number of shut out victories 1998 to 2008...

Auburn - 1, a 9-0 shut out

Alabama - 1, a 36-0 shut out

Total Wins in Iron Bowl 1998 to 2008...

Auburn - 7 wins

Alabama - 4 wins

Blowout losses that embarrassed the team 1998 to 2008... (3 Scores or more)

Auburn - ZERO

Alabama - Two

I guess a 5-7 regular season ends your 'Glory Years' just as this 36-0 drubbing ends the Iron Bowl streak you had going.  How much difference does one game make?  Consider that Auburn won the last five of its six straight Iron Bowl tussles by a combined total of 37 points. In just one game, this last one, Alabama got 36 of those back.  They did in one game what it took Auburn five games to do. 

Alabama just didn't end with a win, but an exclamation point.  Perhaps Auburn was owed a little humble pie with all the dancing and finger thrusting by everyone from the water boy to the head coach. 

For those of us in the know in the sports world, it's not hard to understand how conveniently your 'Glory Years' coincided with Alabama's years of NCAA sanctions and coaching changes.  Now that those are over, we hope you enjoy the new streak that's building as much as you have this last one.