There were numerous statistical surprises from the University of Alabama’s 55-44 victory over Auburn on Saturday night, including that coming in the defense had only given up eight 30-yard passes or longer and senior quarterback Blake Sims had just four passes intercepted this season.

We’ll touch on the deep-ball issues later, but Coach Nick Saban addressed the pickoffs during a teleconference with reporters for this week’s Southeastern Conference Championship Game (4 p.m. ET, CBS).

1) Sims decided against the easy screen pass to senior wide receiver Christian Jones, which senior defensive back Jermaine Whitehead read and backed right into the throwing lane to junior Amari Cooper.

“Cooper beat his guy,” Saban said. “That’s what the quarterback was seeing in man to man. A guy that was covering somebody else fell off and intercepted the ball. That was a little bit of a spacing issue probably.”

The eventual result: Auburn’s first touchdown.

2) Sims looked to senior DeAndrew White over the middle, but floated the pass over him to Jonathan Ford.

Saban called it a “sort of a technical drifting sideways in the pocket, sort of overthrowing the ball.”

The eventual result: A field goal right before halftime.

3) It appeared to be an outside slant route by Jones with Jonathan Jones jumping it for the pick.

“A receiver kind of broke the route when he wasn’t supposed to, guy stepped in front where the guy is supposed to cross his face,” Saban said. “That is what the quarterback expected to happen.”

The eventual result: Another touchdown.

The point is not all the picks were just Sims’ fault and after Auburn turned that final interception into a touchdown to go ahead, 33-21, Alabama scored on its next five possessions. During that stretch the Tigers only managed a field goal.

  • Play of the game: Once Alabama got the momentum in the second half Auburn was never able to reclaim it. The play that sparked the five-touchdown stretch was when Alabama converted the fourth-and-3 at the Auburn 42, when White barely made it to the marker thanks to a block by senior tackle Austin Shepherd. Honorable mention goes to Cooper’s 39- and 75-yard touchdowns and senior safety Nick Perry’s interception.
  • Player of the game: Cooper was on full display as he continued his assault on the Crimson Tide record book with 244 yards on 13 catches and three touchdowns.
  • Hit of the game: After Cooper’s 39-yard touchdown, during which offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin had his arms raised in celebration before the ball even left Sims’ hand, sophomore Altee Tenpenny absolutely drilled Ford on the subsequent kickoff to keep the momentum going.
  • Statistic of the game: The defense was a different team in the red zone, where on eight possessions it yielded just five field goals and just one touchdown until the last-second score.
  • Did you notice? When Alabama took a knee the player lined up in the backfield was tight end Brian Vogler, who otherwise didn’t play on his Senior Day due to strained knee ligaments.

Here are 10 other things of note from this year’s edition of the Iron Bowl:

1. Third-down passing: Alabama converted 5 of 9 opportunities, but Sims only attempted three third-down passes, completing all of them and with two resulting in first downs. Also, for the season he’s now 56-for-80 on third downs for a completion percentage of 70.0 – which is very, very good — resulting in 42 first downs.

2. Explosive plays: Saban defines them as a run of 13 or more yards, or a pass of 17 or more yards. Alabama’s goal is nine per game. It had 11. However, the 14 allowed were the most in years.

Game leaders
T.J. Yeldon 4
Amari Cooper 3
Derrick Henry 2
O.J. Howard 1
Christian Jones 1

Season leaders
Amari Cooper 31
T.J. Yeldon 21
Derrick Henry 14
DeAndrew White 8
Christion Jones 6

Game-by-game
West Virginia 12
Florida Atlantic 14
Southern Miss 14
Florida 11
Ole Miss 7
Arkansas 3
Texas A&M 13
Alabama 10
LSU 6
Mississippi State 4
Western Carolina 11
Auburn 11

Game-by-game opponents
West Virginia 8
Florida Atlantic 1
Southern Miss 5
Florida 5
Ole Miss 4
Arkansas 7
Texas A&M 1
Tennessee 7
LSU 3
Mississippi State 6
Western Carolina 3
Auburn 14

Season totals
Alabama: 116
Opponents: 64

3. Red-zone passing: For the fourth straight game Sims had a touchdown pass in the red zone, which is even more impressive considering who Alabama has played. During that stretch he’s 11 of 15 (73.3 percent) inside the 20.

4. Mistakes index: Basically, it’s a measure of miscues, but it could arguably also be an indirect indicator of maturity and discipline. The mistakes index is fumbles lost + interceptions + penalties + sacks.

