Alabama head coach Nick Saban tracks Alabama defensive backs Jarrick Williams (20) and Maurice Smith (21) as they work through drills during Alabama football practice on Nov. 25, 2014, at the Thomas-Drew Practice Facility in Tuscaloosa, Ala.Though he can’t alter the outcome of last season’s Iron Bowl, Alabama football coach Nick Saban does believe there needs to be at least a little change of perception in how the Crimson Tide fared against Auburn’s up-tempo spread offense.
“We actually held them to 21 points for 59-and-a-half minutes in the game and did a decent job,” Saban said in a news conference earlier this week. “We made some mistakes, and those mistakes led to some big plays. They also were a very good team that made some plays on their own, which good players will do.
“We didn’t finish the game like we wanted, and I hope that we’ll be able to play the kind of defense we need to play to give ourselves a chance to be successful in this game.”
Despite a slew of missed field-goal attempts that could have provided a two-score advantage, the Crimson Tide still led Auburn 28-21 with 2:41 remaining and the Tigers facing a first-and-10 from their 35-yard line. Auburn had a modest 328 yards at that point — well below its eventual season average of 501.3 — and six consecutive runs by Tre Mason netted 26 yards but took the clock under a minute.
From there, however, Alabama yielded a 39-yard touchdown pass from Nick Marshall to Sammie Coates and the never-to-be-forgotten 100-yard return by Chris Davis of a short field-goal attempt in a 34-28 loss. That preceded a 45-31 stunning setback against Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl, which left the Crimson Tide yielding 832 yards in their final two games.
“With Auburn and then with Oklahoma, they ran that fast-paced offense against us and ran us out of the stadium,” Alabama junior safety Landon Collins told reporters this week. “We definitely saw that as a downside of our defense, and we had to pick that up and show that we are very dominant against that.”
Saturday night inside Bryant-Denny Stadium will provide the opportunity at atonement.
This season’s Iron Bowl has the identical script to last year’s version in this aspect — Auburn leads the Southeastern Conference in rushing offense (266.2 yards per game), while Alabama is tops against the run (allowing 85.3 per game). And there is no shortage of familiar faces the Crimson Tide will have to stop, including Marshall, Coates and speed-sweep threat Corey Grant.
Cameron Artis-Payne has replaced Mason and leads the SEC with 1,405 rushing yards, and the addition of junior-college transfer Duke Williams has given the Tigers a pair of freakishly physical receivers. The 6-foot-2, 216-pound Williams, who missed the past two games but is expected to play Saturday night, has 38 catches for 609 yards, with his 67.7 yards per game ranking eighth in the league.
“He is a such an outstanding playmaker because of his size,” Saban said. “He’s got great hands and great range as a ball-catcher. He makes some catches when probably most other guys can’t even get to the ball, and big guys who run vertical patterns with the play-action game that they have are difficult to defend.
“When he’s there, they have more than one guy like that, which makes it even more difficult.”
Auburn’s rushing average is below last season’s 328.3-yard clip, but the Tigers are passing for 210.2 yards per game after throwing for 173.0 last season.
Another challenge for the Crimson Tide will be the presnap activity that Auburn coach Gus Malzahn employs so effectively. It’s often referred to as “eye candy,” but Saban knows there certainly is a method to what Malzahn does.
“Everything they do is for a reason, and it’s very well-founded,” Saban said. “Gus does a really good job, and he knows how people would try to defend them if they just lined up in their formations. The camouflage that he uses with the formations is something that defensive players have to adjust to, but it also doesn’t allow you to get set like you would like to get set.
“You have to defend all those things, too, because they have something they can do with it.”
Yet the ultimate task for Alabama will be containing Marshall, something Georgia did successfully two weeks ago. The Crimson Tide failed to do that a year ago, but they have another chance.
Marshall is averaging 235.5 yards of total offense per game after averaging 234.2 last season.
“You have to be cautious when you’re rushing to contain him and have everybody fly to the ball,” Tide defensive end Jonathan Allen said. “I don’t want to say it changes how we rush, but we definitely have to work on it and try not to leave little, small creases for him to get through.”
Said Saban: “He’s just a really, really good player, especially with the things they ask him to do.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.