Auburn's flaws were placed under the spotlight yet again Saturday night in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
The same problems the Tigers had sought to fix this week, the slow starts, unnecessary penalties and a porous defense, cropped up yet again in Auburn's 55-44 Iron Bowl loss in Tuscaloosa.
"It was a disappointing loss, especially in a ranked game, and Alabama came back and won," head coach Gus Malzahn said. "We have to give credit to Alabama."
While Malzahn credited the No. 1 Crimson Tide, it was the same old story in many ways for the struggling Tigers.
For the third time this season, Auburn turned the ball over on its first offensive play of the game.
The Tigers matched their seven penalties per game average against the Crimson Tide, a category in which they rank second to last in the SEC.
And yet again the defense struggled, allowing 539 total yards and 55 points to the Crimson Tide. For the sixth consecutive conference game, Auburn allowed over 30 points.
Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper tallied 224 yards on 13 catches while accounting for three touchdowns. Covering the Crimson Tide's playmaker was an exercise in futility for most of Saturday night.
"We're obviously not happy with the way we played tonight," Malzahn said. "They do have a very good offense."
Hardest of all, Malzahn said, was coming up short despite producing impressive numbers against the Alabama defense.
"We had enough yards to score a whole bunch of points and that was probably the name of the game," Malzahn said. "I'm really proud of our team. They fought really hard to the end."
With the Tigers' regular season now finished at 8-4, Auburn will now likely be in a middle-tier bowl this postseason. 10 wins, a goal set following disappointing losses to Texas A&M and Georgia, has now gone the way of their preseason goals.
"We're very capable of being a top team, but it just hasn't worked out for us this year," senior quarterback Nick Marshall said. "We've just got to put this and move on to next week and try to get win No. 9."
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