Game-by-game
West Virginia 0+1+7+0 = 8
Florida Atlantic 0+0+6+1=7
Southern Miss 1+0+3+1=5
Florida 3+1+11+1=16
Ole Miss 1+1+8+1=11
Arkansas 2+0+4+2=8
Texas A&M 0+0+0+1=1
Tennessee 2+0+6+1=9
LSU 1+0+3+1= 5
Mississippi State 0+0+7+1=8
Western Carolina 1+1+5+0=7
Auburn 0+3+3+1=7

Game-by-game opponents
West Virginia 0+0+6+3 = 9
Florida Atlantic 1+0+3+3=7
Southern Miss 0+0+6+1=7
Florida 1+2+5+0=8
Ole Miss 1+0+3+2+7
Arkansas 2+1+4+4=11
Texas A&M 0+1+2+6=9
Tennessee 1+1+4+2=8
LSU 0+1+2+2=5
Mississippi State 0+3+4+1=8
Western Carolina 0+0+5+2=7
Auburn 0+1+7+2=10

5. Red-zone defense: Auburn ran 90 plays for 630 yards of total offense, just two more snaps than Mississippi State tallied against Alabama while accumulating 428 yards. One in three Auburn plays was in the red zone, where the Tigers averaged 2.0 yards per play inside the 20 compared to 9.5 everywhere else on the field.

6. Yards after the catch: It was one of those games in which there was Cooper and everyone else.

Game leaders
Amari Cooper 88
T.J. Yeldon 17
Jalston Fowler 16
DeAndrew White 11
O.J. Howard 1
Total: 133

Season leaders
Amari Cooper 765
T.J. Yeldon 175
DeAndrew White 165
Kenyan Drake 102
O.J. Howard 89
Total: 1,721 of 3,391 (50.8 percent)

Per game
Opponent, YAC, Receptions, Average
West Virginia 116/24 = 4.83
Florida Atlantic 246/26= 9.46
Southern Miss 101/17= 5.94
Florida 246/24 =10.3
Ole Miss 117/18 = 6.5
Arkansas 101/11 = 9.2
Texas A&M 173/21 = 8.23
Tennessee 167/14 = 11.9
LSU 100/20 = 5.0
Mississippi State 90/19 = 4.73
Western Carolina 131/29=4.52
Auburn 133/20=6.65

7. Most around the ball: Defensive “touches” is found by adding together tackles, assists, sacks, passes broken up (interceptions are included in that statistic), hurries, forced fumbles and fumble recoveries. Not surprisingly, Alabama’s defensive backs topped this week’s list along with senior linebacker Trey DePriest.

Game leaders
Nick Perry 16
Trey DePriest 14.5
Geno Smith 12
Landon Collins 10
Cyrus Jones 8

Season leaders
Reggie Ragland 103.5
Landon Collins 98.5
Trey DePriest 86.5
Nick Perry 82.5
Cyrus Jones 59.0

8. Who was thrown at? Auburn was the first team this season to really go after sophomore cornerback Eddie Jackson, who is still wearing a knee brace after having ACL surgery in the spring. Quarterback Nick Marshall only completed three of six passes his way in the first half, but they were for 42, 34 and 68 yards, the last two for touchdowns. After freshman Tony Brown had trouble on the 5-yard touchdown reception, junior Bradley Sylve replaced him and had five passes thrown his way for a 13-yard completion and the 35-yard “joint possession” that should have been ruled an interception. Auburn went after cornerback Cyrus Jones only three times, with one completion for 11 yards, and completed 3 of 4 passes thrown at junior Geno Smith, including a 53-yard bomb.

9. Individual records chase: With Cooper having essentially broken all of the Alabama receptions records, here’s how he close he is to the SEC records:

SEC receiving yards, single season
1. Josh Reed, 1740, 2001, Louisiana State
2. Amari Cooper, 1573, 2014, Alabama
2. Alshon Jeffery, 1517, 2010, South Carolina

All-time SEC receiving yards
1. Jordan Matthews, Vanderbilt, 2010-13, 3,759
2. Amari Cooper, Alabama, 2012-14, 3,309
3. Terrence Edwards, Georgia, 1999-2002, 3,093
4. Alshon Jeffery, South Carolina, 2009-11, 3,042
5. Josh Reed, LSU, 1999-11, 3,001

Running back T.J. Yeldon still needs 338 rushing yards to break Shaun Alexander’s career record of 3,565.

1. Shaun Alexander, 3,565
2. Bobby Humphrey 3,420
3. Kenneth Darby 3,324
4. Mark Ingram 3,261
5. T.J. Yeldon 3,228

10. Team records chase: Here are some team offensive records that the 2014 team is closing in on very quickly, including needing just 5 more passing yards to set that program mark.

Most plays: 962 (2007); 872
Most yards: 6,237 (2012); 5,872
Most yards gained per game: 480.7 (1973); 489.3
Touchdowns rushing-passing: 58 (1945, 2013); 56
Most passing attempts: 472 (2007); 388
Most completions: 263 (2007); 245
Most passing yards: 3,395 (2010); 3,391
Most passing yards per game: 270.7 (1969); 282.6
Most touchdown passes: 31 (2012); 28
Most points: 542 (2012); 440