Alabama doesn't even play that well, still dominates Auburn in Iron Bowl

Truth be told, Alabama didn’t even play that well against Auburn. The Crimson Tide were sloppy and made plenty of mistakes.

Nevertheless, the Crimson Tide still crushed the Tigers 30-12 in the annual Iron Bowl, wrapping up a perfect 12-0 regular season and an unblemished 8-0 run through the SEC. ‘Bama is going back to the conference title game.

Offensively, Tide quarterback Jalen Hurts threw a pair of interceptions. Ball security was an issue a handful of times. Coordinator Lane Kiffin slanted a little too heavily toward the pass — maybe because new full-time LSU coach Ed Orgeron was blowing up his phone — before returning to more ground-and-pound after intermission.

But considering what this iteration of coach Nick Saban’s defense can do, the offense can afford to muck it up here and there.

Alabama held Auburn to 172 total yards, with almost a third of them coming on a 55-yard pass from John Franklin III to Eli Stove. But the Tigers never got anywhere near the end zone and settled for a quartet of Daniel Carlson field goals.

Carlson was 3-of-3 on field-goal attempts in the first half, although his offense — Auburn didn’t produce a first down until the 6:19 mark of the second quarter — had very little to do with it. A 58-yard punt return from Stephen Roberts and both interceptions of Hurts gave the Tigers some short fields to score points.

Getting back to Hurts and Co. on offense, the Crimson Tide ended up throwing for 298 yards and running for 203 more.

Throug the air, ArDarius Stewart (below) was the primary target with 10 receptions for 127 yards and a touchdown. He even completed a 12-yard pass off some trickeration when Kiffin dug a little deeper into his playbook.

Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

On the ground, ‘Bama spread the wealth liberally. Tailbacks Bo Scarbrough, Damien Harris and Joshua Jacobs combined for 169 yards on 31 attempts, with all of them averaging 5.2 yards per carry or better — each had a run of at least 20 yards, too. Hurts added 37 yards and a pretty TD, when he simply beat the Tigers to the pylon.

The irony is that Auburn played tremendous defense for large stretches of this game yet still gave up a season-high 30 points.

Make no mistake about it: The Tigers are incredibly gifted defensively. Montravius Adams is a beast in the middle. Carl Lawson is a force off the edge. Daniel Thomas picked off Hurts twice as a freshman playing in his first Iron Bowl.

However, Auburn was a three-and-out waiting to happen on offense, which eventually took a toll on its defense. Quarterbacks Franklin and Jeremy Johnson — coach Gus Malzahn went back to his rotating ways out of pure desperation — completed just 6-of-17 throws. Even a healthy Sean White would have been overmatched.

Kamryn Pettway, likely a first-team All-SEC selection at running back for 2016, was held to 17 yards on 12 carries. The Tigers, the conference’s leading rushing offense at almost 300 yards per game, had just 66 on 26 tries.

Malzahn’s game plan was so hopeless that he even tried a fullback pass from Chandler Cox on a fourth-down conversion attempt late in the game. Said pass, like the Tigers’ chances of winning, was easily intercepted.

While ‘Bama only registered one sack at Bryant-Denny Stadium, its defense managed six additional tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Jonathan Allen — the top candidate for Defensive Player of the Year in the league — had two. Butkus Award contender Reuben Foster was credited with four quarterback hits.

One quick glance at the box score, and it appears to be just another Tide-style curb stomping of an inferior opponent.

They had almost four times as many first downs. They had more than three times the rushing yardage. They had more than twice the passing yardage. They had a time-of-possession advantage of better than 2-to-1.

Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

But the fact of the matter is that Alabama truly didn’t play so great. The Crimson Tide lost the turnover battle — it could have been even worse since they fumbled four times but luckily recovered all of them. They had to settle for field goals from Adam Griffith on three occasions down in the red zone.

Still, the end result was a three-score victory in a rivalry game. At no point did it feel like Auburn had any chance to win.

The Tigers fell to 8-4 and 5-3 in SEC play, although that’s better than a lot of the experts predicted in the preseason before toe met leather in Week 1. Malzahn’s seat is considerably cooler now than it was over the summer.

That being said, the distance between these two programs feels wider than the 158 miles separating Auburn from Tuscaloosa. ‘Bama has a freshman signal caller — Hurts has an outside chance of being a Heisman Trophy finalist — who isn’t going anywhere. A lot of the skill-position talent around him is relatively young, as well.

And that defense. Oh, that defense. It might be the best Saban has ever had. Needless to say, he’s had some amazing ones.

As for the Tigers, expect another offseason battle at the game’s most important position. Johnson is out of eligibility. Franklin isn’t the answer. Even if White is the leader in the clubhouse, the redshirting Woody Barrett waits in the wings.

It’s safe to say that Saban has lapped the field by now. The SEC West remains the deepest and most dangerous division in America, yet Saban just waltzed through this weekly mine field and emerged on the other side no worse for the wear — any minor scratches quickly healed. Expect more of the same in Atlanta next week against Florida.

Anything can happen in a rivalry game. Apparently, that includes the Tide playing small but still winning big. That’s bad news for the SEC.

John Crist is the senior writer for Saturday Down South, a member of the FWAA and a voter for the Heisman Trophy. Send him an e-mail, like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.