Auburn was 24 seconds away from glory. But in this rivalry, time is of the essence and every second left on the clock matters.
On a third-and-10 from the Auburn 28-yard line, Alabama quarterback Bryce Young hit Ja’Corey Brooks for a game-tying touchdown with 24 seconds left. Auburn kneeled the ball on its ensuing possession and sent the 86th Iron Bowl to its first overtime in the series history.
Alabama outlasted Auburn in four overtime periods 24-22 to win its first game in Jordan-Hare Stadium since 2015 on Saturday.
“Our guys played hard,” said head coach Bryan Harsin. “We put ourselves in a position to win the game. We just came up short.”
Nonetheless, the Auburn defense gave it everything it had.
"At the end, I felt like I gave it all I got,” said senior cornerback Roger McCreary “I felt like we gave it all we had as a team. That was the best I've ever seen my team play in four quarters."
Auburn’s defense held Alabama scoreless for over 51 minutes before the Crimson Tide got on the scoreboard with a 30-yard field goal midway through the fourth quarter. The Tigers caused problems for Alabama quarterback Bryce Young and his offense all night long.
Coming into the contest, Auburn had recorded 28 total sacks on the season. The Tigers had seven against Alabama on Saturday. Leading the charge was junior EDGE Derick Hall, who had a career-high three sacks.
“I thought our pass rush was really good tonight," Harsin said. "Some of that was just individual effort, beating their one-on-one matchup. Some of that was a little bit of pressure that we brought within our schemes. I thought the guys were coming off on the pass rush. I thought our coverage, for the most part, on the back end was pretty good. So if the quarterback is having to hold it a while, your rush is able to get there.”
The game began with 10 consecutive punts on 10 consecutive possessions. Neither team was budging much, with Alabama barely out-gaining Auburn in total yardage 43-42. It wasn’t until the second quarter that Auburn broke the tie with a touchdown.
After Demetris Robertson pulled in a 29-yard reception to put the Tigers at the Alabama 15-yard line, it only took one play to reach the end zone. Kobe Hudson made his return, after missing last week’s game due to injury, with a 15-yard touchdown reception.
It put Auburn up 7-0, a lead that it took into halftime.
Auburn’s defense came out of the locker rooms with the same intensity that it had played with in the first half. Marcus Harris had a tackle for loss, Colby Wooden stopped Alabama running back Brian Robinson dead in his tracks and Harris finished off the three-and-out with a sack.
It was right in front of the Auburn student section, which sent them into a frenzy.
Alabama was forced to punt to JaVarrius Johnson, who returned the punt 19 yards to the 21-yard line of Alabama territory. Auburn only ran three plays before Ben Patton took the field and kicked a 33-yard field goal to extend the lead to two possessions.
Later in the third, as Auburn was driving, quarterback T.J. Finley was sacked on a third-down play. As Oscar Chapman took the field to punt, Finley limped to the sideline, where he went into the medical tent.
Finley emerged with tape heavily wrapped around his ankle and began warming back up. He never missed a down, but still played the rest of the game with a slight limp.
“I really couldn’t move how I wanted to,” Finley said of his ankle injury. “When your ankle is kind of bothering you and things of that nature, you have to get it taped up, it forces you to just stand in the pocket and deliver great balls. When I had openings of times I could have run late in the game and could’ve got four or five yards with my legs, I couldn’t burst and plant off my foot.”
The Crimson Tide finally got moving on offense a couple of drives later, when they were able to drive within the Auburn 20-yard line. Once again, the defense made a stop and Alabama’s field goal unit took the field for its first attempt at getting on the board.
Unfortunately for Alabama, a botched snap ruined that chance and Auburn took over, taking a 10-0 lead into the fourth quarter with it.
But Alabama was not defeated just yet. Will Reichard hit a 30-yard field goal midway through the final quarter to bring the game to one possession. Auburn’s offense never got going again and with about a minute and a half left, Chapman booted a beauty of a punt to the Alabama 3-yard line.
Young was going to have to lead the Crimson Tide 97 yards to the end zone to tie the game.
With a trio of 20-plus yard passes and a fourth-down conversion, Alabama was able to tie the game and send it into overtime.
“They hit some explosive plays, that was the biggest thing,” Harsin said of the difference in the fourth quarter.
Alabama out-gained Auburn 217 yards to 33 yards in the fourth quarter.
“In the second half, obviously teams go in and make halftime adjustments,” Hall said. “They do things differently coming out the second half. I think we still got pressure and confused them a little bit, got a few sacks, but obviously, teams are gonna make corrections.”
Alabama struck first with a touchdown but Auburn answered with a touchdown. It was a one-handed catch by tight end, Landen King.
“Landen did a great job of running a great route that we had been practicing all week,” Finley said. “I put it in his area and he made a heck of a one-handed catch.”
Auburn got the ball to start the second overtime, but the Tigers never reached the end zone. Instead, Patton kicked the longest field goal of his career, a 49-yarder to put the Tigers in front 20-17.
Once more, Alabama answered with a field goal and sent it to the third overtime, where the rules changed a little bit.
Starting in the third overtime, teams alternate two-point conversion attempts in shootout style until one team converts and the other does not. Alabama had the first go-around and it converted.
John Samuel Shenker caught the strike from Finley in Auburn’s attempt to move the game into a fourth overtime period.
Auburn could not connect on its fourth-overtime attempt, leaving it up to the defense to make a stop. One-on-one against John Metchie, McCreary got beat and Metchie made the catch, crossing the goal line for the win.
It was heartbreak for Hall and the Tigers, but the sun will come up tomorrow. Auburn will prepare for its bowl game.
“We didn’t finish this one the way we wanted to,” Hall said. “The sun will rise again and everybody will be fine but, obviously, we still got a bowl game to win.”
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Originally from Helena, Ala., Caleb Jones is a senior studying journalism at Auburn University. He has been on staff with The Plainsman since 2019.
You can follow him here on Twitter: @calebjsports
