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Alabama Football

O’Gara: Is Alabama a team of destiny? After epic Iron Bowl finish, it’s hard to deny

Connor O'Gara

By Connor O'Gara

Published:


If Alabama has a championship DVD to make, we know one thing — it’ll start with Jalen Milroe dropping back to pass on 4th-and-goal from Auburn’s 31-yard line with the season on the line.

Milroe was in that spot because Alabama’s snap issues resurfaced at the worst possible time. An unexpected snap sent Milroe back, and he fell on the ball for a loss of 18 yards. In normal circumstances, that’s a costly mistake. In an Iron Bowl with Playoff hopes hanging in the balance down 4 points at Jordan-Hare Stadium, it was the type of play they would talk about in Alabama for decades.

Instead, Alabama swapped that play for another one.

Two Auburn pass rushers and a spy watched as Milroe waited and waited until he saw single coverage on Isaiah Bond in the left corner of the end zone. Somehow, Bond got enough separation from top Auburn corner DJ James to do the unthinkable.

That is, keep this roller coaster of an Alabama season alive.

Bond’s 31-yard touchdown was the type of stuff that’ll forever live in Iron Bowl lore, but unlike the devastation of the Kick-6 10 years before it, this time, it’s the visiting Tide who finally got the last laugh in the house of horrors that is Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Call it “4th-and-31.” If you want, call Alabama a team of destiny. After that finish, who’s to argue with that?

Anything less than a miracle and the Tide’s Playoff hopes would’ve died on The Plains. On a day in which Alabama’s run defense had its worst game since last year’s Iron Bowl, we got the ultimate reminder of why you never count Saban out.

Georgia fans, don’t get it twisted. Your team is the favorite to become the first team to 3-peat since Ed Widseth led Minnesota to that feat 87 years ago. Who could forget? The Dawgs have earned that right, and they’ll carry that into Atlanta next week for an all-or-nothing SEC Championship.

But what’s clear is that it’s become increasingly difficult to rule this Alabama team dead.

Not a preseason quarterback controversy, not a quarterback benching, not even an entire SEC schedule could take the life of this Alabama team.

Remember, that Texas loss happened all the way back in Week 2. Alabama needed to win 10 straight and become just the 6th Tide team in the Playoff era to go undefeated in SEC play. Anything less than that and you can bet the words “dynasty is dead” would’ve been trending on social media faster than “Gary” on the final regular season Saturday of “SEC on CBS.”

(By the way, I defend Gary Danielson more than I roast him, but did he seriously suggest that Alabama should attempt a field goal down 24-20 in the final minute? Or did my ears just imagine that?)

Nah. It didn’t matter that Alabama’s offense was stuck in neutral after the break. Up until 4th-and-31, here’s how the Tide drives went in the second half:

  • FG
  • Missed FG
  • Punt
  • Punt

The play that’ll be forgotten when 4th-and-31 is shown on repeat was the short field that Alabama got thanks to a Koy Moore muffed punt. Instead of giving the ball back to Auburn down 24-20, Moore muffed a punt that allowed Alabama to maintain possession with 4:48 to play.

Team of destiny vibes? You can be the judge of that.

Alabama needed some luck at Jordan-Hare. Who doesn’t, though? Like, besides New Mexico State?

Even mighty Georgia needed Brock Bowers to throw on his cape to survive Auburn at Jordan-Hare. It happens to the best of ’em.

“Ya know, there’s been some weird stuff that’s happened here, and this is the first time I can ever remember it going in our favor,” Saban said on the CBS broadcast afterward.

To be fair, Alabama did win a 4-overtime thriller the last time it was at Jordan-Hare. Bryce Young was the one who put on his cape with a 2-minute drill that kept the Tide’s Playoff hopes alive. Ultimately, that squad found enough magic to reach the national championship, where it couldn’t hold onto a 4th quarter lead against Georgia.

It remains to be seen if the Tide can avenge that loss in their first meeting with the Dawgs since that night in Indianapolis. What’s undeniable is that any team of destiny has to be comfortable playing in close games. Since the start of that 2021 season, Alabama was in a 1-score game in the 4th quarter 18 times in 24 SEC games, including 6 of 8 this season. In those 24 SEC contests over the last 3 years, Saban’s squad is 21-3, including an 8-0 mark this year.

A team of destiny doesn’t flinch. Milroe certainly didn’t. There was no panic on that final throw.

Could part of that have been because Auburn only rushed 2 and had a spy on the play? Perhaps. But perhaps, as Milroe said after the game, that poise was just the byproduct of falling back on training. Saban said despite what that looked like, that was a play that the Tide had practiced. That’s why it wasn’t just a jump ball to a sea of defenders. It was the perfect throw in the perfect spot.

More important, it came at the perfect time.

We don’t know if Alabama’s Jordan-Hare magic will be the start of the championship DVD. At the very least, it’ll be the subject of 365 days of intra-rivalry trolling. If that’s all it ends up being, so be it. For all we know, Georgia will take advantage of a Tide run defense that struggled and penalties will once again prove costly.

For now, all we know is that the Tide have life, and that should scare everyone to death.

Connor O'Gara

Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.

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