Gus Malzahn’s Auburn Tigers struggled Saturday during the 42-13 loss to Alabama in the Iron Bowl.

Quarterback Bo Nix finished just 23-of-38 for 227 yards and 2 interceptions. Auburn was really never in the game to put enough pressure on Alabama from the get-go.

Following the loss, Malzahn spoke to the media. Below is everything he said:

Opening Statement
“Bottom line, they were the better team tonight. You know, you look at the first quarter, and we came out flat. You can’t come out flat against a team like that on the road. The first half we really didn’t do anything in all three phases to create any kind of momentum. We did have an opportunity for the touchdown that we dropped. At halftime, we just said, ‘Hey, let’s come in. Let’s get off to a good start.’ And if you look at the whole deal, I think the explosive plays is what stands out to me. When they got inside our 40-yard line and when we got inside their 40-yard line, we kicked field goals and we got sacked and we had a long field goal on one. Our guys, I told them I am proud of their fight. They kept fighting. They handled theirself with character in a very tough spot. For that, I’m very proud of our team. Give Alabama credit. They’re a very, very talented team. We knew that, but still we came in here with the mindset that we wanted to win the game. But to beat a team like that on the road, you’ve got to make plays. We didn’t do that. We didn’t play our best. It’s obvious, and I think they played very well. Questions.”

What happened to the offense stalling on multiple occasions?
“Umm, you know a few times we shot ourself in the foot. I think we went backwards a couple times. We had a couple opportunities, but that’s the name of the game. When you get in the red zone, you’ve got to score touchdowns against the No. 1 team in the country on the road. We didn’t do that. The frustrating thing for me is we never really got close enough to apply any pressure on them. They could play loose really the entire game.”

On Alabama’s DeVonta Smith
“Yeah, we’ve done really good against you receivers in our league, and they got us on a little something. We had a little miscommunication between two of our guys and he busted out wide open down the middle of the field for a touchdown. He’s a dynamic player, there’s no doubt. He did a very good job on the perimeter with their bubble game too. But up to this game we’d done a good job on main receivers.”

On Alabama’s wide receivers
“Yea, they’ve got talented receivers. We knew we had to apply pressure on the quarterback. A couple of times we were close to getting him. Give him credit, he was very accurate and he threw some very good balls for explosive plays.Down 14-0, 3rd and 3, thought for going for it on 4th?Yea, there was. We did think about going for it there. I just think sometimes you’ve got to, especially early in the game, put points on the board, get a little momentum. That was really our thought. Up to that point, I thought our defense was doing a solid job. There was some talk about it but at the time I thought the best thing to do was get points on the board.”

On not being able to run the ball
“Yeah, you’re exactly right. We didn’t run the football very effective. And we’re, when we run the football, we’re a good offense. We weren’t able to do that consistently, and that was tough. I mean, we had some new guys in, but you got to give them credit. They’re pretty stout up front. But that was a factor today.”

How to move on after the Iron Bowl loss
“That’s what we talked about in the locker room. I mean, you gotta be big boys. You got to take it like a man. They got after us. They whipped us. But we’ve got two games left. This is an unusual season, obviously. We’ll need to rebound. We’ll need to rebound like we did earlier in the season. It’s a grind, but that’s just part of it. And playing a really good team next week at home. It will be good to get back home. And then try to get some of our guys healed up.”

On the field position battle
“Yeah, they got after us on special teams, too. Their kickoff team, especially in the first half, kept us in the hole. We didn’t get past the 20. Had some bad field position. Had a really tough — we had an explosive 30-play (yard?) quarterback draw that got called back that was extremely tough. It felt like, that first half, everything was kind of uphill.”

On running back Tank Bigsby
“Yeah, I mean, he and Brodarious both are two guys that practiced a bit on Thursday. It was a gametime decision. They showed a lot of guts and heart and gave it their all. But obviously, you can see Tank, he’s not close to 100 percent. Brodarious wasn’t able to go in the second half. And then D.J. got banged up in the first quarter, too, and wasn’t able to return. So we’ll need to get healed up this next week.”