The goal of any team is to break the will of its opponent.

When this pummeling of the enemy occurs, the proverbial flood gates tend to open. This may mean setting the tone up front with both the offensive and defensive lines, or demonstrating considerable physicality throughout the game.

According to Duane Rankin of the Montgomery Advertiser, Alabama tight end O.J. Howard claims the Crimson Tide got rival Auburn to yell “Uncle” during this year’s Iron Bowl:

“In the Iron Bowl, it’s a field goal and a lot of people take off on extra point. Our guys, our o-linemen like Cam (Robinson), those guys are coming off hard every play. They’ll say, ‘Ah man, chill bruh.’ Stuff like that. That’s no disrespect to those guys, but we can’t chill because we’re going to get in trouble with our coach. We’ve got to go hard man.

I think when you get to that point in the game when the team starts saying that, you’ve won the game when you see them quit.”

Howard was speaking about how multiple opponents on the year became demoralized to the point that they essentially quit. When this happens, Alabama knows it has the game firmly in grasp:

“When they start telling you, ‘Hey man, take it easy,’ and all that, it’s over with. You’ve’ won. It’s game. They don’t want to play anymore. They’re trying to talk about anything but football and we’re not trying to hear that. We’re trying to finish the game. When you make a team do that, that’s when you know you’ve got them beat.”

Alabama will gladly hope to make Washington tap-out this coming Saturday — as the Crimson Tide take on the Huskies on one of the national semifinal games.